View of reincarnation

[Twilight Hue]

A few times i have been asked about the understanding of reincarnation and if it is really true.
It is never easy to explain how to experience past lives, but the monk Ajahn Brahm does it in a very good way in my view. In Buddhism we can experience it by entering the 4 jhanas.

if you like you can watch the video

If you have questions or your own thoughts of past life a discussion is alwas welcome

I'm not privy for any 'religious' version where all it takes is some fancy terms and linguistic creativity to establish something as being the case.

My view is a type of rebirth as opposed to reincarnation where it's just a simple as looking at the nature of atoms and molecules the manner by which you yourself and just about every organism came about into the world and noting how those atoms and molecules do nothing but separate and recombine without none of it being actually destroyed.

I think the form that you are presently , will undergo true permadeath, where once it's gone, including all life memories and physicality associated with that form.

However the potential will always still be there, just like it had been before you were born, making it certainly possible for the lights to come on again whenever conditions and circumstances prove ideal.

Just like being born in this life, so will be next time conditions and circumstances will become ideal enabling atoms and molecules to "flip the switch" so to speak.

My reasoning is if it was impossible for you to ever be alive again and life is a one shot deal for an eternity, then that meant it would have been impossible for you to even be born in the first place , which is obviously and clearly not true.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

The best study of evidence for reincarnation is
Stevenson, Ian. Cases of the reincarnation type. University Press of Virginia, 1975-7. 2 vols.

The evidence is very persuasive, but the fact that reincarnation has happened is no proof that it always happens. It clearly hasn't happened when people have experienced their ancestors. For example, an American academic was introduced to various ancestors in dreams after taking up ancestor veneration. Her mother had never heard of them, but joined ancestry.com and was able to trace many of them. See
Wilkerson, W. D. Walking with the gods. Connaissance, 2014. Pp. 354-5.

 

[Jumi]

Your atoms will be reused, could be in the oceans, a blade of grass, flower, tree or perhaps one or few will end up as some future persons liver, spleen, bowel, brain etc. In this way we are all made up of dead people. It seems that is as close to reincarnation as it gets.

At least the physicalist reincarnation is beautiful reincarnation, having our atoms become part of the world and other people even while we're alive. Same with our thoughts and everything that made us. And perhaps at another time, another living being will have likewise thoughts to ours. We don't need to believe in souls to have a beautiful view of the world, right?

 

[ChristineM]

At least the physicalist reincarnation is beautiful reincarnation, having our atoms become part of the world and other people even while we're alive. Same with our thoughts and everything that made us. And perhaps at another time, another living being will have likewise thoughts to ours. We don't need to believe in souls to have a beautiful view of the world, right?

The 1st law of thermodynamics is responsible for ensuring your atoms are passed on. Thoughts are a chemical reaction. Once that reaction has ended so has the thought, unless of course you rethink it, in which case the reaction is repeated.

I dont see how thoughts can continue into the future other than as pure energy.

 

[Salvador]

If reincarnation were true, then the number of living beings in the universe ought to be constant instead of variable. However, the number of living beings in the universe is variable instead of constant. Therefore, reincarnation is false.

If reincarnation were true, then why does the number of living beings keep on increasing? Where would all these reincarnated souls come from to possess the additional bodies added in an increasing population?

 

[Jumi]

I dont see how thoughts can continue into the future other than as pure energy.

For example, books. There's also some things a great grandfather of mine said that are my thoughts also.

 

[ChristineM]

For example, books. There's also some things a great grandfather of mine said that are my thoughts also.

Books are only in thoughts when you think about them, same goes for great grandfathers wise words

 

[Jumi]

Books are only in thoughts when you think about them, same goes for great grandfathers wise words

That's right. Also the atoms might not stay the same, could lose a neutron, gain a neutron... perhaps even a proton and electrons... well probably not going to stay that long.

 

[ChristineM]

That's right. Also the atoms might not stay the same, could lose a neutron, gain a neutron... perhaps even a proton and electrons... well probably not going to stay that long.

It takes a considerable amount energy to change the makeup of atoms. But they would form into different molecules easily enough

 

[12jtartar]

A few times i have been asked about the understanding of reincarnation and if it is really true.
It is never easy to explain how to experience past lives, but the monk Ajahn Brahm does it in a very good way in my view. In Buddhism we can experience it by entering the 4 jhanas.

if you like you can watch the video

If you have questions or your own thoughts of past life a discussion is alwas welcome

Amanaki,
It seems that, to all who believe the Holy Bible, that there is no such thing as reincarnation. First, incarnation means to take on a fleshly body. The only Time that this has happened is when Jesus took on, it seems, several bodies, after he was resurrected.
It was not an incarnation when Jesus was born on earth, as he was born with flesh as are all human beings. The Bible tells us in several places that Jesus was a MAN, says nothing about being man and Spirit, 1Timothy 2:5, Romans 5:15, 1Corinthians 15:20,21, 42-47.
Remember, the Holy Spirit America down from God in Heaven, onto Jesus, at His Baptism, Matthew 3:16,17. Jesus was put to death in the flesh, and made alive in the Spirit at his resurrection, 1Peter 3:18,19. As a Spirit, Jesus went and preached to in prison,
Which he could not do as a fleshly person.
As for reincarnation, what is said at Romans 9:10,11, seems to make that impossible. Here, the children spoken of were Jacob and Esau, who, because of not yet been born, had neither done good or bad. Had they lived before they would have done either good or bad!!! Agape!!!

 

[ajay0]

There is a thread related to case studies and books on reincarnation.

Reincarnation/Past Lives

There are a number of examples in this of children remembering their past lives , and their accounts corroborating past facts, such as the example of James Leininger, who as a child claimed to be James Huston, an Allied pilot who was missing in action in 1945.

Reincarnated! Our son is a World War II pilot come back to life | Daily Mail Online

Western philosophers like Pythagoras and Plato taught about reincarnation. There is evidence that one of the most important theologians of the Christian church, Origen, also taught reincarnation.

In recent times George Patton and Henry Ford too professed in reincarnation. Carl Jung considered reincarnation to be a possibility.

“I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had to be born again because I had not fulfilled the task that was given to me.” - Carl Jung

Dr. Brian Weiss is a modern psychiatrist who had published famous books on reincarnation case studies through hypnotic regression. Same too with Dr. Michael Newton who is a counselling psychologist.

Dr. Ian Stevenson had prepared a considerable body of empirical evidences related to reincarnation through extensive research.

Ian Stevenson - Wikipedia

 

[GoodbyeDave]

If reincarnation were true, then the number of living beings in the universe ought to be constant instead of variable. However, the number of living beings in the universe is variable instead of constant. Therefore, reincarnation is false.

If reincarnation were the only source of souls, this argument would work. As it is, it merely shows that births must include souls which have not been previously incarnated as humans.

 

[Jainarayan]

As a Hindu, and even before becoming Hindu I've believed in reincarnation. If what makes us us is energy, i.e. the brain's and body's electrical activity, and energy can be neither created nor destroyed, then it seems like it has to go somewhere and be somehow recycled. If so, that's what reincarnation may be.

 

[Jainarayan]

If reincarnation were the only source of souls, this argument would work. As it is, it merely shows that births must include souls which have not been previously incarnated as humans.

Moreover, according to some Hindu schools of philosophy, at least in Advaita and Vishishtadvaita, there is an unlimited, infinite "pool" from which "souls" can emerge, i.e. Brahman.

 

[Marcion]

Our parents procreated us, we are only an animal species, which is more evolved than the rest.

Animals also have parents and likewise reincarnate into new bodies after death.

 

[Vinayaka]

Moreover, according to some Hindu schools of philosophy, at least in Advaita and Vishishtadvaita, there is an unlimited, infinite "pool" from which "souls" can emerge, i.e. Brahman.

'Emerge' ... I like that. Goes quite well with 'merge'. I've always used 'emanate', but I think 'emerge' is better now. Souls are emerging as we speak. Poor things, they're unaware of the ride they're in for.

 

[Jainarayan]

'Emerge' ... I like that. Goes quite well with 'merge'. I've always used 'emanate', but I think 'emerge' is better now. Souls are emerging as we speak. Poor things, they're unaware of the ride they're in for.

'Emerge' just kind of popped into my head. One of my meds makes me forget words and fumble for them. I come up with some real humdingers.

 

[Vinayaka]

'One of my meds makes me forget words and fumble for them.

I don't need meds for that.

 

[Ancient Soul]

In Hinduism there is the belief that souls come back to earth to be 'cleansed' until they have climbed the 'karmic ladder' to find absolution in the heavens (liberation).

I once had an experience when I was struggling with upheavals in my life when my dead mothers (real and step) visited me as souls and my real mother confirmed to me that there is after life that way. But I cannot be sure. I have asked God whether this experience was true or not, and He would not answer to confirm or reject the idea. She/they have never again visited me despite further trials in my life. May be therefore it was a delusion of mine that she was a 'soul' as I have suffered from a condition known to psychiatrists as 'persistent delusional disorder' that the UK State enforces 6 mg of antipsychotic risperidone medication together with 100 mg antidepressant sertraline medication into me daily. Maybe it was God who had visited me in the guise of my dead mothers. I have no way of telling now except to examine the question afresh on the basis of my theory of everything. God exists for certain and plays games with the human mind.

My best guess is that it's the drugs that is blocking your not getting an answer from God.

My second guess is that maybe you really don't want to know the answer for some reason.

Just my opinion, nothing more.

 

[Ancient Soul]

A few times i have been asked about the understanding of reincarnation and if it is really true.
It is never easy to explain how to experience past lives, but the monk Ajahn Brahm does it in a very good way in my view. In Buddhism we can experience it by entering the 4 jhanas.

if you like you can watch the video

If you have questions or your own thoughts of past life a discussion is alwas welcome

I'm convinced on the concept of reincarnation.

For that is one of the things God had shown me during my childhood NDE/OBE.

For at the same time as God was explaining to me what "death" was, he was also showing me a wide range of physical "containers" for my soul to "return" to "life" with. And it was imparted to me that I had a choice, so desired one of the larger ones but then felt guilty because I probably didn't deserve one of them, so let God decide. He then told me which one I would get and what my spiritual life would be like. (There was more involved, but that's the short version for the sake of this topic.)

Now this happened when I was just a toddler, so there was no possible way that I could have imagined any of it. As I had not an inkling of any such a concept at that age. It wasn't until many, many years later that I learned that what had occurred matched up to to the reincarnation concept.