AFTERLIFE DOCTRINE IS SELFISH ACCORDING TO BUDDHISM

 
Buddhism says that we will die and another person will be made of what is left. This is mistaken for reincarnation. Buddhism denies that there is anything to survive death.
 
An unselfish person will be too busy hoping others live forever to worry about his own life after death.
 
The unselfish person may want to live forever only to serve others. It is not living forever that matters to him but what he does with that everlasting life.
 
The good person will be happy to go considering that if people start living forever we will soon end up with a cramped earth. We need to leave in order to make room for other people.
 
Buddhism is correct that it is selfish to hope you will live on after death.
 
It is perceived in Buddhism as selfish to want to believe that our loved ones live forever. Is that shocking teaching true?
 
We are not keen on the thought that our loved ones will live forever in an unselfish existence. We curiously want them to be selfish. We want them to live forever for them not so that they can use that existence solely to serve others. That would be loving their use not them.
 
We would rather our fathers existed forever as worshippers of mammon and money than that they would just choose to exist for the sake of others for all eternity. Their existence would not be about them and therefore not about our wish that they will live forever.
 
Buddhism can focus on making this world a better place simply because it has no interest in any alleged afterlife. There is nothing you can say to a Christian who argues, "Why should I bother doing much for others? We will all be okay in Heaven." That such a question would even arise in Christianity is a warning bell. For the Buddhist, helping people is not intended to be a means to an end but an end in itself. You help others because you value doing it and not for any future goal.
 
Buddhism is correct.
 
BOOKS CONSULTED
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO ASIAN RELIGIONS, E G Parrinder, SPCK, London, 1957
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY, J Estlin Carpenter, Hodder & Stoughton, London (undated)
BUDDHISM FROM A CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE, Paul M Williams, Catholic Truth Society, London, 2006
BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES, Translated by Edward Conze, Penguin, London, 1980
BUDDHIST THOUGHT IN INDIA, Ann Arbor Paperbacks, Michigan, 1962
CHRISTIANITY FOR THE TOUGH-MINDED, John Warwick Montgomery Editor, Bethany Fellowship, Minnesota, 1973
CONCISE GUIDE TO TODAY’S RELIGIONS, Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Scripture Press, Bucks, 1992
GREAT TREASURY OF MERIT, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Tharpa Publications, London, 1992
INTRODUCTION TO BUDDHISM, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Tharpa Publications, 1995
RELIGIONS OF JAPAN, H Byron Earhart, Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1984
THE CASE AGAINST GOD, Gerald Priestland, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, London, 1984
THE SPIRIT OF BUDDHISM, David Burnett, Monarch Books, London, 2003
THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS, Lion, Herts, 1982
UNIVERSAL COMPASSION, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Tharpa Publications, London 1993
WHAT THE BUDDHA TAUGHT Walpola Sri Rahula, Oneworld Publications, Oxford, 2006 – Truly the best explanation of Buddhism possible
WHY I AM A BUDDHIST, No Nonsense Buddhism for Modern Living, Stephen T Asma, Watkins, London, 2011 - sadly maligned but wonderful book, a gem!