If there is no self, why am I having this experience?

A much more common modern religion than Buddhism rejects the self: materialism.

sayak83 said:

Sentient entities who lived virtuously over several lifetimes and hence was born in heavens with access to greater powers than earthly beings.

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Ok so humans who were spiritually minded, meditated to reach higher levels of awareness, eventually died as mortals, were said to be reincarnated in a better position within society, continued with their spiritual path and this happened several times before they no longer were reincarnated as humans, but are divine like beings in the Heavens. Is that right or am I way off?

Rinchen said:

Samsaric Beings are those who are bound within Samsara, or the cycle of birth, old age, sickness, and death. Also within that experiance of samsara is all of our discontentment, the suffering of pain, the suffering of change, the suffering of desire, etc. Gods, being samsaric beings, are not reliable sources of ultimate refuge from suffering because they themselves are still in the realm of samsara. A god can become a ghost, a hell being, an animal, a human being, etc. when they pass away from the heavens. The gods can be good for getting material things, like safety, money, etc. but they cannot ultimately liberate you from the cycle of samsara.

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Ok great, thanks for explaining. So my two immediate questions would be where do you get this information from, and who created the energy/soul within humans, that after death enters this cycle of being reborn until it becomes a Samsaric being?

Muslim-UK said:

Ok so humans who were spiritually minded, meditated to reach higher levels of awareness, eventually died as mortals, were said to be reincarnated in a better position within society, continued with their spiritual path and this happened several times before they no longer were reincarnated as humans, but are divine like beings in the Heavens. Is that right or am I way off?

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More or less, though rebirth is more to do with better inherent mental, spiritual and cognitive capacities than better inherited position.
One can directly become a god after one life as well. Or wander around more, jumping up and down.

Muslim-UK said:

Ok great, thanks for explaining. So my two immediate questions would be where do you get this information from, and who created the energy/soul within humans, that after death enters this cycle of being reborn until it becomes a Samsaric being?

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I get this information from Buddhism itself. The Thirty-one Planes of Existence ,

Nobody created the "energy" that after death keeps on being reborn.

Nowhere Man said:

Think about what you're asking. Infinity had a beginning? :0)

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Fantasy is fascinating!!! Nature's infinite capacity to create nonsense.

Brickjectivity said:

I am not a Mathematician and it is a controversial subject. They argue about whether Math pre-exists and is discovered or whether it is created by us. I am of the 'It is discovered' crowd, but as a non-Mathematician my opinion is not relevant to Mathematical debates. I think infinity simply is, just like one must be followed by 2 and 3. Some people think that, no, it is a construction by us.

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Indeed we are getting into a muddled area instantly in math itself. Georg cantor who developed naive set theory died in a mental hospital, and one of the most famous mathematicians ever Kurt Godel died of ocd fear of germs. Who's fame was from his incompleteness theory. I can read godel and cantor and recognise my neurology. They are different. Nietzche, kirkegard fit that also, along with mystics, crazies, drunks, poets, musicians, painters, drug addicts, and on the list goes including mathematicians. What the broken version does all fail at is breathing, they forget to breathe. They abstract themselves and the world around them till their abstractions become reality. Like a painter who paints the landscape and then the painting becomes the landscape explaining the landscape explaining the landscape explaining the landscape explaining the landscape. Breaking recursion is hard, but for some it's mandatory or they end up like Georg cantor, and Kurt godel victims of their own mind. I didn't answer it really but I did point to a problem for some.

jackvincent said:

You are correct. This is what I've needed to ponder because there isn't anything to ponder. It is.

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That's absolutely the most difficult thing for us to do. I spend my free time sauntering through the oregon coastal range, aligning with the trees as fellow life forms sharing in this thing called life. I have asked them all the "deep" questions that we believe are "deep" they laugh at my inquiries. It's a hard laughter to hear, but if you have ears to hear they laugh at us and with us when we discover our innate absurdities. All are guilty, all are forgiven. BTw john Muir has an amazing quote on sauntering as opposed to hiking. Read Muir you might discover some Insight and a very profound fellow traveler. Very poetic very very nature bound.

Rinchen said:

I get this information from Buddhism itself. The Thirty-one Planes of Existence ,

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Ok thanks, I'll look into it later.

Rinchen said:

Nobody created the "energy" that after death keeps on being reborn.

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I'm confused as earlier you said, the cycle continues for some until they become Samsaric beings.

Energy doesn't magically appear from nowhere. Where does the energy within us come from?
The Cosmos perhaps?

jackvincent said:

This is a common idea in Buddhism.


We come out of nature as a wave comes out of the entire ocean before returning. So might one say that the wave is born out of the ocean, and that we are born out of nature?

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our 'self' is an ephemeral form of nature.

sayak83 said:

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Thought I could tag you for a response to my question to Richen..

Rinchen said:

Nobody created the "energy" that after death keeps on being reborn.

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Regarding humans eventually becoming Samsaric beings with souls/energy being reincarnated; We know energy doesn't magically appear from nowhere, so where does it originate from?

Are you guys able to verify the existence of Samsaric beings by conversing with them when meditating etc?

Muslim-UK said:

Thought I could tag you for a response to my question to Richen..
Regarding humans eventually becoming Samsaric beings with souls/energy being reincarnated; We know energy doesn't magically appear from nowhere, so where does it originate from?

Are you guys able to verify the existence of Samsaric beings by conversing with them when meditating etc?

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I would be careful about mixing scientific usage of the word energy with other usage in ordinary speech.
I have not conversed with any spirits. Others may have. However certain kinds of insights and memories I have is more easily explained if I had had previous lives.

For people who are doing more systematic investigation in this matter, see below,
Searching For The Science Behind Reincarnation