"Does Anything Survive Death?"
             The Buddha, already enlightened and therefore having reached the state of Nirvana, taught and explained many concepts and principles to his students. He was released from the life cycle, which every individual should seek to escape. He said that in order to be released from the torture of reincarnation, one must cease to desire, for it is the failure to fulfill one's desires that causes one's misery. He also explained that possessions and material things are all a delusion. Since people are not born with belongings and do not die with them, they are not really belongings, but only burdens. Even the body itself is not owned by the mind inhabiting it, because it dies and decomposes as the soul goes on. The body could be looked at as the prison of illness, because there is a very fine line between health and sickness. The mind however is eternal, with thoughts and feelings. In modern society, the mind is not developed; it is polluted and requires training. Once one attains control of the mind, one also attains control of the body and speech. Then, the truth will become apparent.
             What becomes apparent is one's true essence. One's true essence is Buddha: everyone has the potential to become Buddha. In the present state of ignorance, however, people have developed a false sense of self. "According to the teachings of the Buddha, the idea of self is an imaginary, false belief which has no corresponding reality, and it produces harmful thoughts of 'me' and 'mine', selfish desire, craving, attachment, pride, egoism, and other defilements, impurities, and problems..."(Seven Dilemmas in World Religion) It is these unconscious assumptions and false information about reality that cause people to become selfish and self centered, therefore neglecting the fact that all people are actually pure energy and pure awareness. People need to r...