Scientific Proof of Rebirth
Many efforts have been made by writers and scientists to prove rationally and scientifically that rebirth is a fact. But all such efforts have not been able to conclusively prove rebirth to the satisfaction of all scientists. Yet this does not make rebirth less tenable.
The basis of the Buddhist belief is not merely the authority of sacred texts or tradition. It is based on a kind of empirical evidence. It is based on the experience of seers who have developed super memories and clairvoyance. The Buddha states in the Samaññapala Sutta:
This, O King, is the immediate fruit of the life of a recluse. ... With heart thus serene, made pure. he directs and bends down his mind to the knowledge of the memory of his previous lives. He recalls to mind various lives in days gone by - one birth, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, hundred, thousand, hundred thousand births, through many an aeon of devolution, many an aeon of evolution.”
“In such a place such was my name, such was my experience of discomfort or ease, and such was the limit of my life. When I passed away from that state, I took form again in such a place. ... Thus does he recall,.. in all their details and in all their modes.
"Just, O King, as if a man were to go from his own village to another village, and from that to another, and from that, one should return home. Then he would know: From my own village I came to that other one. There I stood in such and such a way, sat thus, spoke thus, and held my peace thus. Thence I came to that other village etc.
“This, O King, is an immediate fruit of the life of a recluse....
“With his heart thus serene and made pure.. he directs and bends down his mind to the fall and rise of beings. With the pure heavenly eye, surpassing that of men, he sees beings as they pass away from one form of existence and take shape in another: he recognises the mean and the noble. the happy and the wretched, passing away according to their deeds....
Just, O King, as if there were a house with an upper terrace on it, in the midst of a place where four roads meet, and a man standing thereon, and with eyes to see, should watch men entering a house, and coming forth out of it, and walking hither and thither along the street, and seated in the square in the midst.
This, O King, is an immediate fruit of a life of a recluse. "
(Dialogues of the Buddha, Part 1, Page 90)
This is how, to a Buddhist, rebirth is an observable fact not different from a scientific observation, using a special device or instrument. The Buddhist actually uses his own mind, as his instrument to verify the concept of rebirth. Just as a scientist uses his well made perfected microscope, to examine bacteria and viruses, the Buddhist uses his well developed purified and perfected mind to examine the past, present, and future, in order to understand whether rebirth is a fact or fallacy.
For the Buddhist the concept of rebirth is not an escape from death, however. It is rather a meeting of death, or continuity of death, from life to life, which is a disaster (dukkha jathi punappunam). This means the aim of the Buddhist is to put an end to rebirth. This is done, not by seeking eternal life in Heaven, but by giving up the delusion of existence.