Buddhist doctrines; 輪迴=轉世=Reincarnation=Rebirth=Samsara; Myth; Inada, Kenneth K.
摘要
The essay attempts to interpret buddhism from the thoroughgoing naturalistic outlook. it makes a bold metaphysical assertion that the philosophical basis is a grand tautological ontology. this means that all doctrines and all so-called elements of existence have the character of inter-relatedness or inter-penetrativeness, and that such a character is consistent in man whether he remains unenlightened or achieves enlightenment(nirvana). this also is the basis for the cryptic statement that the realm of corporeal existence(rupa) is equatable to the realm of enlightened existence or voidness(sunyata). interpreted in such a naturalistic framework，the concept of rebirth, understood in the usual after-life activity，has no place. rebirth in actuality refers to the continuation of the static nature of things, conceptually as well as existentially，but it vitiates the principle of impermanence in buddhism. thus it is a myth, a rather convenient way of exhibiting the fact that the roots of man's proclivities for permanent natures or things lie in the false grasping or clinging to things in an otherwise truly dynamic flow of life.
