Reincarnation

[Artemis365]

Please share expierences and opinions about reincarnation

Blessings!
Artemis365

[Druid Faqir]

I'll say this much...
I had a discussion with a friend regarding post-mortem scenarios and I put three alternatives on the table:
a) Heaven
b) Reincarnation
c) Blissfull non-existence ("blissfull"...of sorts)

He chose the 3rd as his favorite (i.e. that's what he hopes will happen) I chose the 2nd. Because both a and c render my past experiences useless. For all the misery in this world, I'd really like to come back and help out. If I learn something in this life I want to be able to use it to help future generations. What? No Heaven? Well it would be quite ungracious to just bathe in eternal bliss when there's so much suffering going on. Plus, whoever concocted the notion of saints rejoicing at the sight of the punishments given to the damned doesn't understand what a saint REALLY is. Oh, well...human error abounds...

NOTE: This doesn't mean I KNOW reincarnation exists (but it remains extremely plausible); it just means I HOPE it can be done.
Blessings!
/|\

[Badger Bob]

My views on the afterlife are something that I have been developing over the best part of fourty years now and I have not come to any firm conclusions so this may contradict what I have said in the past but it is my current theory...

I believe in a kind of "conservation of energy principle" regarding the life-energy. When we are born we draw from a universal pool of this energy and it stays with us while we are alive, keeping us going. When we die, what happens to this energy depends on how we treated it while alive. If we just blundered through life, not caring about anything or trying to develop ourselves significantly then that energy just dissipates into the universal pool to be mixed up and dispersed among all the other life energy. If we have spent time developing ourselves through spiritual endeavours, meditation and selfless service then that energy stays more or less together and whole after death. This is then used as it comes to spark off another living being, either here or in another world (The Summerlands, Heaven, Maitreya's Tushita heaven or whatever) the destination being shaped as much by expectation as by random chance.

If we come from the general pool of energy then there is no way of knowing anything about our former life as the energy would be made from an infinte number of other life-energies. If we are incarnated using a whole previous life energy-body then it would be possible to make some connection to this previous life although it would be confused and difficult to understand. The more realised as a spiritual being the easier it is to access the previous life energy and for the life energy to be realised in the next life.

This would fit with Druid Faqir's three possibilities as the dissipation of the life energy is essentially the non-continuation of the person, being reborn into another plane of existence would be an afterlife in heaven and being reborn back here is plain old vanilla reincarnation.

It is very much a work in progress inspired by Tibetan Buddhism, The Celtic and Norse cosmologies and the Judaeo-Christian view but it increasingly fits in with my observations and I am quite happy with it for now, that may not always be the case.

[Druid Faqir]

Peace!

Good points there. And, surprisingly enough, this is consistent with what Ajahn Chah, the well-known Thai Buddhist teacher said that "In reality there is neither Self nor Non-Self" (Atman and Anatman respectively). But then we go into a rather ify area: "being reborn into another plane of existence". Now one could take the 6 samsaric realms as literally separate and literally true and also take Amitabha's Pure Land as factual and extant outside our Universe OR (and this is a prsonal opinion here) one could take each of these 7 as states of mind. Going into Buddhist cosmology: infernal realm=anger/rage, hungry ghost realm=greed, human realm=balance (hence the value placed on it), demi-gods and gods= pride/exessive confidence/too much power for one to properly handle and Pure Land/Tushita etc = atainment of Nibbana.

And now you'll say "OK, but if this is so than what's beyond Nibbana?" As long as you've found your peace and have gone beyond all dychotomy, enmity and hate, is it necessary to theorise? (personal view again).

Blessings!
/|\

[Druidree]

Hi there,

This is a very interesting topic which I love to talk about, as it exposes everyone's opinions on what happens next. My belief on reincarnation is slightly complicated.

1. I believe every first born in our world is a 'new soul', fresh with no other lives on it. Every other child is a soul that has died in other world, being born into our world.

2. I believe that when you die in our world, you go through a process of self judgement. If you have had a good life, you are born into otherworld. If you have unfinished business, you are left to wander as a spirit until you have sorted that business out and can move onto the otherworld.

3. I believe that the otherworld has a similar process, only in reverse. So they will be born into our world as a second born. Memories from past lives MAY be taken over in the back of their minds. (You know when you walk down a street that you have never walked down before; and you suddenly know where everything is?)

Thats about it, I suppose.

[katie bridgewater]

If I learn something in this life I want to be able to use it to help future generations.

In that case, reincarnation seems like a long shot. More sure fire ways of doing this are to write your wisdom down, or produce great art or music, or invent something that will make the difference you want it to, or if you are lucky, create a new generation to whom you can pass on your ideas.

Since our memories of previous incarnations (if indeed, we had any) seem generally inconsistent and patchy and more concerned with how we were executed , there is no guarantee that anything you learn this time around would make it into your next consciousness

[Edited for shocking grammar!]

[Druid Faqir]

In that case, reincarnation seems like a long shot. More sure fire ways of doing this are to write your wisdom down, or produce great art or music, or invent something that will make the difference you want it to, or if you are lucky, create a new generation to whom you can pass on your ideas.

The good new is that's how I see it too....reincarnation seems like a 10000000000000-times longer shot than a long shot anyway so no use beting on it.
Besides, what's beyond death is nothing more than a dream (i.e. any theory that has been or will be cooked up is just that...a dream drempt amidst another dream--which is our life, filled with presumptions, projections and prejudices...and very little reality in it)
Blessings!
/|\

[Merlyn]

Hi Druid Faqir,
I would look at it like "all of the above".
Good to think that after we pass that something is there, but I feel it is not the same for everyone or thing.
I see "incarnation" as well. For many of us we create a life or more, and in a way our children are part of us, then grow more and more vital as we grow weaker and older. Its not re-incarnation" but in essence we do leave something of us after we die this way.
Then there are people who truly do seem as if they are reincarnated. But I think it is a minority of us, and yet still, others leave such a pronounced life force, they truly do appear, as Jesus did after death. Even more a question, do Christians believe in reincarnation?
Food for thought, as the bible prophecy is that "Jesus will return".
Also then many of us pass, into the next form of existence. This can be more than one thing, but passing into a higher or lower power by the "good" or lack thereof in our mundane life. Yet still another group of us get stuck, just about to pass, these few seem to have unfinished business, or find our way as a dryad or spirit not ready to pass. Angels are not direct reincarnations, but in a way, they are.

Reincarnation? I think yes, but not for all. Or in ways, not always just as we were,
In the sense of coming back as we are now.
As something else, also another path, like a wolf, animal totem or even just the wind.

Merlyn

[Druid Faqir]

To the above I respond thus:
To say that NOTHING happens after death is ALSO a dream...
Blessings!
/|\

[Merlyn]

So, what is my experience with reincarnation?
Having given my views, the question remains.
I see past life in each life. I can feel it. Have I ever known a reincarnated person? not really, but then how would I know?
I figure we are expecting the memory of a past life would transfer, like the bible prophecy of Jesus.
But can we look at it differently?
That as we reincarnate, possibly thousands of years later, into a new life, is it any less real of we don't recall any more than knowing we have lived before.
And if so, then I would say many do. And I would say I have met many who have.

Merlyn

[Ebelaar]

Greetings,

I have only pratice with a sword for a few years when I was younger, my master even praises me for how quick I manage to handle a sword. (well not a real sword, a shinai, bamboo sword.) Though it was only for a short time, but it felt as if I have always been a part of it. (the sword I mean)

Past lives memories? I'm not sure. In those dreams/memories I've fought in wars, what wars? I do not know. Can I perform those moves that I've seen in my dreams which felt so much like my own? Well, yes...... to a certain degree. I do not have those "Well-train", "Big" and "Handsome" muscles that I possessed in those dreams/memories of mine. So it'll end up looking sloppy.

Try asking someone, who is learning something new but yet is being able to pick it up fast. Ask them if they have done this before? You might just find yourselves some intresting answers? Who knows?

Blessings. / l \
Ebela'ar the Student.

[Sencha]

I've been able to instantly recognize and describe places I've never been in this life...happened more than once...a LOT more than once.
I choose to believe in reincarnation because out of all the theories of an afterlife, it makes the most sense.

[Rhiannon56]

Reincarnation is a big subject in Wicca and Gnosticism.

I was once told by my friend Poppie( a sage) that I had at least 15 previous incarnations--but I don't know about the validity of that since he charged me money for the reading. I'm inclined to think more. For instance, I believe Sylvia Browne when she says we lall chart our lifetimes before incarnating and to some extent it makes sense. I don't believe we come here only once at that's it. My grandfather always said that for someone to live someone must die. What is that if not a belief in reincarnation?

I feel an affinity to certain places like Chicago, Alaska, Ireland and the mountains. I heard once that places we are the happiest or feel the greatest affinities for were places we once lived. But I also believe I was once a witch, because I've always liked the occult.

I feel strongly that we come back until we perfect our souls and also that each of us has a twin soulmate somewhere as well.

[Sencha]

I feel strongly that we come back until we perfect our souls

I agree with that somewhat, depending on how you define 'perfection.'

For example, if I asked two different strangers to describe their 'perfect day,' I'd likely get two highly different answers. Perfection is a very subjective term.

[Aelfarh]

I really am very agnostic when “what happens when you die” question arise. I honestly don’t know and have no clue. None of the options are really more plausible or logical than the others, there’s no proof of any. So, yes, it is possible that reincarnation exists, but with the same that heaven/Elysium/Tir na nOg, as well as that nothing happens.

If it exists, I would love to be born again in a different planet, what a waste of time and opportunities will be coming back and again as human in this planet. I mean our conception of linear time and fixed space surely will not apply to a soul, so you could choose to go to other time and space if it is true that theory.

[Sencha]

If it exists, I would love to be born again in a different planet, what a waste of time and opportunities will be coming back and again as human in this planet. I mean our conception of linear time and fixed space surely will not apply to a soul, so you could choose to go to other time and space if it is true that theory.

What if planets are like levels on a video game? You don't get to move on to the next level until you conquer the current level?

[Aelfarh]

What if planets are like levels on a video game? You don't get to move on to the next level until you conquer the current level?

And who is going to decide that, there's a judge and a jury that give you the credits to advance to the next video game level? and why there has to be a heriarchy of levels? and If I want to return to 1st century japan in my next one, will it be a next or former level? and who is the bloody boss level I need to kill

[Sencha]

And who is going to decide that, there's a judge and a jury that give you the credits to advance to the next video game level? and why there has to be a heriarchy of levels?

You get to decide.

What if there is only ONE soul in the entire universe?

[Aelfarh]

And who is going to decide that, there's a judge and a jury that give you the credits to advance to the next video game level? and why there has to be a heriarchy of levels?

You get to decide.

What if there is only ONE soul in the entire universe?

Everything is possible, but since we have no way of proving either way, it's kind of useless to think about it, when we die we will find out.

[Sencha]

Everything is possible, but since we have no way of proving either way, it's kind of useless to think about it, when we die we will find out.

But the fun is in the speculation.