Explain consciousness (viññāna) to non-Buddhists
Upvote:2
First of all Lord Buddha did not talk about a viññāna that goes from life to life continuously.That kind of explanation is exactly same with the "soul" mentioned in many religions.Lord Buddha dumped that theory and directly said there is no soul.
What you have misunderstood is the energy released from a dying person which act as the backup of his or her memories and karma.so there is no continuous viññāna.
This is like "Dark energy and Dark matter"
why?
Because both above concepts are understood in one way and that is by discovering the effects of their functioning.Just like the process in, Buddhism none of the theories mentioned above can be proved wrong with materialistic evidence.
Explain me this biologically
If you go to a physician and ask to be hypnotized so he could ask about your past he could take you back years into your childhood.But when he reach the very beginning of you life's past things get interesting.If he continue to ask you to go back even before your birth you start to talk about a life that you consciously couldn't remember.He can keep going and you will keep telling him about more and more lives.And the best part is if you do this again even a decade after you will recall the same lives and same events.
Many studies were done all around the world and even in my country about the reality of these "Past life memories" and many events were confirmed to be true,and the people who told the stories had no idea what happened in those places and the events they described predated their birth.These studies proved that these memories are not imaginations or illusions.Google it and you will see.
My conclusion.
We as Buddhists do not believe in an eternal soul or reincarnation. But just like science there are some things that can only be proven by studying a lot of related fields (like the example i gave -Dark matter) It doesn't matter if we like it or not everything can't be proven by materialistic evidence,But if you want to find it there are many other ways.Just have an open mind and keep searching.
May triple Gems bless you!
Upvote:3
It sounds like you're trying to explain consciousness within a framework that supports rebirth to people who understand consciousness in a (materialistic) framework that won't allow for rebirth. Seeing consciousness as tied to an organism and the development of consciousness in an organism leaves no room for the "migration" of consciousness required for rebirth to work.
Am I correct in understanding this difficulty?
If so, you could try the following...
Get people to abandon materialism. For many, this is the same as asking them to abandon science.
Explain rebirth in a materialistic framework. If consciousness is a property of structure, rather than organism then a rebirth mechanism exists by simply having the same structure arise in the future. Karmic imprints could be explained by neuro-plasticity (which is said to be affected by meditation). Still, they may ask what happens if this structure is replicated now (and why wouldn't it be, given how much life we have?).
An alternative is to look at the big picture. If you are trying to introduce people to Buddhism, why mention rebirth? The Buddhist path is identical, whether or not one believes in rebirth. Further, many are attracted to Buddhism (or at least it's secularized variant popular in the west) precisely because of its less supernatural nature. Introducing rebirth therefore might cause them to abandon Buddhism. For many, if it's a choice between Buddhism and Science, then Science will win, no contest.
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