I have a hard time saying really, and I've meditated on it for many, many hours. In my religion it is said that there is no me, the notion of self does not exist, therefore a soul does not exist. But at the same time there are out of body experiences in which people are in the next life and Buddhism accepts that. Then we speak about being reborn, and having past lives. But if there is no notion of self, then every time you are reborn from left over karma you are simply a new combination of circumstances, which contradicts with theory of past lives. Actually it makes sense, those past lives were what caused the rebirth from left over karma.
It's very simple but at the same time many of the Buddhist ways can be extremely mind bending and take a long time to fully grasp. Then there is the 'in between' where you have passed, but are not yet reborn..what then is happening as you are in the spirit realm. You can wander everywhere and do anything, but you aren't yet reborn and not alive...it's basically a massive waiting room is how I see it. I very often contemplate ordaining, I feel an extreme attraction to it for some reason. Perhaps it's fate, being brought up in a Christian family and never even in Sunday school liking the whole notion of a one god who makes these judgements but agreeing with their morals (to an extent), and then finding Buddhism and having such an attraction to it. I've even looked around and decided on a monastery in Thailand that if I do decide to ordain that's where I'll go.
Whoops sorry for getting a little off topic at the end there
