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we are just souls in transmigration."

Extract from Annatta and Rebirth by Ajahn Buddhadasa.(Page 6)


One group of people believes that there is self, there is atman, there is a soul which is born as this person. Once the body dies, this thing doesn't die. It goes to a new birth. Most people believe this, they take it as the basis of their beliefs. The Upanishad texts believed this.

In Buddhism, however, there isn't such a thing. Buddhism does not believe there is a self or soul which is born and then dies. Thus, the rebirth of this or that person doesn't occur, because that person doesn't exist here in the first place. This is
called "physical rebirth." It is something that should not be spoken of as "rebirth."

The Lord Buddha forbade his disciples to believe that consciousness or a spirit goes to be born. A certain bhikkhu named Sati stated that “As I understand the Dhamma as taught by the Blessed One, it is this same consciousness that runs and wanders through samsara (the cycles of birth and death), not another.”

When other monks objected, Sati stubbornly clung to his “pernicious view.” When this was brought to the Buddha’s attention, he himself interviewed Sati. The later repeated his view, to which the Buddha scolded him richly. “Misguided man, to whom have you ever known me to teach the Dhamma in that way? Misguided man, in many talks have I not stated consciousness to be dependently arisen, since without a condition there is no origination of consciousness?”

Clearly, the Buddha did not accept that the “same consciousness” is reborn from life to life.

 http://das-buddhistische-haus.de/pag...nd_Rebirth.pdf