Religion, Faith, and Spirituality : Poll: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

Samsara ends if a person attains nirvana,[note 2] the "blowing out" of the desires and the gaining of true insight into impermanence and non-self reality.

Buddhist don't believe in a soul or a self of a human being.

Most other religions believe in a soul of a being.

Hindus believe in reincarnation - a belief that the soul is eternal and lives many lifetimes, in one body after another.

I prefer having a soul
0% 0 votes
I prefer having non-self so i am free from myself eventually
0% 0 votes

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

Buddhism, unlike other religions, does not believe in a creator God or an eternal or everlasting soul. Anatta - Buddhists believe that there is no permanent self or soul. Because there is no unchanging permanent essence or soul, Buddhists sometimes talk about energy being reborn, rather than souls.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

I find it disconcerting that I am not really an individual and I am just some tiny facet of some larger cosmic being. Though it may very well be true.

I truly believe that Buddhist pessimism is one reason the West conquered the East. But even if that's true, it doesn't mean Buddhism is false.

I dismiss reincarnation though. I think it's a Hindu fallacy adopted by Buddhists. That being said, I believe Hinduism is closer to the truth than Buddhism.

I'm still too much of an egotist to give up my soul though. I'd rather sell it to Satan.

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Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

Thank you for your responses. We're like fractals.

What do you think of the concept of aimless wandering or mundane existence which is samsara?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra_(Buddhism)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra

"cycle of aimless drifting, wandering or mundane existence".

Saṃsāra (Sanskrit, Pali; also samsara) in Buddhism is the beginningless cycle of repeated birth, mundane existence and dying again.

Focus on mundane existence, aimless drifting and aimless wandering.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

We are fractal. Our lungs, our circulatory system, our brains are like trees. They are fractal structures. … Most natural objects - and that includes us human beings - are composed of many different types of fractals woven into each other, each with parts which have different fractal dimensions.

Our brains are full of fractals! In fact, they couldn't function if not for fractal geometry. The human brain comprises approximately 100 billion neurons. Amazingly, there are about 100 trillion synapses, or connections, among these brain cells.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

"Fractals" is a great way to explain it. When I realized this truth I was astounded. That's why I consider myself a Hindu now.

Frankly, I love materialism and the carnal so much, that I would love endless existence over and over again for eternity. I would commit all sorts of debauchery just to keep my individuality. So the aimless wandering sounds delightful to me.

Can you imagine though, we hold onto our individuality so desperately. It must be such joy when we realize we are just part of god, and were never something separate? But we lose our identity as well. That's frightening. Or do we? If we are god what difference does it make? To quote Aleister Crowley's last dying words "I am perplexed."

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Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

Great post. always interesting gameboy.

To quote Aleister Crowley's last dying words "I am perplexed."

maybe he was perplexed by the white light. he went through to the otherside while still here so he could say that.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

A little odd that girl seems almost giddy about death. Lol.

I read somewhere in Crowley that during one of his rituals he actually encountered a Hathor, the cow-headed Egyptian goddess of fertility. I put Crowley up there with Nietzsche as one of the great prophets.

But he was perplexed as all men are fools.

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"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
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Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

If we have no soul, then we're free at the moment of death, but we won't know it.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

If you don't know it then it's not you anyway so what's the point?

🐵 Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey🌴

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

Pointless.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

recent studies show (no joke) that a soul does not exist, but even tho this remains to be just one scientific theory of many i felt at first really disheartened when hearing those news that this possibility is a possibility, but i really warmed up more and more to that idea and now i think that not having an eternal soul kind of is what i would prefer actually at the moment of death bc i don't really want to live in an afterlife knowing or not knowing of what just happened, that i just died and that everything is so uncertain from now on about anything following in my immaterial existence. when i die and am dead i want to be relieved from everything that meant life to me before, and be free from it and myself and of all and everything bc that's what makes death less scary for me: it being the definite end.

so, i voted "I prefer having non-self so i am free from myself eventually".

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

oh thank u for that link!

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

But nonself is as Ben explained, a "fractal" of the universal being. It's as if your finger suddenly realized one day it was not just a finger, but part of a larger body. The point of Buddhism is that you can now realize you are not the individual you now believe, but just a fragment of something much larger.

As for not existing after death, I find that very depressing.

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Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

yeah.

it's not depressing for me bc i can imagine my death, my end as me sleeping without dreaming, the eternal peace.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

so the possibilities are?=

1) You die. You stop existing. Like you were before birth.
2) Rebirth where you have no soul a total different life next possibly as an animal or an insect
3) Reincarnation where your soul remains but you move on to another life because soul energy cannot be created nor it be destroyed.
4) Resurrection but you spend time in a limbo or a purgatory to atone for your sins and misdeeds, eternities there

What am i missing here.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

5) u become soil that nourishes plants. like, u are now literal mud, forever mingled with the cold clay on a forgotten field.

or if u decide for cremation, u'll be rilling and rippling everywhere and become one with the elements, fire, earth, air and water, a tiny part of the whole lot. u just stopped knowing and feeling what u are now with all the chemistry gone.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

What am i missing here.

Parallel and/or alternative universes.

Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

Parallel and/or alternative universes.
It's theoretically possible that such places exist, but unlikely to the point of certainty that any part of you would go there after your dissolution here.

§« The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. »§

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Re: Do you prefer the buddhist concept of nonself or do you believe in a soul?

idk. science is great.
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