Can one be a buddhist without believing in reincarnation?

You asked - "Can one be a buddhist without believing in reincarnation?"

First, Buddhists should do not believe in reincarnation of the Identity or Self or Ego or Personae or Soul of or in the person of the 'I' that we identify with as the 'me' or the 'person' that asked this question and the 'person' that is now answering the question.

Buddhism is not a religious practice, in the sense that it is being understood in the Western or Aryan world, but rather a spiritual practice intent on understanding the transcendental or supra-mundane world beyond the karmic Samsaric realm of existence.

So, I am going to cut through the 'floss' or 'trees' of Buddhist principles,concepts, doctrines, tenets and knowledge, all of which are just provisional 'road signs', that have no meaning, empty and inert like artifices, so as to lead you directly along the journey to 'Bodhi' or 'Awakening' to 'Tatha' which means 'Thusness'.

Let us use the allegory of the 'forest' and the 'tree' as a metaphor, The Buddha is like a 'tree' that once existed in the forest of our world. When you are focused on the individual 'trees' you cannot see the 'vista' of the 'forest'. This is why we have the expression that when the concept of 'Buddha' besots your mind, you kill the 'Buddha'. If you were lost and embroiled in the study of each and every 'tree' or all the 'trees' in the forest, whether a 'tree' might be 'you' or 'me' or even a 'Buddha' or aspire that the 'tree' that is you can be a 'Buddha' tree, you will be deluded into the misconception that a 'cat' can turn into a 'dog', and lose sight of the truth that the 'forest' is neither the individual trees in it nor not the conglomerate of trees in it.

The other 'trees' might call a particular 'tree' - 'the Buddha' ('the Awakened One') but the Buddha himself when he was 'awakened' called himself the 'Tatha-gatha' - ['Tatha' meaning 'Thusness' and 'gatha' meaning 'gone'] - which mean the 'Realisation of Thusness'.

The Buddha, as a 'tree' in the 'forest' awakening to the 'Thusness' that is the 'forest', is simply his realisation that the 'forest' is just 'thus' just a 'forest' - that the 'forest' is neither the 'trees' nor 'not the trees', that the 'karmic Samsaric existence' of the 'forest' is neither real nor 'not real', that each 'tree' is neither a 'tree' nor 'not a tree', that a phenomenon like the 'forest' is neither identifiable nor 'not identifiable'. This logic is known as the Middle Path (which is what Buddhism is often called but Western literature has mistaken the expression to mean - 'being moderate in behaviour', which is wrong!) or the Madhyamaka philosophy of Nagarjana, a Mahasiddha, a professor of the ancient Buddhist Nalanda University in ancient kingdom of Maghadha (now modern Bihar State in India). In mathematical terms it is expressed as - Neither X nor 'Not X'.

Let me explain this Madhyamaka philosophy in logic terms. Like us take the proposition that 'Things are self produced' and we first use the 'reductio ad absurdum' method to refute it. We say that this proposition is absurd because if entities originated from themselves , then they would go on originating indefinitely and we would have an endless series of reproductions of the same existing entities - there would be nothing new under the sun! Our experience tells us that growing a plant from a seed and how the plant would turn out is compounded or conditioned upon the sun, the rain, the soil etc. Otherwise there would be no 'evolution' of Darwin and the Christians are correct. The world can never change for the better, no new inventions, no modernity, no history and no future! Without understanding this fact of impermanence, that all things are compounded or conditioned, there will be no purpose in a Buddhist 'Awakening' to the 'Thusness' - no point in the Buddha's dying words - "Subject to change are all compounded (conditioned) things, work out your (own) liberation with diligence". Without understanding why all things are insubstantial and impermanent and that all things originate from interdependent origination or compounding or causing and conditioning, being a Buddhist would be futile and a lost cause to extricating our karmic selves from Samsara!

Let us test the veracity of our finding on the above proposition by doing the reverse - that 'Entities do not originate from themselves'. Let us use the syllogistical form of argument - i.e. from two propositions a third is deduced. Our second proposition is - 'This is because they exist as we see it or can see'. The deduction or proof is - 'They exist like the tree or plant does.' We have alluded to the compounded or conditioned existence of the plant earlier.

I said earlier that all - 'Buddhist principles,concepts, doctrines, tenets and knowledge, all of which are just provisional 'road signs', that have no meaning, empty and inert like artifices' - but I did not explain why. Now that we know about the Middle Path or the Madhyamaka philosophy, we can see that all these concepts because they pertain or belong to the compounded, conditioned world of duality, relativity or subjectivity of 'subject - object' matrix in karmic Samsara, they cannot exist in substance on their own, cannot have an intrinsic immutable value, cannot originate on their own per se, for they are conditioned to have meaning depending on something else. Take my fingers. If I show you two fingers I can say one is shorter or longer than the other. If I have only one finger, and there is no other finger, mine or another person's to take as a reference point, I cannot say whether my one finger is short or long, just like the analogy I gave earlier of the plant, there is interdependence on other compounds of aggregates.

Using penetrative wisdom, which we call 'Prajna' in Buddhism, the conventional reality of impermanence, 'suffering', 'No-Self' and interdependent origination that we speak of in Buddhist terms or jargon of karmic Samsara is seen in 'ultimate reality' terms as a magical illusion or phantasm of 'dualities' in the ever-changing insubstantial phenomena, where form, identity or concepts (so called 'aggregates') are subjective or relative to each other or another.

Even in our space-time dimension world, the concepts of time and space are relative. 5 minutes waiting for your lover is like 5 hours and conversely 5 hours with your lover is like 5 minutes. In fact whether past, present or future, the concept of time is relative. On its own without human improvisation we do not know what date or time it is now!

Indeed, because all aggregates are 'relative' to each other, being a 'subjective' distinction that is due to a person's perception as against another, they are, each of them, ultimately unreal and empty of a permanent substrate or substantiality, and that is what the emptiness that is 'Sunyata' in Buddhism means.

So in Buddhism we need only to follow the 'road signs' that spells our concepts like (i) 'Interdependent Origination' which then leads on the understanding of (ii) 'karma' and the (iii) 'dukkha' (mistakenly interpreted simply as 'suffering' when it means much more like 'everything is transient or insubstantial', as we have been discussing) that is existence in (iv) 'Samsara', (v) 'Sunyata' and (vi) 'No-Self' and others, as 'road signs'. They are not like a Bible!

As to 'Self' that I referred to with immediacy in the opening paragraph that there is no reincarnation of such a 'Self', what is conjured by our mind is an 'illusion', a 'phantasm', an 'Avatar', for the contemplation of all things by our mind, as I explained in relation to the 'emptiness' of concepts, and the Ego of 'I' is just another concept, no more, no less, are such that they are generally ineffable or inexpressible in objective terms, like the sensation of our toes being tickled, our reaching an orgasm when making love or even our falling in love. In short, we experience it, but 'Self' itself like sound is never to be found. And this is what the emptiness of 'Sunyata' is about! There is no self and thus 'No-Self'. We have an illusion or false Ego of a Self! It is just a karmic Samsaric Avatar!

Did you watch the movie 'Avatar'? What we are is the equivalent of the Avatar in that movie! Instead of the world of Pandora substitute it with our world, one of the six realms in Samsara. Consider our Avatar as caught up in the uncompromising grip of the immutable law of karma, so that once our Avatar is on the karmic treadmill, it is grabbled 'line hook and sinker' and subject to perpetual never ending 'rebirths' based on the karmic residue or consequences chalked up by our Avatar. In each 'rebirth' our Avatar is not the same personality or personae or identity. It is neither the same Avatar nor 'not the same Avatar'. And we are neither that Avatar nor 'not that Avatar'!

Then who are we that is 'not that Avatar' of ours? The Buddha said - "There is, O monks, a state where there is neither earth, nor water, nor heat, nor air; neither infinity of space nor infinity of consciousness, nor nothingness, nor perception nor non-perception; neither this world nor that world, neither sun nor moon. It is the uncreate. That O monks, I term neither coming nor going nor standing; neither death nor birth. It is without stability, without change; it is the eternal which never originates and never passes away. There is the end of sorrow." Udana 8.1. We are, when we are 'Awakened' that 'Absolute' that is 'Tatha-gatha' - which mean the 'Realisation of Thusness'.

NobodyGoingNowhere

Vincent Cheok

You can believe anything you want to believe! Don't ever let anyone push you into a category or belief system that you aren't comfortable with.   It isn't all or nothing.

You can be multi-spiritual if you so desire.  If you are drawn to certain aspects of Buddhism such as the meditation or peaceful, nonjudgmental aspects and want to incorporate them into your life then do it! You do not have to believe in karma or reincarnation to do that.

To be a Buddhist by definition you would take what are called precepts and make a vow to yourself to uphold them as best you can.

We are all walking our own path. It is not a race. A true Buddhist respects this and welcomes you to join the practice.

May you be happy and well. May you find your way on your path to spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment. 

EDIT:

The original infographic was incorrect.  The one you see above is corrected regarding the 5 precepts.

Look at all this as this as a dream within a dream.

There is only one Truth and that is that we are all part of a Universal Consciousness/everlasting spirit. There is no need to believe this or not. It is more scientific; either you experience it or not! Philosophy of belief is not even an issue in this equation. Thus, all other schools of thoughts and beliefs are the constructs of our collective consciousness, which is highly individualized and subject to your personal belief. So if you believe in reincarnation than THAT will be your reality in this illusionary existence we call life (and afterlife).

Here’s Robert Thurman’s view on it:

Buddhist Belief in Future & Past Life: Bob Thurman Podcast

Yes. Let me refer you to this blog post, written by a monk in the Tibetan Karma Kagyu tradition, on the subject.

Rebirth Doesn't Matter - Buddhism Guide

Buddhism is far more about what you do than what you believe.

Belief in reincarnation is not important to following the 8-fold path.

Why wouldn’t you try to understand something before you leave it behind? Is there any difficulty preventing you from trying and succeeding? If not, don’t give up.