Hello FBM, Your posts can be described in one word : Beautiful The simple fact that i confused rebirth and reincarnaton to me shows that i know nothing about Buddhism lol. I ve always mistakenly thought that buddhists believed in the soul! what led me to this belief is the techniques tibetan monks use to search for Dalai Lamas, so if everything is impermenant and there is no soul so things start to get really confusing lol. In addition, if there is no soul, then my understanding of meditation must be worng (have not watched Aloka's video and Kaarine's link yet about meditaion) as i always thought that meditation is all about observing the ego (the false centre or the false identity) and realizing that its the source of all suffering. This realization will lead to the emerge of the real centre/identity (the soul/subconscious mind/god/the one/nothingness...etc)!!! In relation to determinism and free will, it depends, when we use general physichs then the laws of cause and effect apply and we live in deterministic world. However, when we look at quantum mechanics the rules of cause and effect are no longer applicable and replaced by the laws of probablity and uncertainty. Personally, i believe that buddhism is better understood when linked to quantum physichs especially when we take about emptiness, interconnectivity, and the nature of reality. The concept of impermenance is a bit tricky and debatable. Hiraclitus for instance believed in the changing nature of things when he said "you cannot step in the same river twice" while Parmenides believed that nothing really change. Its quite amazing how we can have two opposing interpretation of reality and each one of them provide good reasons to support his argument!! "There are no facts, only interpretations" Nietzche Regards