What will happen when I die?
Answer:by: Venerable Nicolas Thanissaro
When people die, Buddhists believe it is not the end of the story. What
lives on of a person when their body dies is their 'mind'. As long as
this mind is not free of greed, hatred and delusion, it must go to a
new existence. It will go to a more fortunate existence if the mind is
in a good mental state, and a worse one if it is in a bad mental state.
Thus there are as many as 31 afterlife realms where a 'mind' can be
reborn after death. The rebirth will go on - one lifetime after another
endlessly until that person can manage to uproot all the greed, hatred
and delusion in their mind and can thereafter enter permanently upon
Nirvana.
