Buddhists usually don’t have a problem accepting the teaching of rebirth.
Al- though Western science has not been able to come up with hard proofs, increasing evidence gained in so called soft sciences (psychology, philosophy, sociology, parapsychology, etc.) and difficulties in explaining how life could originate from matter, boosted the discussion about possible lives before birth and after death.
As the famous French writer Voltaire said: It is not easier to explain the origin of life for one existence than for two.
If one accepts the idea of rebirth then comes the question what is it that is reborn? There are two main schools of thought.
One is based on the idea that in each individual there is a stable and eternal soul (self, or inner spirit) which transmigrates from one life to another.
Only the body is subjected to the law of impermanency and is ‘shed’ like the skin of a snake upon death.
If the soul is reborn in human realm it is called reincarnation
The second school of thought is based on the idea of non-self or soullessness. Here, not only matter is considered as being impermanent but also feelings, consciousness, experience, knowing, and so on—that means all aspects of the mind.
It says that all components of a being, that is the body and the mind, arise, stay and disappear continuously at a sub-perceptive level.
But each set of mind and body having arisen will condition by way of kammic potential the immediately following set of mind and body.
So also on death.
One last set of mind and body arises in this existence, comes to an end, con- ditioning and giving way to a new set of mind and body.
