.
.

Anatta or Soul-lessness - Ven. Narada Thera

This Buddhist doctrine of rebirth should be distinguished from the theory of reincarnation, which implies the transmigration of a soul and its invariable material rebirth. Buddhism denies the existence of an unchang-ing or eternal soul created by a God or emanating from a Divine Essence (Paramatma).

If the immortal soul, which is supposed to be the essence of man, is eternal, there cannot be either a rise or a fall. Besides one cannot understand why "different souls are so variously constituted at the outset." To prove the existence of endless felicity in an eternal heaven and unending torments in an eternal hell, an immortal soul is absolutely 

necessary. Otherwise, what is it that is punished in hell or rewarded in heaven? "It should be said," writes Bertrand Russell, "that the old distinction between soul and body has evaporated quite as much because `matter’ has lost its solidity as mind has lost its spirituality. Psychology is just beginning to be scientific. In the present state of psychology belief in immortality cans at any rate claim no support from science." Buddhists do agree with Russell when he says "there is obviously some reason in which I am the same person as I was yesterday, and, to take an even more obvious example if I simultaneously see a man and hear him speaking, there is some sense in which the `I’ that sees is the same as the `I’ that hears."

 

© "Dhamma" (February, 2004) published by Buddha Vachana Trust, 14, Kalidasa Road, Gandhinagar, Bangalore 560 009. Website: www.mbodhi.com. Reprinted with permission.

      Click here to view the full content of the article.

<< Back