The Self and Reincarnation

A while ago, I posted an issue about the nonexistence of the self from the Buddhism perspective, and how reincarnation is impossible. This issue is very interesting when we study Mead. But unfortunately we do not have enough time to cover Mead in this class. So, here is the brief answer of the issue of the self and reincarnation.

Consider the following situation. It is the lunch time, and you decide to eat a burrito alone. You go into one of empty classrooms and eat a burrito there. Suppose all the doors and windows are closed and the air-conditioning is not working. Obviously, the classroom is eventually filled with the smell of a burrito.

Because all the doors and the windows are closed, the smell of a burrito remains in the classroom even after you finish eating and leave the room. According to Buddhism, this residue of burrito's smell is what people label as the self. When you are alive, you have lots of emotions and desires, and such emotions and desires are something similar to the smell of a burrito. And even if you die (i.e., you move out of the classroom), the smell remains for a while. And if someone enters the room after you leave, this person "shares" the smell of a burrito, and this is what people call reincarnation.

Now, we have to understand that even if the smell of a burrito remains in the classroom, the smell is constantly changing. For instance, as time passes, the smell weakens. Or what if someone enters the room, this time, with a pizza? Then, the smell of a burrito certainly exists, but inevitably is mixed with the smell of a pizza. So, this time, we encounter the smell of the mixture of a burrito and a pizza. In real life, let's say I die "now," and someone who has my memory is born a hundred years later. Is this my reincarnation? Buddhism says no. This "second me" certainly has my memory, but it also has other influences such as the future society's influence, a different path of socialization, the "mixed" emotions like the case of a burrito and a pizza, etc. So even if there is someone who insists that he is a reincarnation of me a hundred years later, that person is not "me."

I think it will be interesting to relate Mead's theory to Buddhism's idea described above when you consider the construction of the self.