It’s always funny to me when people question whether the Buddha taught, believed, personally experienced rebirth. No offense, but it tells me they haven’t read the suttas carefully and examined them logically. I run into passsages on rebirth all the time as I’m researching completely unrelated topics. Take this sutta for example. Work through the logic: if Sariputta wasn’t talking about a literal rebirth, he could simply advocate mastering a formless samadhi, building a bunker in a desolated wilderness and going into hiding, or other means to eliminate or minimize dukkha.
AN 10.65 PTS: A v 120
Pathama Sukha Sutta: First Discourse on the Pleasant
translated from the Pali by
K. Nizamis
© 2012
At one time, the Venerable Sāriputta was dwelling near the small village of Nālaka in Magadha. And then, there where Venerable Sāriputta was, there Sāmaṇḍakāni, the wanderer, approached. Having approached, he exchanged greetings with the Venerable Sāriputta. Having exchanged greetings, and courteous talk having passed between them, he sat to one side. Having sat to one side, Sāmaṇḍakāni, the wanderer, said this to Venerable Sāriputta:
“Now, what, friend Sāriputta, is the pleasant, and what is the painful?”
"Rebirth, friend, is painful; non-rebirth is pleasant. When, friend, there is rebirth, this pain is to be expected: cold and heat, hunger and thirst, excrement and urine, contact with fire, contact with punishment, contact with weapons, and anger caused by meeting and associating with relatives and friends. When, friend, there is rebirth, this pain is to be expected.
“When, friend, there is no rebirth, this pleasantness is to be expected: neither cold nor heat, neither hunger nor thirst, neither excrement nor urine, neither contact with fire, nor contact with punishment, nor contact with weapons, and no anger caused by meeting and associating with relatives and friends. When, friend, there is no rebirth, this pleasantness is to be expected.”
See also: AN 10.66.