u/Such-Sea2817

I am scared it might be impossible to escape the cycle of samsara. I have a hard time believing in karma, as it is faith driven. I feel like karma was invented to prevent us from going crazy with the realization of the true reality of the universe/samsara.

I feel like if we are born from non-existence, what’s to say we won’t be born again after death. As an animal or plant etc. I feel like true none existence is an impossibility, because it would inherently need a subject, which contradicts itself. Essentially, once you are dead, you cannot stay in a state of non-existence permanently. Some people compare death to being under anesthesia, but I would argue that it’s only possible to experience “nothingness” precisely because you are still alive, because there is still a subject. But the true annihalation of the self would render you back the state you were in before you were born, allowing for rebirth.

This type of logic doesn’t necessitate a soul or a belief in god, but it’s a profound and scientific mediation on the nature of consciousness and non existence. It wouldn’t be a linear reincarnation of a continuity of your “self” in any objective way, but rather a new creature all together, except that it is still experienced from your first person perspective. It’s the ultimate manifestation of being born again, meaning that we can’t ever escape the cycle of samsara so long as there are living creatures on the planet.

This gives me tremendous existential dread as I don’t want to be reborn as an animal with infinite suffering, especially anything in the sea.

Has anyone come to this realization? How do you cope with the dread? Does it make any logical sense to you? How can I have faith in karma, when there is no confirmation it is real beyond religious thinking?

Since we are born from non-existence, wouldn’t it be possible to be reborn again after death?

This wouldn’t be traditional reincarnation nor am I arguing for the existence of the soul.

But rather this is a question for the nature of consciousness and the nature of non-existence.

This would imply you could be reborn as an animal plant etc. Since death returns you to a state of non existence, I am arguing that you would inherently start from scratch, and you would be reborn again. This wouldn’t be a linear continuation of you, but a whole new consciousness all together.

Alan Watts argues that this is possible.

I have recently been dealing with the fear of animal rebirth. I think it’s because I am having a hard time believing in karma, but I do agree with the Buddhist concept of Rebirth. I believe there is no self or soul that gets reincarnated into a new body, but rather that life is a stream of consciousness which continues to experience itself after death. It’s also as if we continue to spawn after death, and experience every form of life on this planet until eternity.

I was wondering if anyone knew about any sects of Buddhism which may express a similar thought, one without karma, but just endless rebirths.

Also does anyone else have this fear? How do you cope with it? I am having a hard time imagining myself as an animal with a horrific death either in a slaughterhouse or in the wild. I am also scared of the concept of infinity. But I am having a hard time believing in karma or in nirvana, but somehow the whole rebirth thing makes perfect logical sense to me.

I am having a hard time believing in Karma, although I do believe in Advaita Vedanta. Without karma, Advaita Vedanta would imply that we endlessly reincarnate as all sorts of living beings, including animals and plants since we are all interconnected.

I am very scared of animal reincarnation, whether it is a farm animal or a wild animal that dies a horrific death.

I’ve heard there are radical sects of Advaita Vedanta that reject karma.

Does this imply that we can be reborn as animals and other living things until the end of time without karma?

My biggest fear surrounding death is thinking that I’ll be reborn as an animal. It may sound silly, but I feel like there are a lot of unknowns around this topic. We ultimately don’t know what happens after death, but for some reason I’ve been hyper fixating on this idea that we are reborn as animals after death we die.

It’s not quite reincarnation that I fear, but rebirth. I feel like once we go back to non-existence, we can sporadically spawn back into existence, as new lives are born every day, similar to how it was before we were born. It’s not that I believe in an immortal soul that reincarnates into an animal, but rather that we spawn into existence until the end of time, since all consciousness and therefore all living beings are interconnected.

Does anyone else have a similar fear? How do you cope with it? Sometimes I feel like I am the only person that thinks about this.

I was reading about Einstein view on religion and stumbled upon this quote

“I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature”

Einstein did not believe in a traditional God or an afterlife. What stands out to me is “the mystery of eternity. Rather than an individual soul, he found immortality in the natural cycle of the universe and the lasting impact of one's life on humanity.

Contemplating about this, it made me think that maybe after we die, we are endlessly reborn into other living creatures whether plants or animals or humans until eternity. It’s not reincarnation of the soul, but rather the rebirth of life of earth. So we essentially live every possible life imaginable, but not because we have a soul that is reincarnating, but rather because the universe is constantly experiencing itself. There is so “self” as stated in Buddhism, but just the eternal rebirth of life until eternity.

Not going to lie, the thought gives me some anxiety, as I would not like to be a prey animal or slaughterhouse animal. But it’s also what makes the most logical sense to me. Has anyone ever thought of reincarnation in this sense? If so, how do you deal with the existential dread?