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0 pointsue_10y ago0 comments

>Therefore, as long as the body doesn't decay, the cycle doesn't repeat and that's the achievement.

As far as I know, this is false. The cycle stops repeating when one has reached enlightenment; to my knowledge, what happens after that point is irrelevant - one can't go back from enlightenment, and certainly not due to the body decaying (which is a major topic of Buddhist meditation anyway).

Is there any Pali canon source (I'm only interested in Theravada) that backs up the concept of no decay = no rebirth?

This idea, known in the text as annihilationism, was rejected by the Buddha as far as I know.

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acqq10y ago

Nirvana is "the liberation from the cycle of birth and death." The cycle is the main cause of suffering. Observing it this way, the first Budda (being born in Hindu environment) who recognized that the enlightment "frees from the cycle" that is, not beleiving in religious stories achieves the freedom. The follovers made the religion from that too.

ue_OP10y ago

>that is, not beleiving in religious stories achieves the freedom

The way to achieve enlightenment is via the Noble Eightfold Path. This does not require non-belief. At some point, one eradicates doubt about the teachings because one has realised the truth for oneself through insight meditation.

Enlightenment is nothing as benign as removing faith - it's the removing of the need for faith via direct experience.

Besides, the teachings cover a far wider range of ideas than rebirth. Not only that, but the Buddha is written to have said that an enlightened person can recollect his or her previous births.

acqq10y ago

I don't write about teachings of the religion made later. I just consider the context of Budda trying to save himself from Hinduism in which he grew up. He had a simple solution: deciding not to worry about Hindu beliefs of eternal torture through eternal rebirths and lives and deaths, thus achieving his own personal Nirvana.

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0 pointsue_10y ago0 comments

>Therefore, as long as the body doesn't decay, the cycle doesn't repeat and that's the achievement.

Is there any Pali canon source (I'm only interested in Theravada) that backs up the concept of no decay = no rebirth?

This idea, known in the text as annihilationism, was rejected by the Buddha as far as I know.

0 comments

acqq10y ago

ue_OP10y ago

>that is, not beleiving in religious stories achieves the freedom

Enlightenment is nothing as benign as removing faith - it's the removing of the need for faith via direct experience.

Besides, the teachings cover a far wider range of ideas than rebirth. Not only that, but the Buddha is written to have said that an enlightened person can recollect his or her previous births.

acqq10y ago

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