[Buddha-l] reincarnation versus rebirth

[Richard Hayes]

On Thu, 2009-01-15 at 14:32 -0500, Curt Steinmetz wrote:

> Alternatively it is sometimes claimed that the Buddha taught rebirth, 
> but Hindus teach reincarnation - which makes even less sense unless 
> someone can cite Sanskrit equivalent terms for these two English words - 
> but even that would not explain away the fact that the words "rebirth" 
> and "reincarnate" have exactly the same literal meanings.

The most common terms used by Brahmanical and Jaina and Buddhist (all of
which were called Hindus by the Arabs, for Christ's sake) are punarjanma
(being born again) and punarbhava (coming into being again). 

Speakers of English, having nothing better to do, have become obsessive
about finding terms that distinguish the idea of a permanent and eternal
ātman moving from body to body (reincarnation) and an impermanent and
ever-changing consciousness continuum (samtāna) moving from body to
body. Just ignore English-speaking Buddhists. They are idiots.


-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico