A Guide to Understanding Reincarnation
If we could live our lives free of sin and full of paying it forward, we could be reap the rewards of our good behavior via reincarnation and come back as a very powerful creature. If we live our lives in sin, rarely doing for anyone else, we could be reincarnated as a lower-being such as an insect. To know that you lived many lives before this one and that there are many more to come is a welcome perspective to judge the meaning of life.
For some, reincarnation is a feeling of comfort. It gives us reassurance that although we could not achieve our full potential in this life, it is possible we could achieve it when we are reincarnated. To accept the idea of reincarnation could explain the differences among people. Some are happy and well adjusted and some go through life being so unhappy and tormented with physical disabilities and emotional disabilities. Some are rich while others are starving. Despite some people’s religious dedication, they never prosper to what they believe they should have. We’ve all heard it before. I prayed and prayed and nothing came true through my prayers. If we believe in reincarnation, the reasons behind the unhappiness and torment in some people’s lives can be explained by their previous lives, good or bad. Reincarnation is the perfect way to punish or reward someone for their deeds.
Some other religions have different ideas of reincarnation and what it means to them. In ancient Egypt they would embalm the dead in order for the body to be preserved. It has been written that they believe the soul travels into the next world. In Hinduism believe that afterlife of a human being continues to exist after death as a whole person. The idea of reaping rewards for one’s life in a new existence instead of a heavenly afterlife is a concept some believe. According to Hindu philosophy, the spiritual progress we accumulate toward our identity is our karma. The whole physical and mental complex a human being consists of is reconstructed at birth according to our karma. The new person then experiences his or her actions from previous lives and has to do his best to stop the vicious cycle of bad karma.
Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent self that reincarnates from one life to the next. Humans usually think that they have a self because of consciousness but being itself in a constant process of becoming and change, consciousness cannot be identified with a self that is supposed to be permanent. Something has to reincarnate if we follow what we believe of karma. The Buddha believes that only karma passes from one life to another. In some manner there is a rebirth without the transfer of a self from one body to another.
New Age thinking believes that reincarnation is an eternal progression of the soul toward higher levels of spiritual knowledge. It is not an escape from torment as once believed in ancient times. If we follow the New Age thinkers, we could be reincarnated many times over in our lifetime.
