Alex123 wrote:kirk5a wrote:So you keep asserting. You don't have any proof one way or the other. Just assertions.
Read books on neurology for in depth analysis. Also I have given some links to studies about brain and mental functions.
You provided a couple links that show correlation between brain and mental functions. That is not news. Obviously the brain serves a purpose.
Fully relevant. It shows a fatal flaw in signal & radio argument. If the brain is responsible for how the "signal" is converted, then it is a necessary cause for
what sound will be played back. When rebirth occurs, the new brain will play this part. Not this mystical consciousness. So how can there be a multi-life development if the brain is such an important cause?
Huh? There's no fatal flaw there.
If the brain is one of the necessary causes for production of mental states and consciousness (other cause could be learned behavior stored in the brain), then when it is gone, so will be consciousness with all the skills.
In other words, if the brain is the productive cause of consciousness, then when the brain is gone, so is consciousness. But I am pointing out to you that simply assuming the brain is the productive cause of consciousness does not logically follow by mere observations of changes in mental behavior following on brain changes.
And there is no proof for mind, consciousness, memory, skills that are independent of the brain & body. If concrete memory and skills are stored in the brain, and cease when the brain ceases, then what about continuous multi-life development? How can it occur?
A deeper level of the mind, is the proposed explanation, where such explanations are given. For example, the bhavanga-sota or the ālayavijñāna.
When a person is born, how do we know that there was rebirth rather than first birth?
As it comes to rebirth, there are always TWO points when it occurs. It occurs after death (post-mortem) of this body which we cannot experience now, and it occurs at/before birth of this body (pre-natal). The latter can theoretically be experienced or at least can be remembered. However: When I (Alex) was born, I didn't come with developed positive or negative skills. I didn't come with knowledge of any languages, and there was nothing from which I could now infer that I inherited my past qualities from previous lives. Nothing to say about the lack of direct experience of rebirth into Alex. It was as if it was my first life...
That is the tabula rasa theory of infancy, which Buddhism disagrees with, as I pointed out.
"When one thing is practiced & pursued, ignorance is abandoned, clear knowing arises, the conceit 'I am' is abandoned, latent tendencies are uprooted, fetters are abandoned. Which one thing? Mindfulness immersed in the body." -AN 1.230