Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Buddhism - Rebirth
Buddhism - Rebirth
Rebirth
In the process of becoming enlightened, the Buddha is said to have recognised all his
previous lives. At the same time, he also said that nothing from one life goes on to the next.
Quite a paradox really!
Buddhists understand life as samsara, meaning perpetual wandering, and describe the
transition like a billiard ball hitting another billiard ball. While nothing physical transfers,
the speed and direction of the second ball relate directly to the first. So the term most often
used is rebirth, rather than reincarnation. Reincarnation implies the transfer of an essence, or
a soul, while rebirth follows the law of causality, or dependant origination, where this arises
because of circumstances which happened before.
A primary aim of Buddhism is to break free of the wheel of samsara, and to reach a new
level called Nirvana.
https://www.buddha101.com/p_nirvana.htm 1/3
6/28/2017 BuddhismRebirth
Nirvana
Those in the West recognise the term as meaning Heaven, or a Heaven on Earth, or perhaps
a famous rock band.
The Buddha described Nirvana as the ultimate goal, and he reached that state during his
enlightenment. At this point, he chose to teach others so that they might also experience this
realisation, and so when he died, fortyfive years later, he then passed through pari nirvana,
meaning completed nirvana.
The Buddha refused to be drawn on what occurred then, but implied that it was beyond
word and without boundaries. Certainly, he saw it in a much different state than our current
existence, and not a simple parallel to the process of individual rebirth.
https://www.buddha101.com/p_nirvana.htm 2/3
6/28/2017 BuddhismRebirth
Any of the material on this site may be used by students or for teaching on a notforprofit basis
provided that, where material from this site is used on a web page, a link to www.buddha101.com must be included.
Some images are based on publicly available clipart, otherwise (except where indicated) all images and text are
copyright 20002016.
https://www.buddha101.com/p_nirvana.htm 3/3