Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
To William Hamilton Smith
Dear Mr. Smith, 26 January 1953
Everybody is free to believe anything which seems to fit about things of which we know nothing.
Nobody knows whether there is reincarnation, and equally one does not know that there is none.
Buddha himself was convinced of reincarnation, but he himself on being asked twice by his disciples about it, left it quite open whether there is a continuity of your personality or not.
Certainly we do not know where we come from, nor where we are going, or why we are here at the present time.
I think it is right to believe that having done the best we could do here, we are also best prepared for things to come.
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 103-104.
Samyutta-Nikaya, Part II : “The Nidana Book,” pp. 150f. (Tr. Rhys Davids and Woodward, 1922.)