Taking a Point of View on a Debatable Question Concerning Karma and Rebirth

Abstract

My thesis is that there is a way to mediate between two competing views about karma and rebirth by arguing for a third position. 

The first or traditionalist view is that supernatural agencies are required in the Buddhist system of concepts and that naturalized karma view will not supply concepts that are necessary for traditional Buddhism.

The second or modernist view holds that the naturalized karma view is that supernatural agencies are not required in the Buddhist system of concepts and that, even without traditional concepts of karma, rebirth, and enlightenment after death, may still be a coherent karma and rebirth theory as applied to experience in this very lifetime.

A third position or middle way view holds that a rationalist and doctrinal interpretation of Buddhist teachings, a socially engaged practice inspired by metta, and the theory of cit-wang (freed mind) makes cohesive community Buddhist values for both laity and Sangha, and a continuity of experience from ordinary mental peace to nibbana.