Popular Lectures on the Immortality of the Soul

What happens to mind when the body dies? Inoue Enryō answers in thirty lively lectures filled with debate, humor, and striking analogies.

His defense of immortality connects matter, energy, and causation with Buddhist rebirth, moral conscience, and courage in adversity. The arguments illuminate the concerns and contradictions of Meiji Japan.

A substantial appendix brings together Shinto, Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist accounts of the soul, including views that conflict with one another. Both literary Chinese extracts and supplied Japanese readings are translated in full.