Buddhism

====Rebirth====
{{Main|Rebirth (Buddhism)}}
[[File:Kushinara1.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A very large hill behind two palm trees and a boulevard, where the Buddha is believed to have been cremated|Ramabhar Stupa in [[Kushinagar]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], India, is regionally believed to be Buddha's cremation site.]]
Rebirth refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible forms of [[Sentient beings (Buddhism)|sentient life]], each running from conception to death.{{sfnp|Keown|1996|p=107}} In Buddhist thought, this rebirth does not involve a [[soul]] or any fixed substance. This is because the Buddhist doctrine of [[anatta|anattā]] (Sanskrit: ''anātman'', no-self doctrine) rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul found in other religions.<ref name="Leaman2002p23">{{cite book |author=Oliver Leaman |title=Eastern Philosophy: Key Readings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vK-GAgAAQBAJ |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-68919-4 |pages=23–27 |access-date=10 July 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055822/https://books.google.com/books?id=vK-GAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[a] {{cite book |author=Christmas Humphreys |title=Exploring Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V3rYtmCZEIEC |year=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-22877-3 |pages=42–43 |access-date=10 July 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055822/https://books.google.com/books?id=V3rYtmCZEIEC |url-status=live }}<br />[b] {{cite book |author=Brian Morris |title=Religion and Anthropology: A Critical Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PguGB_uEQh4C&pg=PA51 |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-85241-8 |page=51 |access-date=10 July 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055822/https://books.google.com/books?id=PguGB_uEQh4C&pg=PA51 |url-status=live }}, Quote: "(...) anatta is the doctrine of non-self, and is an extreme empiricist doctrine that holds that the notion of an unchanging permanent self is a fiction and has no reality. According to Buddhist doctrine, the individual person consists of five skandhas or heaps – the body, feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. The belief in a self or soul, over these five skandhas, is illusory and the cause of suffering."<br />[c] {{harvtxt|Gombrich|2005a|p=47}}, Quote: "(...) Buddha's teaching that beings have no soul, no abiding essence. This 'no-soul doctrine' (anatta-vada) he expounded in his second sermon."</ref>

The Buddhist traditions have traditionally disagreed on what it is in a person that is reborn, as well as how quickly the rebirth occurs after death.{{sfnp|Buswell|Lopez|2003|pp=708–709}}<ref name="Neufeldt1986p123">{{cite book|author=Ronald Wesley Neufeldt|title=Karma and Rebirth: Post Classical Developments|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iaRWtgXjplQC|year=1986|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-87395-990-2|pages=123–131|access-date=10 July 2016|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055823/https://books.google.com/books?id=iaRWtgXjplQC|url-status=live}}</ref> Some Buddhist traditions assert that "no self" doctrine means that there is no enduring self, but there is ''avacya'' (inexpressible) personality (''[[Pudgalavada|pudgala]]'') which migrates from one life to another.{{sfnp|Buswell|Lopez|2003|pp=708–709}} The majority of Buddhist traditions, in contrast, assert that [[vijñāna]] (a person's consciousness) though evolving, exists as a continuum and is the mechanistic basis of what undergoes the rebirth process.{{sfnp|Williams|2002|pp=74–75}}{{sfnp|Buswell|Lopez|2003|pp=708–709}} The quality of one's rebirth depends on the [[Merit (Buddhism)|merit]] or demerit gained by one's karma (i.e., actions), as well as that accrued on one's behalf by a family member.{{Refn|group=note|This merit gaining may be on the behalf of one's family members.{{sfnp|Buswell|Lopez|2003|pp=708–709}}<ref name="Neufeldt1986p123"/><ref name="SwatosKivisto1998p66">{{cite book|author1=William H. Swatos|author2=Peter Kivisto|title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TMFoMFe-D8C|year=1998|publisher=Rowman Altamira|isbn=978-0-7619-8956-1|page=66|access-date=10 July 2016|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055832/https://books.google.com/books?id=6TMFoMFe-D8C|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Buddhism also developed [[Buddhist cosmology|a complex cosmology]] to explain the various realms or planes of rebirth.{{sfnp|Wilson|2010}}