I don't believe in the Heaven of the Christian, Jew and Muslim.
The "soul" I speak of is called the "Self" yet is non-self itself. It is arises from karma's action Buddha-nature, and is not permanent.
Remember the aliens from STNG and DS9 that flowed together in a lake of their fellow beings?
The soul is like that. We return to "God." All the souls join together as one in Oneness. This oneness is called the Absolute. On death, each sentient being's mindstream flows into the Absolute
Thus, the soul is impermanent, because in returning to the Absolute, all souls die and their respective mindstream share their collective memories.
When the mindstream is reborn, it is reborn as a human. I am not fond of the karma where you get reborn as hell being, hungry ghost, human, asura or deva.
For every person wishes he could be reborn as a human being.
My soul is not the soul of my previous incarnation, though its karmic path pointed to me.
For the previous soul is no more at death. What gets reborn in Pure Land?
The result of karma in this life and previous incarnations only affect going to Pure Land if the karmic seed to affect rebirth in Pure Land was planted in previous life.
Ditto for rebirth in this world as human. For Buddha gives each bodhisattva instructions before being incarnated in this world of birth-life-death (samsara) as a human being.
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Furthermore the closest Christian analogue is Purgatory except the Pure Land at least provides a sermon that inspires of who listen to return to this earthly realm to be of service to others in their spiritual quest.
So it's not Purgatory because in the Catholic one, people suffer needlessly.
In fact the Christian God is not merciful because when people make wrong choices, he punishes them forever.
Amida Buddha then is truly merciful because Buddhists who follow him are guaranteed relieve from earthly suffering by adopting the only effective means of mind control, meditation.
By mind control, I mean self-directed meditation.
If one cannot meditate, then it's best to be of service to others.
Anyone who does not, suffers needlessly, even though he does not know it.
However, the Buddha Amida does not force anyone to follow him, just as Jesus does not.
If a person uses coercion (force, both ciolent and non-violent) to turn an unbeliever to God, then that believer actually shows unbelief in God's will.
No believer's action to force others to believe is good - to call such action "holy war" is merely words.
For that which is holy is allowing others the choice, but once they make it, to forget about persuasion.
For only those people who choose to add depth to their lives seek the truth.
And truly religious people have no time for the undecided.
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