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The Soul

meh_meh_
edited March 2011 in Buddhism Basics
It was my understanding that buddhism doesnt believe in an eternal soul, but I just read something that the buddha said:

"I have not explained that the soul and the body are ideritical; I have not explained that the soul is one thing and the body is another;"

Is he referring to the soul in the sense that christians do?

Comments

  • meh_meh_
    It was in a link I got from a previous post regarding buddhist epistomology:
    (Its littered with spelling errors, so Im a little skeptic)

    http://www.vgweb.org/bsq/bud_epis.htm
  • SherabDorjeSherabDorje
    No, this does not refer to the soul in the sense that Christians do. There is a thread current now with the subtitle "Yet another thread on reincarnation/rebirth" or something to that effect, that discusses that subject in the Buddhist sense extensively.
  • meh_meh_
    Also, Sherab, thankyou for the link in the first place - it was extremely useful to me, and helped my understanding of a lot of things :)
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    edited March 2011
    I think the Buddha was saying what he has not declared. He didn't teach the existence of a permanent self/soul, rather he advised that every last phenomena is not-self (interdependently arisen, transient phenomena, not to be thought of as a core essence).

    He went on to say it would be better for you to think of your body as "you" than the mind, as the mind changes at a much faster rate. Still, this is a conventional sense, not anything permanent. You arise from your parents, are changed and sustained by the transformation of plant and animal matter into energy and body-mass, and eventually die and return to the emptiness.
  • SherabDorjeSherabDorje
    Glad I could help.
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