The Buddha refused to deal with those things that don’t lead to the
extinction of dukkha (suffering). He didn’t discuss them. Take the question
of whether or not there is rebirth after death. What is reborn? How is it
reborn? What is its “karmic inheritance”? These questions don’t aim at the
extinction of dukkha. That being so, they are not the Buddha’s teaching nor
are they connected with it. They don’t lie within the range of Buddhism.
Also, the one who asks about such matters has no choice but to believe
indiscriminately any answer that’s given, because the one who answers won’t
be able to produce any proofs and will just be speaking according to his own
memory and feeling. The listener can’t see for himself and consequently must
blindly believe the other’s words. Little by little the subject strays from
dharma until it becomes something else altogether, unconnected with the
extinction of dukkha.
– Buddhadasa Bhikkhu from “A Single Handful,” Tricycle Winter 1996