Buddhism, Reincarnation and Consciousness

Consciousness: Cosmic Consciousness | Death | Dreams | God vs. Science | Karma & Nirvana 1895-6 | Life of St Issa - Jesus Christ | Manipulating consciousness | Meister Eckhart | Memory | Nothing | Organ transplants | Reincarnation & Karma | Science | Taylor Swift's Karma | Telepathy Tapes / Spellers | Theory of Everything | Time & the specious present |  

Contents

1. Consciousness & Soul
2. References

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1. Consciousness & Soul

When the three terms Buddha, Reincarnation and Consciousness are fed into Google, the AI algorithm returns the following internally inconsistent statement that the present writer takes exception with:

In Buddhist teachings, there is no reincarnation of a permanent soul, but rather a continuity of consciousness through rebirth, driven by karma. This process is a stream of causally linked events where the energy of past volitional actions, or karma, conditions the next existence. Rather than an unchanging self transferring between lives, it is the imprint of one's actions and mental states that carries forward, determining the conditions of a new life within the endless cycle of Samsara until enlightenment is attained. (Source: Reddit - r/Buddhism)

The inconsistency lies with the statement that in death there is a "continuity of consciousness", but no "reincarnation of a permanent soul." As the soul is part of the greater, individual consciousness - there is no separation between consciousness and soul or spirit - then there is a natural, corresponding continuation of the soul with death. The AI response would be sound and internally consistent if that initial part of the response were removed. It seems to the present writer, who was raised a Catholic, that the Google response is seeking to appease Christianity, which in 553 AD declared reincarnation heretical and now proclaims that there is but one life, one soul experience, and a single rebirth at the end of time when Jesus returns (Kersten 1979). This is a theological teaching that is not consistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ or the practice of Christians prior to the heresy decree, despite claims by the Church otherwise. The writer has written more fully elsewhere on The Catholic Church rejection of Reincarnation (Organ 2023). For example, even the great English academic, Catholic theologian, and writer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien, question the church's rejection of the concept of reincarnation, as follows:

… 'Reincarnation’ may be bad theology (that surely, rather than metaphysics) as applied to Humanity ... but I do not see how .... any theologian or philosopher, unless very much better informed about the relation of spirit and body than I believe anyone to be, could deny the possibility of reincarnation… (J.R.R. Tolkien 1954)

The aforementioned Google AI algorithm returns the following in regards to the Buddhist concept of Samsara, which is an important element of the reincarnation process:

Samsara refers to the cycle of repeated existence, including birth, life, death, and rebirth, a central concept in Eastern religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Bon. It is a Sanskrit word meaning "wandering," which connotes the cyclic, often unsatisfactory nature of existence perpetuated by actions (karma) and desires. The goal in these religions is to escape Samsara and achieve liberation, such as the Buddhist concept of Nirvana or the Hindu concept of Moksha.

The supposed inconsistency between the concept of an eternal consciousness and a temporary soul is perhaps best explained in the following comment from the aforementioned Reddit stream which addresses it from a Buddhist perspective:

nickelchrome: Buddhism doesn’t teach reincarnation, it teaches rebirth, the basic difference is they do not believe in a soul that transfers from one body to the next. The belief is that in the historical dimension, what we experience as reality, a being transitions from a state of living to death, the energy that makes up its consciousness reenters the consciousness stream and can be reborn in another physical being, or other phenomenon. What follows with you across the different states of being isn’t your identity or soul, but instead the imprint of your actions, or karma.

Based on the modern concept of the belief in a Cosmic Consciousness as foundational and equivalent to Source, Creator, The One, God, etc., prior to which there is nothing, such an expansive understanding of it now allows for the inclusion of the concept of a Soul within it, rather than separate from it. That is, one's soul can be seen as a temporary, personal and perhaps religious-focused manifestation of the greater individual consciousness during a specific lifetime. The soul is not the totality of one's consciousness. An individual consciousness is a fractal emanation from the supreme Cosmic Consciousness (CC). That fractal emanation form the greater individual consciousness (GIC), which is eternal and non-physical. It, in turns, aligns with a physical being (organic machine) or other entity and forms a localised consciousness (LC) which operates that entity for a specific period of time (its lifetime). The soul is therefore associated with the LC, not the GIC, in Buddhist philosophy. The soul is separate from the CC and GIC in Christian theology. The nickelchrome comment therefore reinforces this primacy of consciousness over soul, when it speak of "....the energy that makes up [an individual's] consciousness reenters the consciousness stream and can be reborn in another physical being or other phenomenon."

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References

Kersten, Holger, Jesus Lived in India, Element Books, Shaftsbury, 1979, 246p.

Reddit, Buddhists believe there is no permanent, unchanging self or soul and yet they also believe in reincarnation. How do these apparent contradictions resolve, if at all?, Reddit - r/Buddhism, 2023.

Tolkien, J.R.R., Letter to Peter Hastings, September, 1954, number 153 in Letters, Macmillan and Son, London, 1977.

What the Early Church Believed: Reincarnation, Catholic Answers, 2014.  

Wikipedia, Samsara, Wikipedia, accessed 22 August 2025.

Wikipedia, Samsara, Wikipedia, accessed 22 August 2025.

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Last updated: 23 August 2025

Michael Organ, Australia