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Originally Posted by tompe
So rebirth does not mean rebirth for example? Is it just a symbol and have nothing to to with reality?
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Are you talking about the concept of reincarnation? I was unaware that science had absolutely disproved that. Please do point me to the applicable data.
There are many men of science who are studying such phenomena as the "out of body" experience, which tends to indicate - although there is no real data - that there could be an non-corporeal essence to human existence.
And, if you accept that there is a life-energy of some sort, and energy and matter are neither created or destroyed (according to the generally recognized principles of science), then the idea of reincarnation is no stranger than the idea of additional dimensions or nested universes.
Now, this would be a great time for you to understand the whole "elephants/turtles" idea. The parable was about the lama who was instructing his student on the nature of the world. He told the student that the world was carried on the back of a giant ox. The student asked, "upon what does the ox stand?" The lama's reply was that the ox stood on the back of a great tortoise. So, the student asked the next logical question, which was "upon what does the tortoise stand?" The teacher told him that the tortoise stood on the back of a huge elephant. I think you can guess what the student's next question was .... and the teacher's answer was that it was "elephants all the way down from there."
The moral of the story is that, until they are proven to be true or false (nowadays I would add by science), there are somethings you simply have to take on faith. Because to do otherwise is to become trapped in an endless round of "what does the elephant stand on ..... oh, another elephant .... and what does that elephant stand on"? Which is futile and a waste of energy.
In the Buddhist philosophy, energy is better spent on trying to alleviate the pain and suffering around you. Not to make it worse by driving the guy next to you completely bonkers by asking him the same question over and over and over again. Even if he is a lama and has more patience than most people.