it may be said that the Buddhists start with the idea or conception of an
Unknowable Reality, back of and under all forms and activity of the phenomenal universe. Buddha refused to discuss the nature of this Reality, practically holding it to be Unknowable and in the nature of an
Absolute Nothing, rather than an Absolute Something in the sense of 'Thingness' as we understand the term; that is to say, it is a
No-Thing, rather than a Thing - consequently it is beyond thought, understanding or even imagination - all that can be said is that it IS. Buddha refused to discuss or teach of the manner in which this Unknowable came to manifest upon the Relative Plane, for he held that Man's proper study was of the World of Things and how to escape therefrom. In a vague way however, Buddhism holds that in some way this
Unknowable, or a part thereof, becomes entangled in Maya or Illusion, through Avidya or Ignorance, Law, Necessity, or perhaps something in the nature of a Mistake.
And arising from this mistaken activity, all the pain and sorrow of the universe arises, for the Buddhist holds that the Universe is a 'World of Woe,' from which the soul is trying to escape.
Buddhism holds that the soul Reincarnates often, because of its desires and attractions which, if nursed and encouraged will lead it into lives without number. Consequently, to the Buddhist, Wisdom consists in acquiring a knowledge of the true state of affairs, just mentioned and then upon that knowledge building up a new life in which desire and attraction for the material world shall be eliminated, to the end that the
soul having 'killed out desire' for material things - having cut off the dead branch of Illusion - is enabled to escape from Karma and eventually be released from Rebirth, thence passing back into the great ocean of the Unknowable, or Nirvana and ceasing to Be, so far as the phenomenal world is concerned, although of course it will exist in the Unknowable, which is Eternal. Many Western readers imagine the Buddhistic Nirvana to be an utter annihilation of existence and being, but the Hindu mind is far more subtle and sees a vast difference between utter annihilation on the one hand and extinction of personality on the other.
That which appears Nothingness to the Western Mind, is seen as No-Thingness to the Oriental conception and is considered more of a resumption of an original Real Existence, rather than an ending thereof.
There is a great difference between the two great
schools of Buddhism, the Northern and Southern, respectively, regarding the nature of the soul. The Northern school considers the soul as an entity, differentiated from the Unkowable in some mysterious way not explained by Buddha.
On the contrary, the Southern school does not regard the soul as a differentiated or distinct entity, but rather as a centre of phenomenal activity saturated or charged with the results of its deeds and that therefore, the Karma, or the
Essence of Deeds, may be considered as the soul itself, rather than as something pertaining to it.
The Northern school holds that the soul, accompanied by its Karma, reincarnates along the same lines as those taught by all the other Hindu schools of Reincarnation and Karma. But the Southern school, on the contrary, holds that it is not the soul-entity that reincarnates (for there is no such entity), but that instead it is the Karma, or Essence of Deeds, that reincarnates from life to life, according to its attractions, desires and merits or demerits. In the last mentioned view of the case, the rebirth is compared to the lighting of one lamp from the flame of another, rather than in the transferring of the oil from one lamp to another. But really, these distinctions are quite metaphysical and when refined by analysis become hair-splitting.
It is said that the two schools of Buddhism are growing nearer together and their differences reconciled. The orthodox Hindus claim that Buddhism is on the decline in India, being largely supplanted by the various forms of Vedanta. On the other hand,
Buddhism has spread to China, Japan and other countries, where it has taken on new forms and has grown into a religion of ritualism, creeds and ceremonialism, with an accompanying loss of the original philosophy and a corresponding increase of detail of teaching, doctrine and disciple and general 'churchiness,' including a belief in several thousand different kinds of hell. But even in the degenerated forms, Buddhism still holds to Reincarnation as a fundamental doctrine.
source:
Reincarnation and the Law of Karma by William Walter Atkinson