[Buddha-l] Being unable to imagine dying and living

[Richard Hayes]

On Jul 1, 2010, at 16:48, Ben Carral <info at bcarral.org> wrote:

> In addition to that, and since
> rebirth   is   a   traditional  Buddhist  teaching,  it
> surprises  me  that  Buddhist  scholars don't show more
> interest in such phenomena. 

There is exactly one legitimate thing for scholars of Buddhism to study: texts. We can only go where our texts go. We can report what our texts say, no more. Buddhist texts are silent on near-death experiences, so as scholars of Buddhism we would be irresponsible to speculate on what Buddhists might have to say about such things. 

Speaking not as a scholar but as a Buddhist, I see nothing at all in the topic of near-death experiences that would make my practice any different from what it now is. It is an issue of no significance whatsoever, except as a major distraction from Dharma. 

Richard