I was thinking that I wanted to do a post on reincarnation. So, as I do with most other posts, I did a little research. I never realized that there are so many different religions in the world and how many of them believe in reincarnation. I always thought it was just like Hinduism and/or Buddhism that believed in such a thing. Not true! It turns out there are dozens of religious, most of which I've never heard of, that believe in it. All these religions and, from what I read, none of them believe in reincarnation in the same way. They all seem to have a different point of view of how it works. I decided there are way too many differences to do an accurate post on this subject. So, I decided to take a different approach.
This post is what I know, what I'm learning and what I believe about reincarnation. Basically, my point of view.
The definition of reincarnation is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. The "non-physical essence of a living being" being the soul.
In most beliefs involving reincarnation, the soul of a human being is immortal and does not disperse after the physical body has perished. Upon death, the soul merely becomes transmigrated into a newborn baby or an animal to continue its immortality.
Also, some religions believe that, not only can your soul be transferred to another human or animal, but also to a plant or anything that is living. Which one you are transferred to depends on you and karma.
In Hinduism, all life goes through birth, life, death, and rebirth and this is known as the cycle of samsara. According to this belief, all living things have an atman, which is a piece of Brahman, or a spirit or soul. It is the atman that moves on into a new body after death.
From my understanding of all this, if you are good in life, you collect good karma. Good karma can eventually earn a person a higher place in the caste system in a future life. On the other side of the coin, bad karma that you collect will put you in a lower place in the caste system. Good actions create good karma and evil actions create negative karma. Karma is not assigned or regulated by any god; it's simply earned by an individual and passed down through subsequent lives. This makes a lot of sense to me. It makes me think that there is actually a purpose to our lives.
I'm assuming, from all this, that human beings are the top of the caste system, and you are reborn in a higher position in life if you had good karma in your previous life and a lower human position, animal, plant or insect if your karma was bad. I guess it depends on where you were in life and how bad your karma was. I don't know for sure about all that, maybe no one does.
The ultimate goal of all this raising in the caste system is to reach "Moksha", (in Hinduism), "Parinirvana" (Buddhism), which both translate to "Heaven" (Christianity) and be reunited with Brahman (God). This can be achieved after many lifetimes and, from what I have read, most (maybe all, I need to read more) religions believe that there is an unlimited number of lifetimes to reach Moksha.
Hindus believe they have a moral responsibility to act correctly, be non-violent and to help themselves and others with their dharma. Dharma basically means "The right way of living". All this paves the road for their trip to Moksha.
In Buddhism there is the middle path or, as it is called, the Eightfold Path. I'm a bit confused on what this is but it seems to be the right path to take to achieve "Nirvana" and eventually "Parinivana". It is the path between how you used to live and being desolate. At least that's what I'm getting from all this reading. If anyone else knows more about this "Eightfold Path", I'd like to hear more about it.
After reading all this stuff about reincarnation I started asking myself, "Do you have to be religious to be reincarnated"? Here is an insert I found on that, "Reincarnation is a concept that is often associated with religion. However, it is not limited to religious beliefs". This is good news for me.
I also thought of another thing when this question came to mind. There are a lot of stories about children that say they have been reincarnated. So many stories and so many of the facts are verified. I watch a lot of YouTube videos and I've seen several on children describing things that would be impossible for them to know about.
A little 5-year-old boy describing about a plane he flew during WWII, even naming the ship he flew off of and also naming several of his fellow pilots. Or the boy that claimed he was the reincarnation of his on grandfather (that he never met). He knew details that the family never talked about, some of the family didn't even know about them.
There are many, many stories out there. It makes me wonder how you cannot believe in reincarnation after hearing these stories. Yes, I know, people like to make up stories to make a viral video. If it wasn't for a lot of these stories being investigated, and proven, then maybe I would not believe either.
So, it seems that whether or not you are religious or whether or not you even believe in reincarnation, it doesn't matter. It's the natural cycle and you will be "reborn" regardless. The only thing you can do about it is create good karma for yourself.
I'm thinking that I do believe in reincarnation, but I can wait to begin my next life. I'm not finished with this one yet and maybe, just maybe I can obtain enough karma to achieve what I want for my next life. I want to be a music prodigy that can also sing very well. (I'm going to write a story on why I have come up with this). I think I can work with that to help me practice ahimsa, gaining more good karma and working towards achieving Moksha.
All pictures obtained from: Bing - Free to Share and Use
Howdy y’all. It’s me, ninong7 aka UJ aka John. Just a short intro about myself. I am a Texan that has retired in the Philippines. I moved to the Philippines with my wife back in May 2010. I am retired from the US Air Force. The music I like is mostly Classic Country and Classic Rock. I guess you could say that I am “Classic”. I play dominoes when I can find someone that will play, I play chess, cribbage, spades, hearts, Empire Builder, Rail Baron, Acquire and a few other games. I like to write poems and stories (although pretty novice) and I love learning about history, just about any history. I’m at home on my computer a lot but if I could afford to, I’d be traveling and documenting my travels to post in my blog. I hope to get to know a lot of you through PeakD and Discord.