..續本文上一頁ith others. These forces pursue each other to the time of our death. All these forces must be tried, conquered, subdued and used. One life is just not enough for all this. To say that we must have but one life here with such possibilities put before us and impossible to develop is to make the universe and life a huge and cruel joke.
思考于「我們在世間的壽命是短暫的」，將有助于我們培養正確的輪回觀。如果我們考慮到生命的究竟意義和目標以及各種各樣的人生經驗時，我們就能推斷在「人」的短短一生中，實在是沒有足夠的時間去實現他所想要做的事。經驗層次的範圍非常大，只要因緣成熟，人體所擁有的巨大潛能就可以獲得充分的發揮。知識是無限的，並以各種形態出現在我們眼前，特別是今日，我們只要稍加觀察，我們都會發現我們自己擁有高度的抱負，但是沒有時間去實現。同時，有一大堆激情、欲望、自私的動機和野心一直在我們的內心中交戰，或與他人交戰，這種力量必須去嘗試、去征服、去壓製和去利用。一次的生命，不夠力量來達到我們的理想，如果說我們只擁有一次的生命，又要用它來完成這麼多的事，那完全是不可能的。這無疑是開宇宙和生命的一個巨大而殘忍的玩笑。
The Buddha doctrine of rebirth should be differentiated from the teachings of transmigration and reincarnation of other religions. Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent, god-created soul or an unchanging entity that transmigrates from one life to another.
Just as relative identity is made possible by causal continuity without a Self or Soul, so death can issue in rebirth without a transmigrating Soul. In a single life, each thought-moment flashes in and out of being, giving rise to its successor with its perishing. Strictly speaking, this momentary rise and fall of every thought is a birth and death. Thus even in a single life we undergo countless births and deaths every second. But because the mental process continues with the support of a single physical body, we regard the mind-body continuum as constituting a single life.
佛教所闡述的輪回學說，應該和其它的輪回學說區分開來，佛教否定永恒的神創造存在的靈魂，也否定在無數的輪回中，有一個不變的實體。 沒有「自我」或「靈魂」的存在，也由「因果」相對的不斷循環而獲得證實。因此，死亡後可以不通過「靈魂」的轉世而獲得重生。在生命中，每一個「念」都是生生滅滅的，嚴格的說，這種剎那間「念」的生滅，就是一種生死。因此，在我們一生中的每一秒鍾，都經曆了無數的生死。只因爲一個肉體，在支撐著心理路程的延續， 因此，我們認爲身和心的結合，就構成單獨存在的「生命」。
What we ordinarily mean by death is the cessation of the body”s vital functions. When the physical body loses its vitality it can no longer support the current of consciousness, the mental side of the process. But as long as there is a clinging to life, a desire to go on existing, the current of consciousness does not come to a stop with the body”s loss of life. Rather, when death takes place, when the body dies away, the mental current, driven by the thirst for more existence, will spring up again with the support of a new physical body, one which has just come into being through the meeting of sperm and egg. Thus, rebirth takes place immediately after death. The steam of memory may be interrupted and the sense of identity transferred to the new situation, but the entire accumulation of experience and disposition has been transmitted to the newborn being, and the cycle of becoming begins to revolve for still another term.
一般，我們以爲「死亡」就是身體活動力停止作用。當身體失去了活力，它就不再支持意識的流動，可是，只要對生命有一點點執著，有一個想繼續生存的貪念，那麼，意識之流就不因爲身體失去了活力而從此停頓。當死亡一發生，身體開始毀壞時，意識之流在渴望生存的驅使下，再度進入一個精子與卵子結合的生命體中，就這樣，當死亡後，重生的現象就即刻發生，記憶之流或許中斷了，感官意識也轉變成另一個新的形態，而本質經驗的累積卻轉入一個新的生命體中，生命的循環又找到一個新的起點。
For Buddhism, therefore, death does not spell either the entrance to eternal life or complete annihilation. It is, rather, the portal to a new rebirth which will be followed by more growth, decay, and then till another death.
因此佛教認爲：「死亡既非永生，也並非絕滅。」新的生命開始後，接著是成長、衰老，然後又是另一個死亡。
At the last moment, no renewed physical functioning occurs in a dying man”s mind. This is just like a motorist releasing the accelerator before stopping, so that no more pulling power is given to the engine. Similarly, no more material qualities of Kamma arise.
當意識死亡之時，生理功能也跟著死亡。這就好像汽車松開了油門，引擎得不到新的動力而終止運作。同樣的，業力的生起或運作是不依賴物質現象的。
Buddhists do not maintain that the present life is the only life between two eternities of misery and happiness; nor do they believe angels will carry them to heaven and leave them there for all eternity. They believe that this present life is only …
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