Buddhism and Immortality

The lecture opens by identifying its subject as the Buddhist view of human immortality, with special attention to Northern Buddhism and the Tendai and Shingon traditions in Japan. Bigelow argues that Buddhism should not be confined within simple Western categories such as pantheism, polytheism, monotheism, materialism, or idealism, because its understanding of reality and consciousness exceeds these conventional labels. The main body develops a philosophical analysis of man as “states of consciousness.” Bigelow examines the relationship between body, soul, will, sensation, memory, imagination, dreams, and pain, then contrasts the separateness of matter with the unity of consciousness. Through this framework, the lecture reframes immortality not as the survival of a fixed personal soul, but as a deeper inquiry into the persistence, origin, and nature of consciousness.