What is Reincarnation?

To understand reincarnation, we need to understand the nature of our mind, and how our body and mind are separate entities.

If we understand the nature of the mind, we can understand the existence of past and future lives. Many people believe that when the body disintegrates at death, the continuum of the mind ceases and the mind becomes non-existent, like a candle flame going out when all the wax has burned. In the Buddhist scriptures, our body is compared to a guesthouse and our mind to a guest dwelling within it. When we die, our mind leaves our body and goes to the next life, just like a guest leaving a guesthouse and going somewhere else.

Understanding how our body and mind are separate entities, we can understand how even though the body disintegrates at death, the continuum of the mind remains unbroken. Instead of ceasing, the mind simply leaves the present body and goes to the next life. For ordinary beings, therefore, rather than releasing us from suffering, death only brings new sufferings. Not understanding this, many people destroy their precious human life by committing suicide.