Buddhism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Buddhism - Essay Example .† (The Buddhist Encyclopedia, 2008) However, the fault with this explanation is that it is undeniable that there is an entity that does understand what it went through, is going through, and will be going through. The Buddhists then further explain that, â€Å"this lack of a fixed self does not mean lack of continuity,† as stated in the Buddhist Encyclopedia online. It also says that Buddhism uses a lot of metaphors, one of which is that of fire. In the same way that the flame of one candle to another and the fire spreading from field to field is dependent on the original fire, â€Å"there is a conditioned relationship between one life and the next; they are not identical but neither are they completely distinct.† (The Buddhist Encyclopedia, 2008) But, seriously, a fire or flame is something far beyond compare to that of a being that has the capacity to store information, knowledge, and emotions from one life to the next, and retrieve and be able to tell them in such a detailed manner. In fact, in the reading, we were told that â€Å"The Enlightened One†, a real human being, was an ape in his past life, as told in the Great Ape Jataka tale. Supposedly, the real being shou ld tell stories as real as his very existence, but we read the story and we find qualities in the Great Ape that biologists and archaeologists of different generations would have turned the whole world upside down just to find the legendary beast. The ape could not only talk to humans (in what language it was not mentioned), but also foresee events. We all know that apes can’t do these, even with the smartest technology available today or in the next hundred years. So granting without accepting for a moment that reincarnation is behind it, what is it that made the ape like that if there is no entity that has the capacity to analyze the connection between the lives he has lived, the entity that tries to be something better each time for it to reach nirvana? Speaking of