[Buddha-l] Which Buddhists believe in rebirth?

[Curt Steinmetz]

People very often hold contradictory beliefs, therefore notions about 
"spirits hanging around" in no way preclude belief in reincarnation.

According to the 1990 World Values Survey 49.9% of Japanese people 
believe in reincarnation. Here are the results from the same survey for 
several other countries for comparison:

Argentina 39.2%
Brazil 56.8%
Canada 31.3%
Chile 48.7
India 91.0
Japan 49.9
Mexico 42.7
South Africa 42.8
Switzerland 35.6
US 25.6

Curt Steinmetz

PS: I used to know how to access the WVS data, but either they have 
moved things around or I have forgotten. Anyway, here is their official 
website, and the numbers are in there somewhere:
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/


On 1/16/12 9:18 AM, Jamie Hubbard wrote:
> 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
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