Editing Four Noble Truths (section)

===Western Buddhism===
For many western Buddhists, the rebirth doctrine in the Four Noble Truths teaching is a problematic notion.{{sfn|Konik|2009|p=ix}}{{sfn|Hayes|2013|p=172}}{{sfn|Lamb|2001|p=258}}<ref group=web name="BB-rebirth">Bhikkhu Bodhi, [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/bps-essay_46.html ''Does Rebirth Make Sense?'']</ref>{{refn|group=note|See also:<br />* [[James Ishmael Ford|James Ford]], [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2015/08/the-karma-and-rebirth-debate-within-contemporary-western-buddhism-some-links-to-follow.html ''The Karma and Rebirth Debate Within Contemporary Western Buddhism: Some Links to Follow'']<br />* Manon Welles, [http://aristocratsofthesoul.com/secular-buddhism-vs-traditional-buddhism-six-key-differences/ ''Secular Buddhism vs. Traditional Buddhism: 6 Key Differences'']<br />* Alan Peta, [http://www.alanpeto.com/buddhism/understanding-reincarnation-rebirth/ ''Reincarnation and Buddhism: Here We Go Again'']}} According to Lamb, "Certain forms of modern western Buddhism [...] see it as purely mythical and thus a dispensable notion."{{sfn|Lamb|2001|p=258}} According to Coleman, the focus of most vipassana students in the west "is mainly on meditation practice and a kind of down-to-earth psychological wisdom."{{sfn|Coleman|2002|p=110}}{{refn|group=note|According to Coleman, the goal in Theravada Buddhism "is to uproot the desires and defilements in order to attain nibbana (nirvana in Sanskrit) and win liberation from the otherwise endless round of death and rebirth. But few Western Vipassana teachers pay much attention to the more metaphysical aspects of such concepts as rebirth and nibbana, and of course very few of their students are celibate monks. Their focus is mainly on meditation practice and a kind of down-to-earth psychological wisdom. "As a result," one respected Vipassana teacher writes, "many more Americans of European descent refer to themselves as Vipassana students rather than as students of Theravada Buddhism."{{sfn|Coleman|2002|p=110}}}} According to [[Damien Keown]], westerners find "the ideas of [[karma]] and rebirth puzzling."{{sfn|Keown|2009|pp=60–63, 74–85, 185–187}} According to Gowans, many Western followers and people interested in exploring Buddhism are skeptical and object to the belief in karma and rebirth foundational to the Four Noble Truths.{{sfn|Gowans|2014|pp=18–23, 76–88}}{{refn|group=note|Gowans groups the objections into three categories. The first objection can be called "consistency objection", which asks if "there is no self (atman, soul), then what is reborn and how does karma work?". The second objection can be called "naturalism objection", which asks "can rebirth be scientifically proven, what evidence is there that rebirth happens". The third objection can be called "morality objection", which asks "why presume that an infant born with an illness, is because of karma in previous life" as seems implied by ''Majjhima Nikāya'' section 3.204 for example. Gowans provides a summary of prevailing answers, clarifications and explanations proffered by practicing Buddhists.{{sfn|Gowans|2014|pp=18–23, 76–88}}}} According to Konik,
{{Blockquote|Since the fundamental problems underlying early Indian Buddhism and contemporary western Buddhism are not the same, the validity of applying the set of solutions developed by the first to the situation of the second becomes a question of great importance. Simply putting an end to rebirth would not necessarily strike the western Buddhist as the ultimate answer, as it certainly was for early Indian Buddhists.{{sfn|Konik|2009|p=ix}}}}

According to Keown, it is possible to reinterpret the Buddhist doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths, since the final goal and the answer to the problem of suffering is [[nirvana]], and not rebirth.{{sfn|Keown|2009|pp=60–63, 74–85, 185–187}} Some Western interpreters have proposed what is sometimes referred to as "naturalized Buddhism". It is devoid of rebirth, karma, nirvana, realms of existence, and other concepts of Buddhism, with doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths reformulated and restated in modernistic terms.{{sfn|Gowans|2014|pp=18–23, 91–94}}{{sfn|Prothero|1996|p=128}}{{refn|group=note|Prothereo describes how Theosophist [[Henry Steel Olcott]] (1832–1907) reinterpreted Buddhism: "In addition to a restatement of the Four Noble Truths and the Five Precepts for lay Buddhists, the fourteen propositions included: an affirmation of religious tolerance and of the evolution of the universe, a rejection of supernaturalism, heaven or hell, and superstition, and an emphasis on education and the use of reason."{{sfn|Prothero|1996|p=128}}}}{{refn|group=note|According to Owen Flanagan, the proportion of people in North America that believe in heaven is about the same as the proportion of East and Southeast Asia who believe in rebirth. But, 'rebirth' is considered superstitious by many in the West while 'heaven' is not, adds Flanagan, though a reflective naturalistic approach demands that both 'heaven' and 'rebirth' be equally questioned".{{sfn|Flanagan|2011|pp=2–3, 68–70, 79–80}} According to Donald S. Lopez, Buddhist movements in the West have reconstructed a "Scientific Buddha" and a "modern Buddhism" unknown in Asia, "one that may never have existed there before the late 19-century".{{sfn|Lopez|2012|pp=39–43, 57–60, 74–76, 122–124}}}} This "deflated secular Buddhism" stresses compassion, impermanence, causality, selfless persons, no Boddhisattvas, no nirvana, no rebirth, and a naturalist's approach to well-being of oneself and others.{{sfn|Spiro|1982|pp=39–42}}

According to Melford Spiro, this approach undermines the Four Noble Truths, for it does not address the existential question for the Buddhist as to "why live? why not commit suicide, hasten the end of ''dukkha'' in current life by ending life". In traditional Buddhism, rebirth continues the ''dukkha'' and the path to cessation of ''dukkha'' isn't suicide, but the fourth reality of the Four Noble Truths.{{sfn|Spiro|1982|pp=39–42}} The "naturalized Buddhism", according to Gowans, is a radical revision to traditional Buddhist thought and practice, and it attacks the structure behind the hopes, needs and rationalization of the realities of human life to traditional Buddhists in East, Southeast and South Asia.{{sfn|Gowans|2014|pp=18–23, 91–94}} According to Keown, it may not be necessary to believe in some of the core Buddhist doctrines to be a Buddhist, but the rebirth, karma, [[Saṃsāra (Buddhism)|realms of existence]] and cyclic universe doctrines underpin the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism.{{sfn|Keown|2009|pp=60–63, 74–85, 185–187}}

Traditional Buddhist scholars disagree with these modernist Western interpretations. Bhikkhu Bodhi, for example, states that rebirth is an integral part of the Buddhist teachings as found in the sutras, despite the problems that "modernist interpreters of Buddhism" seem to have with it.<ref group=web name="BB-rebirth"/>{{refn|group=note|Bhikkhu Bodhi: "Newcomers to Buddhism are usually impressed by the clarity, directness, and earthy practicality of the Dhamma as embodied in such basic teachings as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the threefold training. These teachings, as clear as day-light, are accessible to any serious seeker looking for a way beyond suffering. When, however, these seekers encounter the doctrine of rebirth, they often balk, convinced it just doesn't make sense. At this point, they suspect that the teaching has swerved off course, tumbling from the grand highway of reason into wistfulness and speculation. Even modernist interpreters of Buddhism seem to have trouble taking the rebirth teaching seriously. Some dismiss it as just a piece of cultural baggage, "ancient Indian metaphysics", that the Buddha retained in deference to the world view of his age. Others interpret it as a metaphor for the change of mental states, with the realms of rebirth seen as symbols for psychological archetypes. A few critics even question the authenticity of the texts on rebirth, arguing that they must be interpolations.<br />A quick glance at the Pali suttas would show that none of these claims has much substance. The teaching of rebirth crops up almost everywhere in the Canon, and is so closely bound to a host of other doctrines that to remove it would virtually reduce the Dhamma to tatters. Moreover, when the suttas speak about rebirth into the five realms—the hells, the animal world, the spirit realm, the human world, and the heavens—they never hint that these terms are meant symbolically. To the contrary, they even say that rebirth occurs "with the breakup of the body, after death," which clearly implies they intend the idea of rebirth to be taken quite literally."<ref group=web name="BB-rebirth"/>}} [[Thanissaro Bhikkhu]], as another example, rejects the "modern argument" that "one can still obtain all the results of the practice without having to accept the possibility of rebirth." He states, "rebirth has always been a central teaching in the Buddhist tradition."<ref group=web name="TB_Rebirth">Thanissaro Bhikkhu, [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/truth_of_rebirth.html ''The Truth of Rebirth. And Why it Matters for Buddhist Practice'']</ref>{{refn|group=note|Thanissaro Bhikkhu: "A second modern argument against accepting the canonical accounts of what's known in awakening—and in particular, the knowledge of rebirth achieved in awakening—is that one can still obtain all the results of the practice without having to accept the possibility of rebirth. After all, all the factors leading to suffering are all immediately present to awareness, so there should be no need, when trying to abandon them, to accept any premises about where they may or may not lead in the future.<br />This objection, however, ignores the role of appropriate attention on the path. As we noted above, one of its roles is to examine and abandon the assumptions that underlie one's views on the metaphysics of personal identity. Unless you're willing to step back from your own views—such as those concerning what a person is, and why that makes rebirth impossible—and subject them to this sort of examination, there's something lacking in your path. You'll remain entangled in the questions of inappropriate attention, which will prevent you from actually identifying and abandoning the causes of suffering and achieving the full results of the practice.<br /><br />In addition, the terms of appropriate attention—the four noble truths—are not concerned simply with events arising and passing away in the present moment. They also focus on the causal connections among those events, connections that occur both in the immediate present and over time. If you limit your focus solely to connections in the present while ignoring those over time, you can't fully comprehend the ways in which craving causes suffering: not only by latching on to the four kinds of nutriment, but also giving rise to the four kinds of nutriment as well.<ref group=web name="TB_Rebirth"/>}}{{refn|group=note|According to Konik: {{blockquote|No doubt, according to the early Indian Buddhist tradition, the Buddha's great discovery, as condensed in his experience of nirvana, involved the remembrance of his many former existences, presupposing as fact the reality of a never-ending process of rebirth as a source of deep anxiety, and an acceptance of the Buddha's overcoming of that fate as ultimate liberation.{{sfn|Konik|2009|p=ix}}}}}}

According to Owen Flanagan, the Dalai Lama states that "Buddhists believe in rebirth" and that this belief has been common among his followers. However, the Dalai Lama's belief, adds Flanagan, is more sophisticated than ordinary Buddhists, because it is not the same as [[reincarnation]]—rebirth in Buddhism is envisioned as happening without the assumption of an "atman, self, soul", but rather through a "consciousness conceived along the [[anatta|anatman]] lines".{{sfn|Flanagan|2014|pp=233–234 with note 1}}{{refn|group=note|The Dalai Lama himself is regarded to be an incarnation of the thirteen previous Dalai Lamas, who are all manifestations of [[Avalokitasvara]].{{sfn|Chitkara|1998|p=39}}}} The doctrine of rebirth is considered mandatory in Tibetan Buddhism, and across many Buddhist sects.{{sfn|Flanagan|2014|pp=234–235 with note 5}}

According to Christopher Gowans, for "most ordinary Buddhists, today as well as in the past, their basic moral orientation is governed by belief in karma and rebirth".{{sfn|Gowans|2014|pp=18–23, 76–88}} Buddhist morality hinges on the hope of well being in this lifetime or in future rebirths, with nirvana (enlightenment) a project for a future lifetime. A denial of karma and rebirth undermines their history, moral orientation and religious foundations.{{sfn|Gowans|2014|pp=18–23, 76–88}} According to Keown, most Buddhists in Asia do accept these traditional teachings, and seek better rebirth.{{sfn|Keown|2009|pp=60–63, 74–85, 185–187}}{{refn|group=note|The vast majority of Buddhist lay people, states Kevin Trainor, have historically pursued Buddhist rituals and practices motivated with rebirth into Deva realm.{{sfn|Trainor|2004|p=62}} Fowler and others concur with Trainor, stating that better rebirth, not nirvana, has been the primary focus of a vast majority of lay Buddhists. This they attempt through merit accumulation and good ''kamma''.{{sfn|Fowler|1999|p=65}}{{refn|group=note|Merv Foweler: "For a vast majority of Buddhists in Theravadin countries, however, the order of monks is seen by lay Buddhists as a means of gaining the most merit in the hope of accumulating good karma for a better rebirth."{{sfn|Fowler|1999|p=65}}}}{{sfn|Gowans|2004|p=169}}}}