The Buddha never taught that “identity” is persistent - though attachment to identity can be persistent. Habitual patterns are only as persistent as our attachment to them - and no patterns stay unchanging, as our mind changes all the time. In fact, the moment this is read, your mind would have rearranged all related information.

Buddhism teaches non-attachment, even our present identity. We don’t believe in resurrection as well. If you mean rebirth, every new birth is a brand new “identity”. Our present existence is the manifestation of our past karma and karma we are continuous doing now, it changes every second…

Buddha gained enlightenment alive and taught for 45years. He entered parinirvana (passing away of physical body) at the age of 80. There are many masters who have had attained nirvana and are still alive and teaching. Well, not everything can be explained by science. How do you explain people who can recall certain events clearly that hasn’t happened during their lifetime when neither have they have the means to read about related events or be there before? There’s no eternal soul or identity. If you mean consciousness, and it is in Buddhism sometimes nicely called “mindstream”- mind that flows on and on like a stream.

there is no mind, only “minding”, no stream, only “streaming”.

I don’t see anyone doubting the on-flowing “identity” of a river or stream?

There are in fact 3 kind of consciousness, past, present and future. Past doesn’t exist anymore, changes are through present conssciousness’s reinterpretation of experiences. Present consciousness is constantly changing moment to moment (eg. we can be conscious to different degrees about different things at different times. Full consciousness and transcending mind is enlightenment) Future consciousness is yet to come, therefore it cannot grasped. Ultimately these 3 kind of consciousness do not have a fixed reality of their own.

Meditation is not about thinking - it is about knowing how your mind works. Meditation done properly can allow one to see things as they really are, without our faulty perceptions. The world we are seeing now is not truly the way it is. If you micro-zoom into a particular object, lets say a table, what you see is not a table anymore, but mainly just moving atoms within empty space. What we are now having are too many unnecessary thoughts and opinions, thinking this is real and solid, but in meditation, one trains to quieten the mind and by doing so, we become one with existence, and truly see things as they are, perfecting our wisdom.

Dear friend, am afraid your opinions are not valid. Please visit http://asp.thedailyenlightenment.com/specials/lamp.asp for a concise summary of Buddhism.

Buddha taught 4 noble truths…
1) Life is predominant with suffering (birth, ageing , sickness, death, not getting what you want, being separated from the beloved, being with the detested… Even if you think you are “happy”, it’s not a permanent state and is always subjected to change)
2) Cause of suffering (craving and ignorance… because of constant craving or desire, we are never satisfied and always want more and more. This grows rom ignorance - not knowing the impermanent nature of things.)
3) Cessation of suffering (Attain true happpiness or enlightenment, exiting cycle of birth and death)
4) Path to the cessation of suffering (practising of the eightfold path: Right understanding, thoughts, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration)

And this is not yet 1% of Buddha’s teaching… and just how can one criticise Buddhism by merely thinking about it? :-)

with metta _/|\_

I am aware Buddhism doesn’t teach “resurrection” in the returning to life way, but it’s the cloest term I had for it. I admit persistence of identity was a misleading term to choose, because it’s not that either, it’s just some kind of intangible quality that achieves rebirth - your soul, your ghost, whatever. The problem is that it’s unprovable and immeasurable and thus quite possibly made up.

And meditation - well, I know how my mind words. Electrical impulses and chemicals filtered through my own bias of perception. You can’t remove this bias through meditation, all that occurs is you start tricking yourself into thinking otherwise. A rock is always a rock, it’s just that it’s also atoms and molecures and quantum probablility of being a rock. one does not preclude the other and you certainly can’t ignore the science of it. You can’t become one with existance, but you can certainly trick yourself into thinking you might’ve.

To be honest, I can’t argue either way for the 4 noble truths. I don’t see what makes them anymore truthful than anything else, why they’re so important, and indeed, even if they are truthful, because I might be inclined to say that some of them rely on you accepting certain concepts without question.

As for criticising something without having tried it - I’m sorry, but that’s just fucking inane. Can I criticise a diet before I’ve tried it? Can I criticise a personal trait that I don’t show myself?

Ultimately, whether Buddhism turns out to be correct, or Christianity, or me, or whatever, I want to feel like I’ve gotten there under my own decisions and reasoning. To that end, everything must be questioned, especially the things that purport to know the path to meaning or the point of existance. No religion has convinced me yet and that’s because they all require inexplainable leaps of judgement in accepting the truth of other people’s words without question.