I have seen the following quote attributed to the Buddha - "Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow you, as the wheels of the oxcart follow the footsteps of the ox. Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a pure mind, happiness will follow you, as a shadow clings to a form." It seems to me this is referring to karma and unless there is a mindstream or some kind of karmic storehouse, which survives death. how can this quote be true. Without a life after death, or mindstream, if we did something negative or positive and then died we would escape the consequences of our actions. "In fact without a mindstream or something passing from life to life there would be no point to the eightfold noble path for the way to liberate oneself from samsara or the suffering of this life would simply be to take one's own life - end it all by committing suicide. I honestly cannot understand any kind of Buddhism, which does not include a life after death. "