[pharweqto]

1. What is the ultimate goal of a person's life and what is the process one takes during life to reach that goal?

Buddha taught:

4. Do your personal beliefs correspond to the formal religious doctrine?

Buddha taught on two levels thus there are two levels of formal doctrine

2. Please explain the process of the afterlife.

Buddha did not explain this. on level 1, Buddha simply taught beings fare on according to the actions (karma) they have performed. on level 2, Buddha taught the five aggregates of an enlightened being simply come to an end

'If there is a world after death, if there is the fruit of actions rightly & wrongly done, then this is the basis by which, with the break-up of the body, after death, I will reappear in a good destination, the heavenly world.' This is the first assurance he acquires.

"'But if there is no world after death, if there is no fruit of actions rightly & wrongly done, then here in the present life I look after myself with ease — free from hostility, free from ill will, free from trouble.' This is the second assurance he acquires.

Kalama Sutta Then, friend Yamaka, how would you answer if you are thus asked: A monk, a worthy one, with no more mental effluents: what is he on the break-up of the body, after death?"

Thus asked, I would answer, 'Form is inconstant... Feeling... Perception... Fabrications... Consciousness is inconstant. That which is inconstant is unsatisfactory. That which is unsatisfactory has ceased and gone to its end."

Yamaka Sutta