[Buddha-l] Which Buddhists believe in rebirth?

[Jamie Hubbard]

Hello-- a class recently began discussing rebirth in the context of
"secular Buddhism," and we read some of the contemporary Western flames on
the topic--Batchelor, Alan Wallace's response, the Thurman and Bhikkhu
Bodhi articles, etc. In that context, I said that the Japanese also don't
really believe in rebirth. Certainly the "spirits" (tamashii 魂, reikon 霊魂,
etc.) that they are concerned with after death are neither permanent nor
independent in the way of a soul or atman. Still, except in some
sophisticated thinkers, it is quite clear that in contemporary Japan there
is no functional or operational notion of rebirth-- you die, and your
spirit hangs out in the spirit world. Hmmmm-- I wonder if the Japanese
*ever* really believed in rebirth the way, say, the Tibetans do? In spite
of, for example, lots of rhetoric (a la the stuff LaFleur wrote about in
Karma of Words--"In and Out of the Rokudo"), I wonder if the average Heian
woman believed that her dead mother was now re-born in one of the
destinations somewhere? My sense is that they always retained their belief
in the continued presence of the dead in the spirit world. Am I wrong?

In big broad terms, what do folks know about other areas/cultures? Who
really *demonstrates* (whatever that might mean, and I am curious about
that as well in terms of practice/ritual) a belief in rebirth?

Jamie Hubbard