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From: markm@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Mark Magennis)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Article What is the goal of Hinduism?
Message-ID: <14662@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 19 Mar 90 14:29:09 GMT
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>delivery finished, the desire to obtain a paycheck, and taxes.  A Buddha
>disappears at the end of the current lifetime, never is reincarnated,
>and otherwise gets the week off.


  I don't know about other forms of Buddhism but at least the
  Tibettan Mahayana practice believes that on attaining
  enlightenment one can choose voluntary reincarnation in order to
  'carry on the good work'. A person who has taken this path is
  called a Bodhisattva and is the most highly respected being. The
  Dalai Lama is one. In fact, Tibettan Buddhism holds that to do
  this is the only proper thing and that the only right
  motivation for any action in life is to gain enlightenment in
  order to help all other sentient beings do the same. Thus the
  bottom line of Tibettan Buddhism is compassion, nothing else.

  Does anyone know what Siddartha Gautama, the first Buddha, is
  supposed to have done in this respect. In other words: where is
  he now?

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