Where are the new souls coming from?

This is probably a very basic question, but a christian friend of mine who is aware of my interest in eastern philosophies threw that question my way the other day. If most us are reborn, and the population is always increasing, does this mean there is always a bunch of ''new souls'' being thrown into the mix? What happens here?

 

I'll leave aside for the moment as a technicality the fact that Buddhists do not believe in a soul.

They can come from other species and other planets, even other universes. There is no restriction that says that humans can only be reborn as humans. None of us is "new". We take a rebirth due to causes and conditions that we have set up in previous lives.

 

Gotcha. Thanks!

Well... Buddhists believe in SOMETHING don't they? They may not call it a soul, but it has to be an equivalent right? Like an eternal being or consciousness or something along those lines...

 

My thoughts on this have nothing to do with Buddhism, but it is a question I've considered. I like to think of the concept of soul not as billions of seperate entities, but one universal energy banded together. It is not a matter of new souls being put into new shells. It is the same soul expressing different physical manifestations.

 

No, no, no!! Buddhism is a different religion from Christianity. Most people think if it as just the same except with a different decor. That is where your preconception is coming from. You have to let go of your preconceptions. Buddhism is totally unlike any other (the only?) religion you know of.

Buddhists do not believe in anything at all that is remotely equivalent to a soul. There is no "thing" that travels from one rebirth to the next, just as there is no "thing" that remains "you" from one day to the next or one moment to the next.

 

That's the concept I am a hard time grasping... Are you telling me that Buddhists don't believe in rebirth and that that's all a big misconception that everyone on the west believes? I know it can't be.

So if there is rebirth, essentially youre moving from one being to another...

I just don't get it.

 

Yes, Buddhists believe in rebirth. No, we don't believe in a thing that is reborn.

If you look at it grammatically, there is a verb, but no noun. Kind of like the "it" in the sentence, "It is raining." There isn't a thing ("it") that is raining. There is just raining.

Similarly, the idea of "soul" (or whatever you choose to call it) in the sentence "The soul is reborn" does not refer to anything. There is rebirth. There is no soul that is reborn.

Yes, it is a difficult concept to grasp. Grasping is the problem.

 

Listen to this man; he is certainly a good Buddhist

 

Thanks. I ''get it''. This is something to meditate on however, not just something I can understand like 1+1=2. Thanks again for your answer.

 

If we live in a multidimensional universe then maybe it is possible for our souls to inhabit more than 1 body at a time. When we die maybe it is possible to be reincarnated as a person whom you knew when you were alive. Maybe there is only one soul, and that is god and it is responsible for all the separate bodies of consciousness that will ever exist anywhere in the universe.

 

Good answer - thanks alot.

 

According to the progression of your spirit you can be reincarnated in animals, plants or even rocks, being the human the last stage (That doesn't mean there aren't many different stages while being reincarnated in a human). That being said, new ''human souls'' are coming from animals, I think, who have spiritually progressed enough to be reincarnated in humans.

 

I don't know that much about buddhism and strictly speaking I'm not a buddhist, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents

so I think that the idea is that all sentient beings are one. that awareness is within you, but you may not yet be awakened to it.

when you have compassion for another, you begin to transcend the self,

you stand on the threshold of elightenment

 

I think one has to get into concept of infinity - are all souls that which are human? are the souls that travel only from Terra Firma? are all souls only of this dimension and indeed time.
There are still so many things that are outside the boundaries of our imagination, maybe it's best not to ask, for the answer may well blow ones mind

 

While that is a commonly-held New Age view, Buddhist beliefs about rebirth are different.

Buddhism does not teach that rocks or plants are sentient beings, so one cannot be born as a rock or a plant. It also does not teach that there is a "progression" of rebirths. Or at least, if you want to talk about progression, you also have to recognize that there can be regression, too. The movement is not always upwards.

 

Uh, fuck your stupid Christian friend. Fuck the stupid egoistical notion of new souls.

Fact: in the duration of recorded history there have been 6 billion people prior to the last hundr4ed years and there are six billion people. End of issue.

Darryl Kitchen the know it all Buddhist asshole who moderates this forum is going to erase everything I wrote recently so bye!

 

Wow. So hateful Chodpa. I think you may want to take a look at what you're writing.

 

I am hateful for reasons. I have known now, very well, some who were supposed to be spiritual mentors who when I discovered their real self, turned out to be really really evil.

I also have been aware of spiritual stuff since I was 12 and my family owned a spiritual bookstore and I did TM for 20 years and then became a Dzogchen. I think so much is total bullshit. I also take offense when a Christian pretends to any Eastern knowledge. I also take offense with the whole New Age most of which is a bunch of psychos like St. Clair Prophet - people who don't know anything - I mean ANYTHING - and so they have to pretend that their shit is channelled from some angel, god, or supreme source. That's all bullshit.

What's also bullshit is new versus old souls. Also, the idea that mahalakshmi favors the rich. Also that one religion is better than another or even the athiest, or that the esoteric trumps science.

If there is no specific quality, or quantity to something then it cannot be qualified or quantified. Thus any sort of bullshit has the same exact outcome. It cannot be qualified or quantified.

People who believe such specious nonsense, no matter what their system, are all dupes and offering themselves as sacrifices, and none are better off than the other because none of their beliefs can be quantified or qualified.

I have this gut wrenching hate and always have, ever since people knocked on my door touting Jesus.

They don't know fucking shit!

 

I understand where youre coming from. It can be frustrating. I agree with most of the knowledge you dropped here.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, or take offense, but when I read for example ''I have this gut wrenching hate and always have - they dont know shit'', to me it seems kinda couter productive/irrational. Hating someone for their ignorance/lack of knowledge on a subject can't be fair!