No One Is Born, So No One Is Born Again

Author and Zen teacher Lin Jensen (whose books I recommend) recently posted an essay called “A Growing Circle of Heresy” challenging superstitious ideas of past lives. I wasn’t surprised by his note that no Buddhist publisher wanted it; the sad reality is that the Buddhist world (especially Zen) is as mired in orthodoxy, and as mean-spirited, as the worst of the fundamentalist Christian world.

Jensen’s piece brought to mind something I wrote on the topic of rebirth (whi...