Questions from 21-st century's Milinda

Annihilationism

One reason to worry is that annihilationism (the belief that death ends all) leads to materialism (the belief that 'physics and chemistry' are all there is) leads to hedonism (the belief that it's right to take pleasure in the here-and-now because that's all there is -- 'eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die'").

Or (less likely), materialism might lead to asceticism: 'what's the point of enjoying this life etc.?'

The problem is that either extreme (hedonism or asceticism) leads to suffering; whereas, to end suffering (even in this life), what you should look for is e.g. restraint, equanimity, love, wisdom, honesty, and so on.

Suffering

The first Noble Truth is that "suffering exists." What are you going to to about it?

1. Deny it exists? (naive optimism)
2. Passive resignation and acceptance? (pessimism)
3. Seek to justify it? (rationalization)
4. Make some effort to end it, to overcome it? (3rd and 4th noble truths)

IMO Buddhism is supposed to help you in this life: when you and your friends and family are poor, sick, and dying.

Self

Another reason to worry, is that statements like "I do not suffer from rebirth" implies that you think there is an "I", i.e. a "self". Saying that the "I" is destroyed at death might imply that the "I" exists before death, which may be an example of a wrong view.

Fruits

In the Samaññaphala Sutta the King listed to the description of Annihilationism given by Ajita Kesakambali, but did not find it satisfying ... found it fruitless.

1. Do you maintain that there is no suffering that comes from being born?
2. If actions are going to hit back, would you not care about choices you're making here & now out of responsible goodwill towards yourself in the future? Even here & now you should already be well aware of the fact that good things often come from restraint and responsibility.
3. If you maintain that death is the end of experience, you're not going to worry about nirvana. But the doctrine says that this view is wrong.
4. You strive for awakening to the deathless because it is said to be the end of all suffering.

OP: If I do not suffer from rebirth: Why worry about rebirth?

It's not about your rebirth into another womb that you should be worried about in the near future. Rather, it's the rebirth of your personhood that happens everyday, that you should consider. The person that experienced some suffering yesterday, today and will continue to experience suffering in the future, for the course of his or her natural life.

OP: If I do not remember any actions in past lifes: Why worry about karma?

You're absolutely right. You don't have to worry about what you did in a previous life. Rather, you have to worry about what you're doing today and tomorrow. If you don't take care of your health, you become ill. If you lie and deceive others, people will not trust you in future. If you break the law, you will be punished by law enforcers. What you think, speak and do today, reflects what effects you will experience tomorrow. That's karma.

OP: If I expect that death - quite naturally - ends the life of all beings: Why worry about nirvana?

It's suffering that you experience everyday and into the future that you should consider. Nirvana is freedom from this suffering.

Death may end life, but it doesn't end suffering. Suffering continues, for as long as ignorance continues. It's not my suffering or your suffering. It's just suffering.

OP: I distinguish between questions with answer and questions without: Why strive for enlightenment due to meditation?

Why? To end suffering, of course. If you're physically sick, you may see the doctor, consume medicine and, rest and recuperate. If you're spiritually suffering, you may see the Buddha, consume his medicine of the Noble Eightfold Path, including meditation, then relax and learn to let go of your suffering, clinging, craving and ignorance.

This reminds me a bit of that old joke about the guy who falls off the observation deck of a skyscraper. As he goes down past the 30th floor someone leans out a window and asks him how he's doing, to which he replies: "So far, so good..."

It's easy to live in a bubble where we ignore or dismiss cause and effect; one might even say it's natural. Someone can climb into their Tesla supercar, crank up the music, and boom down the road at twice the speed limit sealed up in their own technological ego-space. They will never hear the squealing tires and crunching fenders of freaked-out drivers they've left in their wake, and never see the hapless pedestrian or unexpected delivery van they will eventually crash into. Inside that little bubble all is right with the world, at least until the outside world intervenes.

You can dismiss future lives and past lives if you like — they are not part of my worldview either — but you cannot dismiss continuation itself. The past bleeds into and through you by genetics, culture, upbringing, social conditioning, etc; you bleed into and through the future by imposing your self on others the way you were imposed on by other selves. Any limits you want to put on that continuous flow — even birth and death — are arbitrary constructions: the edges of an imagined bubble your ego finds comfortable.

Asserting that some questions have (definitive) answers and other don't, and assumedly clinging to the first while ignoring the second... That's another edge of that bubble.

The Buddhist paradigm effaces the edges of that bubble, and effaces the imagined self that bubble defines. What happens then is a question you won't get a definitive answer to.

If I do not suffer from rebirth: Why worry about rebirth? Answer: Everyone suffer here and now. Nobody seems happy. So real end is to end unhapiness!

If I do not remember any actions in past lifes: Why worry about karma? Answer: You dont have to remember past karma, but the effects you will see now. And because of that you have to worry to do good action here and now to produce good result and ultimate happiness!

If I expect that death - quite naturally - ends the life of all beings: Why worry about nirvana? Answer: In death fear exist. Fear is great unhapiness. So he die in unhapiness and again reappear in unhappy world. Nirvana is cessation of unhappiness. A state of no death, birth, old age or feeling of separation.

I'd hazard a guess that if the Ven. Nagasena were around today he might respond with something as follows:

1) Just because you don't know that you have a problem doesn't mean there isn't one.

2) One cannot conclude that something in the past didn't happen just because you don't remember it. For example, I don't have any memories of being an infant or being born but that doesn't mean that I never was.

3) One should be concerned about Nirvana because it is not some sort of prize after death, but a reality that is fully realizable in the here and now.

4) One should strive for enlightenment through meditation because meditation is a necessary part of the spiritual practice. Without it one cannot expect to attain anything.

1. If I do not suffer from rebirth: Why worry about rebirth?

To think that goal of Buddhism is to stop rebirth is a beginner-level ("hinayana") understanding. The goal of Buddhism is liberation in this very life, liberation by wisdom. Liberation from what? From dukkha, from the three poisons, from the limits of life and death.

2. If I do not remember any actions in past lives: Why worry about karma?

To think that the method of Buddhism is to improve or to get rid of karma is a beginner-level ("hinayana") understanding. The method of Buddhism is removal of mental and emotional obscurations, preconceptions, obsessions, impulses, aversions, irrational expectations, illusions.

3. If I expect that death - quite naturally - ends the life of all beings: Why worry about nirvana?

To think that nirvana is equivalent to non-existence of death is a misunderstanding. Nirvana is the loss of form, which means both an apparent attainment in this very life (either sudden or a result of gradual cultivation), as well as the natural state of things as they are.

4. I distinguish between questions with answer and questions without: Why strive for enlightenment due to meditation?

Because our lives are presumably targeted at happiness (that seems to be the thinking behind our daily choices and efforts) but in the absence of clear understanding of the Big Picture (=Enlightenment) we keep going in circles until we die.