That's up to you. I don't know what happens after death because I do not have that power to know, the power that the Buddha and others claim to have. However I have adopted the view of what happens after death in line with what the Buddha taught because I have developed confidence in the Buddha and his teachings.thecap wrote:Does that mean, if I don't know whether there is rebirth in the traditional sense, then that's the equivalent of hodling the view that no one else will be born after my body dies?Peter wrote:Most likely you're "I don't know" results in you making decisions based solely on the here and now, which is the equivalent of holding the view of no birth after death.
My point, which seems to have been missed by some, is that trying to answer the OP's question with "I don't know" isn't telling the full story. There will be times when you will have to make decisions which will be influenced by what view you hold about what happens when we die. One who grasps firmly to "I don't know" will often make such decisions solely on what they know and see in this life. Such an approach often leads to the same conclusions as outright denying rebirth.
Neither of the two quotes you provided say "don't have faith in me". In fact, they say the exact opposite.pink_trike wrote:Source: the wikipedia god.Peter wrote:Care to provide more than one reference?pink_trike wrote:In more than one place in the Suttas words to the effect of "don't have faith in me...try it, analyze it, study it" are attributed to the Buddha as instructions for lay followers
In the Jivaka Sutta...The Buddha, when asked how one practices being a lay follower "both for his own benefit & the benefit of others," the Buddha states that one is consummate oneself in and encourages others in the consummation of: conviction (saddhā); virtue (sīla); generosity (cāga); visiting monks; and, hearing, remembering, analyzing, understanding and practicing the Dhamma.
Sutta 44(iv, 220), Buddha questions Sariputta to which Sariputta answers, "Herein, O Lord, I do not follow the Exalted One out of faith. Those by whom this is unknown, unseen, uncognized, unrealized and unexperienced by wisdom, they will herein follow others out of faith."
So it is your contention that all the numerous and varied references to rebirth scattered throughout the Canon were added in by later monks? Please provide some evidence for this contention.in light of scholarly confirmation that there have been many additions and revisions to the suttas at various times/places, and the number of theravadan divisions that died out or were politically squeezed out of existence...I'll stick to practice.