Rebirth: Rhetoric, Reality, and Argument in Indian Buddhist Texts

In this second of three talks, Professor Jackson will briefly review the basic Indian ideas about rebirth covered in the first lecture, then focus on the rhetoric and reality of discourse about rebirth in Indian Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Buddhist texts; detail traditional Indian arguments in favor of rebirth; and consider the “paradox” of rebirth vis à vis the classic Buddhist doctrine of no-self.

In the third talk in the series, (date and time to be announced), Dr. Jackson will outline the historical development of modern (especially Western) attitudes toward rebirth, analyze four major responses that seem to predominate – literalism, neo-traditionalism, modernism, and secularism – and consider the strengths and weaknesses of each response.

Checkout Roger Jackson’s talk from May 19, 2024 on
Buddhist Rebirth: Contexts, Structures, and Functions.