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Reincarnation is a very well known topic nowadays, a main part of today's New Age movement which is partly responsible for its spreading in the western world.
For those who don't know what reincarnation is, we will keep our explanations for the moment very simple and we will talk mainly about the Buddhist view of reincarnation.
If you die you will not vanish or cease your existence for ever, but something of your person will survive and reincarnates, that means you will be reborn as another person. You can be reborn in the same sex or in the opposite sex. For example: You died as Mr. X and you will be reborn as Misses Y. (Wow!)
![[Image of Buddha]](../Images/buddha.gif)
The term 'reincarnation' is closely linked to the term 'karma'. Karma are the good or bad deeds you accumulate during your whole life. And karma determines your further lives. The consequences of having accumulated bad karma are suffering in future lives. Good karma means your next life will be a comfortable and happy one. Good deeds will be rewarded, bad deeds will be punished by karma.
From now on it will be a little bit more complex. Both terms 'reincarnation' and 'karma' are linked with the term 'nirvana'. Nirvana is the state you are set free from having to reincarnate again and again. Without the state of nirvana you would reincarnate forever, you would be damned to be born and to die forever. To attain nirvana you have to live a proper life according to Buddhist morality, ethics and faith. That means to collect only good karma, to pay off all bad karma, to see through all illusions, to get rid of all ties to the material world, and finally to be able to reach the internal condition or state of mind of enlightenment (kind of inward 'illumination'). Once you attain these goals you are liberated from the cycles of reincarnations and you are in the state (or condition) of experiencing nirvana like Buddha.
The idea of reincarnation probably originated in India's Hinduism between 12th and 7th century BC. Some people believe it dated from earlier times and originated from Atlantis (Atlantis is a famous legend about a sunken island). Inhabitants of Atlantis who survived its destruction migrated to eastern regions (India?). It's certain that historically the idea of reincarnation arose from the eastern religions, especially from Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddhism developed a separate variation of reincarnation faith later than Hinduism. Even later in time the Japanese founded the Zen-Buddhism, again with a different idea of reincarnation.
The reincarnation belief spread in time. You can also find different variations of it in Taoism, in Tibetan Buddhism, in western regions (Europe, later also North America), in Greek Platonism, in the Bible (at least some hints), in Theosophy, in Occultism, in Anthroposophy, in Hermetism, in other esoteric organizations, and nowadays in New Age.
Followers of a special variation of reincarnation faith believe that you can be punished for bad deeds by getting transferred into an animal in the next reincarnation. For example if you were evil you might get downgraded and come back as a worm or a snake or a monkey or a cow, etc. in your next existence.
It's important to explain the main difference between Buddhism and Zen-Buddhism. Buddhists believe that a person can reincarnate perhaps billions of billions of times until it is able to attain nirvana, however Zen-Buddhists believe that you can reach this goal in one life only (once you attained Satori). Zen uses Koans as an additional liberation-method. Two big differences which we have emphasized now.
Because there are many differences and many variations we have to simplify here too.
Followers of eastern religions rather believe that an impersonal part of a person survives and reincarnates only (e.g. atman, mind-body, subtle-body, karma). The eastern goal is to escape the cycles of reincarnation and reach the state of nirvana or dissolution in a supernatural reality or void. It's not important that a personal part survives this transformation.
The western and New Age interpretation of reincarnation are more in accordance with Christian religion. They believe that a personal part of a person or our soul survives death and reincarnates. Their goal is purification or progress through the cycles of reincarnations rather than liberation from it.
Depending what you will accept as proof, there is some around. Exceptionally young children remember their previous life. Some of them remember their lives more exactly then others. They are mostly under 12 years old. There are recorded and researched cases about this phenomenon. For a small amount of these cases there isn't any other explanation than reincarnation, other cases allow other possible explanations, too.
Regression-analysis respectively Past-life-regression or Past-life-recall. During hypnosis people can sometimes remember their past lives. A hypnotist hypnotizes you and guides you past the time you were born. Then people may remember their past lives or one past life and describe it to the hypnotist. You can read interesting stories in books about this topic. But if you examine the stories, some of them show historically wrong details.
As there are other possible explanations for these phenomena as well and since there are discrepancies many people don't accept all this as an absolute proof for reincarnation.
The whole reincarnation-topic, including the different faiths built around it, is very complex. Furthermore it's not easy for western people to understand eastern thinking and there are often misunderstandings, which makes the analysis for westerners even more difficult. Moreover westerners mostly can just read translations from Indian (or Chinese or Japanese) to English or other languages, therefore misinterpretations can occur.
We haven't finished our research yet because of the complexity of the topic. But we will explain our opinion as far as we came with our analysis.
In this section we merely talk about reincarnation itself without any religious aspects: Does the possibility of reincarnation really exist? We think reincarnation is possible, it really occurs. There are cases where there isn't any other explanation for this phenomenon than reincarnation, and nearly all world-religions mention it in one way or the other. To explain all other reasons for our conclusions we would have to write a book.
In this section we deal with the special Hindu-faith of regression back into animals: Is it possible to regress directly into an animal in your next life? We think not! This belief contradicts too much other supernatural or spiritual laws.
What reincarnates? We think our soul, consisting of personal and impersonal parts, reincarnates. (Or if you want to use more eastern expressions, mind-body, subtle-body, karma-load, aggregates plus personal parts, which are neglected by eastern religions.) Let's explain better but still as simple as possible. If you die your soul-body survives and when you reincarnate the memories and experiences of your past life still exist, but they are blocked so that they don't surface in your new life, they remain unconscious. One reason the old eastern religions meant, that somebody's personality from a past life was vanished is, that nearly nobody remembers anything about their past lives. Your former person seems to be disappeared completely, nonexistent anymore. Therefore coming to neglect the survival of the personal parts of a human being could have happened easily. There are other reasons for their conclusions, but they are too complex to explain here.
Can we attain liberation from the reincarnation-cycles in one life? If it is the absolute Reality that we are forced to reincarnate we believe that it is possible to gain the state of enlightenment in one life. On this condition we agree with Zen-Buddhism.
How often do we have to incarnate if the reincarnation-faith is absolutely true? We believe the principles of Zen-Buddhism are nearest to the truth and Zen-Buddhism is the most advanced eastern reincarnation-belief. This conclusion certainly gives hope that we haven't to reincarnate millions of millions of times but perhaps an average of only ten till thousand times.
Does karma exist? We think it exists in a specific way. We see it as a counter of good and bad deeds and as a law of consequences following our actions.
Does an awareness-state like enlightenment (Satori) really exist? We think yes. Buddha and Zen-Masters claim to have reached the awareness-state of enlightenment. But to understand what it really is you have to experience it. This state is very difficult to attain, especially in our materialistic time.
Does a reality like nirvana exist? We think yes. As described above, if you got enlightened you experience the awareness-state of nirvana. If you die you live in this reality of nirvana, released from the reincarnation-cycle. But another question is, what is this reality of nirvana? Perhaps the best description is: A supernatural reality which is very difficult to enter. The rest is a mystery for all of us who aren't enlightened.
Do we have to reincarnate? This is one of the most important questions. We think not. Generally we came to the conclusion that reincarnation is not a forced process but a possible one. We see reincarnation as one possible way for spiritual progress. But we think there are other ways to progress than only with the help of reincarnation. We will talk about this when we explain another topic.
We did our best to explain as much as possible in a short article. And you have now one more idea what reincarnation could really be.
If you believe in reincarnation, no matter which variation, think ahead for your future life, that it will be a good, lucky and comfortable one and act according to your goal.
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