The candle argument: how Buddhism kils the soul and keeps rebirth

Reincarnation in the Hindu sense needs an atman, a permanent self that changes bodies like clothes. Buddhism denies exactly that. No soul, no essence, nothing that keeps its identity through the trip. So rebirth happens with nobody making the journey. 🕯️

What you are instead, in this view, is five bundles running together: form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness.

So what continues? A causal chain. The standard image is one candle lighting another. No substance moves across. The second flame is not the first one and not a different one either. Same with a seal pressed into wax: nothing transfers, the pattern repeats. 🔥

The version I find strangest is the Abhidhamma one, where this is happening constantly, not just at death. You are reborn moment to moment, each mental state conditioning the next, and death is only the dramatic instance of something running all day. Tibetan schools add the bardo, an intermediate state of up to 49 days. Theravada mostly rejects that and has the next consciousness arise immediately, with no gap. 🔄

The flame moves. The fire does not.