A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
Bhikkhu Anālayo explains rebirth in early Buddhist texts and historical debate, then considers contemporary reports, including near-death experience, past-life regression, childhood recollection, and a Sri Lankan case of Pāli chanting.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
A Buddhist scholar and practitioner begins with his tradition's own questions, then engages contemporary evidence. The book helps readers see why rebirth is more than an isolated Western claim about a remembered former personality.
Good starting place if…
You want to understand rebirth as a Buddhist teaching while also examining how one Buddhist scholar evaluates reports and research.
Know before you begin…
Early Buddhist rebirth is not simply a permanent soul moving from body to body, and this account does not represent every Buddhist school. The discussion includes contested extraordinary claims; its attention to cases is not a clinical or scientific consensus.