What do Buddhists believe about the afterlife ?
Each individual has come to their interpretation. The historical Buddha gave no answer concerning the afterlife. This is known as the thunderous silence. After the Buddha’s silence he spoke of the Poisoned arrow parable. In this parable a man is shot by a poisoned arrow. Rather than allow his servants to pull out the arrow, he wanted them to find out who shot it, why they shot it, what type of poison was on the arrow, what type of arrow it was etc. In the meantime, he died. This tells us that rather than worry so much about the afterlife, we must focus on how we should act in the present life. Each of us will die. It is how we live that is important. The idea of interdependence teaches us the golden rule, do unto others as you would have they do unto you. In Jodo Shinshu we believe that Amida Buddha will take care of us after we die. We will be embraced in Amida’s infinite love and compassion. Since the worries of the afterlife will be taken care of, we should focus on the present and
