First of all, it’s important to understand that what’s called reincarnation in Buddhism has nothing to do with the transmigration of some ‟entity” like an autonomous ‟self”. It’s not a process of metempsychosis.
As long as one thinks in terms of entities rather than function and continuity of experience, it’s impossible to understand the Buddhist concept of rebirth. As it’s said, ‟There is no thread passing through the beads of the necklace of rebirths.”
Over successive rebirths, what is maintained is not the identity of a ‟person,” but the conditioning of a stream of consciousness.
(to be continued)