I just enjoy it. Rather than pinpoint a unified Jewish perspective on life after death, Sherwood talked about differences among Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements. The area of consensus for many Jews is that the focus of their energies should be this life, not the next one. Share that with others. Buddhism, too, consists of a universe of traditions framed on differing understandings of death's aftermath.
Many practitioners believe in reincarnation.
But the mostly Japanese members of a sect called Jodo-Shinshu at the Oxnard Buddhist Temple claim the continuum of life moves to another plane of existence. The rest of me goes on. Each summer, temple members gather for the Obon Festival, built out of the legend that spirits return to the mortal world to connect with their ancestors. It's a time when Watanabe, superintendent of the temple's dharma school, feels a heightened bond with her grandfather, Sakuemon Sato. He was a farmer who reveled in the celebration of Obon and, even at 83, insisted on participating in the fest's climactic dance.