sandandfoam
Veteran Member
Do you believe in it?
Why?
Why?
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Reincarnation
- Thread starter sandandfoam
- Start date
BruceDLimber
Well-Known Member
No: The Baha'i scriptures state it's pure superstition, and explain why in detail.
What does happen is that we all to on to the Next Life, which lasts forever.
Peace,
Bruce
What does happen is that we all to on to the Next Life, which lasts forever.
Peace,
Bruce
dyanaprajna2011
Dharmapala
Sort of yes, sort of no. The Buddhist idea of rebirth is a bit different from reincarnation, but it's about the closest thing to it. In order for reincarnation to work, a person has to have an eternal spirit, or at least a part of them that moves from one incarnation to the next. Buddhists don't accept that any such thing exists. It's one's karmic intent that is reborn. Some schools of Buddhism divide the consciousness into eight parts, and the eighth part, the alaya-vjnana, or storehouse consciousness, is what stores karmic seeds, and it's this that is reborn.
What I believe in would probably be better described as recycling as opposed to reincarnation.
I believe that we all have the "breath of God" in us; that spark of the Divine that elevates us from being nothing but physical beings. And I believe that when we die that spark returns to God, and that it becomes one with Him, just like a drop rain becomes one with the ocean. It is quite possible that that same spark might one day find itself in another body, and, in a way, a piece of us will be there as well.
Levite
Higher and Higher
Yeah, I believe in a slightly modified form of gilgulei neshamot, which is the Jewish mystical version of reincarnation. I find it solves some important theological issues, and I like the metaphysical elegance of it, in addition to feeling that some of the anecdotal evidence for reincarnation as a legitimate phenomenon is compelling.
No.
In every way we can measure, who a person is is linked to the physical. When we take away all the things that can be changed by physical means - memory, emotion, personality, beliefs, attitudes, etc., etc., could what's left be reasonably called the person?
Despite social convention, I don't think we're necessarily the same person from birth until death as it is. Why would I think that I could become some other person after death?
Yes
Reincarnational memories and the teachings of all the masters I respect. And because no other belief makes sense to me when all the evidence is weighed.
InvestigateTruth
Veteran Member
The idea of reincarnation comes from Hinduism. But as far as I know, the Hindu scriptures revealed by Manifestations of God such as Krishna, talks about 'Return to the world'. It is interpreted and understood by people traditionally, by 'Return' is meant, when a person dies his spirit goes to the next world and then returns into the body of another person, though this is not stated as such in the scriptures.
When we look at other Major Religions, we see the concept of 'Return' in the Scriptures of other Religions, but it is not interpreted as reincarnation. It means, that from Age to Age, same type of people appear in the World, which is like the return of people of the past. So, for example, in Christianity, 'John the Baptist' was return of 'Elijah' as they both had same spiritual quality. Likewise Imam Ali, successor of Muhammad, said in a ceremony, He was with Noah, He was with Jesus, meaning that He is the return of chosen ones and prophets of God in past Ages. In the same way, Muhammad told people of His time, 'you have killed the prophets of Israel', meaning you are the same people of past Ages with the same characters. Likewise, Buddha said 'I am not the first Buddha, nor the Last Buddha, in due time another Buddha comes who tells you same Truth as I told you", meaning the same type of Person with same spiritual perfections as Buddha existed before Buddha and would return into the World again and again. More recently also, The Bab fulfilled the return of John the Baptist, and Baha'u'llah, Return of Christ, even those who had pierced Christ returned who killed the Bab.
When we look at other Major Religions, we see the concept of 'Return' in the Scriptures of other Religions, but it is not interpreted as reincarnation. It means, that from Age to Age, same type of people appear in the World, which is like the return of people of the past. So, for example, in Christianity, 'John the Baptist' was return of 'Elijah' as they both had same spiritual quality. Likewise Imam Ali, successor of Muhammad, said in a ceremony, He was with Noah, He was with Jesus, meaning that He is the return of chosen ones and prophets of God in past Ages. In the same way, Muhammad told people of His time, 'you have killed the prophets of Israel', meaning you are the same people of past Ages with the same characters. Likewise, Buddha said 'I am not the first Buddha, nor the Last Buddha, in due time another Buddha comes who tells you same Truth as I told you", meaning the same type of Person with same spiritual perfections as Buddha existed before Buddha and would return into the World again and again. More recently also, The Bab fulfilled the return of John the Baptist, and Baha'u'llah, Return of Christ, even those who had pierced Christ returned who killed the Bab.
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
Would you mind posting what the theological issues are?
and thanks for this
I have never heard of it before - if you know of a good synopsis could you post a link?
No, I do not.
It is plenty obvious, even without the neurological evidence, that "who we are" is very dependent on our life experience and even on our physical health.
I honestly don't understand how come there are people that believe in reincarnation at all. One would expect the world to be a lot more complicated and resistant to change if it did exist with any frequency at all. Perhaps as a very rare occurrence it would be conceivable, but that is not a common belief far as I can tell.
It is plenty obvious, even without the neurological evidence, that "who we are" is very dependent on our life experience and even on our physical health.
I honestly don't understand how come there are people that believe in reincarnation at all. One would expect the world to be a lot more complicated and resistant to change if it did exist with any frequency at all. Perhaps as a very rare occurrence it would be conceivable, but that is not a common belief far as I can tell.
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
I wonder. I used to not believe in the idea at all.
My first opening to the idea was when my (then) very young daughter used to talk about herself 'before I was born'.
She doesn't do it any more but it was odd. The same lady is a very solid soul and I often have the feeling that she was around before.
My first opening to the idea was when my (then) very young daughter used to talk about herself 'before I was born'.
She doesn't do it any more but it was odd. The same lady is a very solid soul and I often have the feeling that she was around before.
What's there to believe in? Simple observation of the world around us demonstrates that creation/destruction are paired processes. When one thing is "destroyed" it becomes part of or "creates" something else. This is simply the way things are, isn't it? The stuff of things does not simply vanish, yes?
This is true throughout a person's life, too. Virtually nothing that was physically part of you when you were born will be part of you when you die. Doesn't this suggest that the "you" required for you to reincarnate is an illusion? If you did get reincarnated after you die in 30 or 40 years, it won't be the "you" who's reading this today. That "you" would have been doled out in bits and pieces over decades to "create" countless other things already before you died.
Runewolf1973
Materialism/Animism
Agreed. Everything that we know which is physical is dominated by those underlying forces of nature which are both ceaseless and formless...the non-physical reality. Nothing ever truly ceases, it only changes form.
Quirkybird
Member
No because it doesn't seem in the slightest bit credible.
But sometimes the form matters.
If you carefully burn a copy of Hamlet so that none of the products of combustion is lost, doyou still have a copy of the play? You can measure the mass and see that not one particle is missing, but you've still lost the thing that made it what it was: its arrangement.
Gjallarhorn
N'yog-Sothep
Reincarnation not quite. Recycling sure.
I suppose if one's default position is the strange idea that things are somehow not all interconnected and constantly changing by default, there might be an appearance of illusions here.
Understand that when I talk about reincarnation in my path, I basically use it to describe the constant process of change and transformation that happens to everything within the Weave. It's a relational process, and in most respects, I'm not sure I would even call my thoughts about this a belief in an "afterlife" given I see existence as a continuity of transformations.