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Thanks for an interesting post. Another problem with karma as an explanation for reincarnation is the lack of a causal connection between incarnations. There are clear causal connections between everything I have done and who I am today. At the subjective level, thoughts and behaviour influence my mood, and mood influences thoughts and behaviour. At the neurological level, day-to-day experiences cause the synapses to rearrange and so on. But how could these causal connections continue after the body dies? And what causal connection is there between a person who has died and the newborn who is supposedly their reincarnation? Buddhists might say the person's karma somehow causes the person to be reborn, but the causal antecedent of the newborn is procreation, and how is the karma of a dead person causally connected with that? Reincarnation would imply some form of magical causation.
There is also the issue of continuity of identity. People experience continuity of identity throughout life, even when they feel they have changed so much they feel like a different person. Reincarnation would imply discontinuity of identity between lives. If a person has a succession of lives, in each one they would feel "this is me" but there does not seem to be a continuous sense of "being me" that passes on from life to life.
Alex Lickerman M.D.
In this post, I'd like to consider seriously the issue of reincarnation. Or perhaps I should say, the problem with reincarnation. Though I practice Buddhism, I don't actually believe in reincarnation. I suspect that my saying this will irk many of my Buddhist friends, who rightly consider the tenet of reincarnation central to Buddhism, as well as the indifference of anyone who doesn't believe in reincarnation and therefore has little interest in an essay that points out the problems with a theory they already discount. Though I therefore risk having an audience of no one, I think the discussion will be an interesting one, because the real question at the heart of reincarnation is one of identity.
According to Wikipedia, the percentage of people who believe in reincarnation ranges from 12% to 44% depending on the country being surveyed (in the U.S., it's 20%). And, I freely admit, such a belief may not be wrong: psychiatrist Ian Stevenson has conducted more than 2,500 case studies over a period of 40 years of children who supposedly remembered past lives. He methodically documented each child's statements and then identified the deceased person the child identified with, and verified the facts of the deceased person's life that matched the child's memory. He also matched birthmarks and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased, verified by medical records such as autopsy photographs. While skeptics have argued his reports provide only anecdotal evidence, his data does seem to demand explanation.
The problem with reincarnation is that explanation, however, is twofold: 1) we have, as of yet, no way to verify it prospectively in an objective manner; and 2) we have no mechanism to explain how reincarnation might occur. Though reincarnation is indeed a central tenet of all sects of Buddhism, no sect of Buddhism posits the existence of a non-corporeal "soul"—an eternal, unchanging version of ourselves that's capable of living independently of a brain and a body. Rather, in Buddhism, the self is viewed as something that has no "absolute" existence, as something that changes constantly from moment to moment, as well as something that's capable of existing only within the confines of a physical brain.
Yet something of us, Buddhism argues, continues from life to life, something that makes us uniquely us. The sect of Buddhism I practice argues this "something" is our karma: the sum of all the effects we ourselves have created within our lives (like unexploded mousetraps that will be triggered at some point in the future) as a result of all the things we've ever thought, said, and done—not just in the past of our current life, but in all the pasts of all our previous lives.
And here is where I have a third problem with the Buddhist notion of reincarnation: how does the sum of all the effects I myself have created in the past add up to "me"? I can accept that all the things I've ever thought, said, and done (at least in this lifetime) have indeed, in some sense, created the person I am now. But do all my thoughts, words, and actions create my core essence—or arise from it?
Which leads me to ask what I think, in one sense, is a more interesting question than the question of reincarnation: namely, what is my core essence? The sense of self I feel and have always felt has seemed constant throughout my life, which is why I feel as if I even have a core essence. But a moment's reflection reveals that what's really remained constant is the feeling of the sense of self itself, not the content of that sense. Am I even remotely the same person I was at 5? At 15? Last week? A moment ago?
In one sense, obviously, yes. Something links the "me" that I am right now to the "me" that I was at 5 (and not, for example, to my wife as she was at 5). But what is that something? My memory? I've long ago forgotten most of what happened to me at 5. I remember being 5, but not the entirety of even one day from that year (in fact, I don't remember the entirety of even one day from last week). If any content in my life remains constant, it's not due to my remembering it, to my consciously holding it fast in my working memory so as not to forget it and thus myself. It's because some things remain constant without my having to remember them or even think about them: essentially, my habits (which, are by definition, unconscious) and my beliefs (which, though they must be expressed in language, needn't be consciously apprehended to influence behavior).
Given what we now know about the enormous size and power of the unconscious—about just how much of "us" lies beneath the surface of our conscious minds—we have to admit that the defining core of who we are may, in fact, be located mostly, if not entirely, beneath our awareness (our conscious minds being mostly spectators and interpreters of our unconscious selves).
But what does even this mean? That our unconscious beliefs and habits define who we are? Does our conscious awareness, the values we're able to articulate to ourselves, have nothing to do with our identity? And what about our memories of who we've been? Without those, would not some essential part of the self be lost?
Many Buddhists would argue the sense that we even have a self is an illusion, that despite our feeling that a unique something lies at the core of what we are, such a something doesn't, in fact, exist. And though I can't answer any of the questions above, I find myself sympathetic to this point of view. I suspect the only thing constant about us is our sense that something about us remains constant, and that who we are is comprised both of stable parts (personality, beliefs, attitudes, and so on) and unstable parts (retrievable memories, moods, interests, and so on)—and that to change any one of them (whether in the realm of the conscious or unconscious) is to change who we are in proportion to their relative stability (changing a belief, for example—like a belief in God—would represent a major change; changing a mood, on the other hand, merely a minor one).
Certainly, those of us who've gone through major upheaval in our lives or experienced an abrupt and enormous leap in maturity at some point often pause to look back and imagine ourselves as a fundamentally different person from who we once were. But perhaps our inclination to label ourselves as "changed" only when we notice a large enough difference between who we are and who we used to be ignores the truth that we're never not changing. Our lives are in constant motion, and to imagine that we could take a snapshot of them at any one point in time and somehow capture that which represents our essential selves strikes me as arguing that an actual snapshot of a flowing river represents its one true shape. So when people tell me they believe in reincarnation, the first question that comes to my mind isn't about what evidence they think argues for the possibility. Rather, it's this: just exactly what do they think gets reincarnated?
Dr. Lickerman's new book The Undefeated Mind: On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self will be published on November 6. Read the sample chapter and visit Amazon or Barnes & Noble to order a copy.
Karma and causality
reincarnation/transmigration/karma
Thank you for your article.
On the one hand identity comes with the survival instinct-mode, on the other, it has no substance. As you point out, constant transformation leaves the inquisitive mind trying to understand what we are, who we are, and what upholds everything, what the "core essence" is, of not only ourselves but of everything.
The mind can't answer because it has to be experienced directly beyond all concept, something no one can command.
It would seem that there is Energy that "expresses" itself through Creation. The mind makes a distinction between the creative force and its creation, but in reality, how can there be any division at all between the two, if there is only one essence? We differenciate the waves from the ocean, but it's one and same ocean, the waves being a perpetual and temporary aspect of it. evrything has its own particular vibration and field that translates into whatever form or non-form is found in the entire creation, if there can be found a limit. We as individuals, just as the rest of Creation manifested and not manifested, are each animated by a unique vibration-frequency that produces unique aspects that some call appearance, identity and the karma that supposedly rules it. Why would the frequency radically change at death of the body? Energy apparently can not be destroyed. It is in perpetual transformation. The body has a time limit. What animated it temporarily? We identify with the created but forget or are unaware of the underlying force that supports everything.
What I the mind find unfair is to reap what other entities sowed! But for that, the mind has to believe in its own reality and substance, in its limitation of being preoccupied with the concept of itself. In the end, what difference does it make if karma and reincarnation are realities or not? Energy follows its own course according ot itself through time impersonally. And time? Is it real and absolute or a concept? We can't answer with the mind, only be aware of it beyond all concepts, time included, through direct experience, becoming it. Even that is wrong because everything already is in its perfect place.
When awareness is aware of itself, where would the need for questions and answer find a base to stand on?
Reply to Mike
Hello Mike. You asked the question, "time? Is it real and absolute or a concept?" I would argue that time is real, not simply a concept. Time is a method by which we measure activity. For instance, we can count our heartbeats and use the time that elapses between one and twenty beats as a measure of time. The absence of time would be stasis, and that is not what we observe in creation.
The problem with reincarnation
Hi Peter,
When investigating whether reincarnation is real or not, I see no other way than to keep removing the relative to its source. Is there any difference? Our understanding is based on separation. That is the root of all questions, from what I see in myself. Questions and answers belong to the journey of the devided mind. However, can you or I find a space that is separate from the infinite rest? Where would it be? How could it possibly be? Once you have seen beyond thought and concepts that there is only one that contains infinite possibility, that words can not enter that awareness, what is there left to say or to wonder about? Only presence is. As long as we are driven to think and to do, we think and we do. Energy flows and transforms according to itself. We don't need to figure out the workings of the infinite. Why is it that these questions drive some to seek while others persue other attractions? Energy has infinite variations and animates us in different ways, and in different ways as "time" passes, as it transforms. Everything is therefore in it's just place at all times. Time is a useful relative measure, but what sustains everything is aware and unaware of it while being independent of it. It is correct, creation and time are inevitably linked. Before man was, before he found a way to understand his surroundings in terms of time, transformation was part of essence. I find it very difficult to talk about this because words and concepts have an integrated limitation, and are in fact only a pointer while being also an obstacle. I say nothing new. The difficulty, is triggering in another body-mind the experience of awareness. For several decades I tried with my intellectual capacity and sensibility to pierce the secret of understanding, of stepping into the teachings of realized teachers. Although I thought I was getting some of it, I saw squat. Only when the direct experience took place was that awareness possible from "the inside". It's very different. But till that occurs in one way or another, we are driven to seek, being convinced that we are the doers, the authors of our actions and thouhgts. And that's ok, that's the state of the energy that animates us in the way that it does at any given moment (time :) Everything is always perfect and could not be any different. We can't understand everything, nor is it necessary to be at peace with what is. Me at peace with the rest? what's the difference? Who/what is that identity at peace with the whole that it is? The mind and thinking can't go beyond their limitation. There can not be any separation at all.
These are just words that belong to limitation, pointing to what has no limit and that is everything. Everything and limitation are limited concepts, yet supported by essence. Words create a dense jungle. As some point out, there is nothing to say.
The problem with reincarnation
Yes, it has to be experienced, waves of consciousness then quiten all questions and search for answers. That is “my” experience, and it seems to have revealed itself in “you” according to itself.
Language seems inadequate once It has been experienced because it sits on concepts that veil the immensity and simplicity of reality
Reincarnation as purely a matter of odds
So often we get caught up in thinking things that aren't infinite are infinite. We think there are an infinite number of stories that could be imagined but that simply isn't true. Every single thing that exists in the universe exists as a discrete bit of information. Even your thoughts are bits of physical information. There are only X number of particles in our universe and therefore only N number of ways of arranging those particles. In one aspect you could consider your existence as if it was a giant dice roll.
Our consciousness, our sense of being awake and aware, seems to be mostly a microtubule effect. There have been some striking discoveries regarding microtubules and the processing capacity they have, theories from Stuart Hammeroff and Roger Penrose and confirmed by other scientists. So it may be the actual structure of our brain functions like a quantum antenna and receives our conciousness. Now if the Many Worlds QM theory holds up that means there have always been universes popping into existence throughout infinity. Since there are only so many ways a universe can be ordered, that means there is a possibility to have the same fundamental information structure in a particular brain's microtubules in every universe.
So, Bob dies. Alice sees Bob's body interred and she lives her life without the friendship of Bob. From Bob's perspective, the moment he lost conciousness from death and his micrtubules had no underlying gray matter to exist on he lost all sense of time. Even if it took a trillion to the quadrillionth power of years and trillions and trillions of universes being born and dying, the first one which has a repeat of Bob's microtubule structure, or its equivalent, then Bob exists in that universe.
I say equivalent because information can say the same thing in different formats. If it was possible to download a person's psyche and conciousness onto artifical memory, it would still fundamentally be that person.
Just because somebody is reincarnated into a new universe does not mean they will have the same body, or even be the same species. Philosophers wonder if a person changes throughout their life, then is the baby the same person as the wizened old man? I think we can break it down further by saying what kind of person are you on a good day versus your worst day? Environmental factors and genetic ways to deal with those factors greatly affect behavior. My guess is that being reincarnated means you don't take your personality. You only take your awake state. How your interact with your environment after billions of years of evolution dictates behavior far more than the baseline of merely being concious.
If you extend this type of reincarnation, at some time you will be born the exact same person you are now with the esact same life even though the odds are astronomical, given enough time, a thing that can happen will. Or, at some point you will be reincarnated into a different person, different gender, different species and live every life that can be lived.
In some ways its reinvigorating in that we get a fresh start, usually without baggage from a previous life. In other ways its exhausting because the moment you die, before the next moment occurs, you are already reborn into a new existence.
For the reincarnation cases where people have past memories of particularly unfamous persons who can remember parts of their lives, that is odd and borders on unbelievable to me. However, if there is a way to transmit information between incarnations even if extremely unlikely, it does happen and will happen. I just can't think of a way to transmit that information between incarnations with our current understanding of information.
Two ways of knowing
Hi B man: There are two ways of understanding the world – you are focusing only on materialism. I suggest that you carefully read the following article:
Karunamuni, N. (2015). The Five-Aggregate Model of the Mind. SAGE Open, 5 (2).
A thought experiment
After posting my previous reply I remembered something that occurred to me some years ago after reading about cryonics. In popular views of reincarnation, a person's spirit leaves the body at death and then enters the body of a fetus somewhere. Just imagine that John Smith dies and his body is put in cryonic suspension for many years. His spirit has left his body and taken up residence in a newborn called Harry Jones who develops normally and grows up. So John Smith has become Harry Jones. Or has he? At some stage, scientists manage to revive John Smith. What happens to his spirit? It has already started another life. Does it abandon its new life as Harry Jones and return to John Smith? Can the same spirit exist as John Smith and Harry Jones simultaneously? Can two different people be the same person? And what about their karma? Does the karma accumulated by Harry Jones affect the fate of the newly revived John Smith? Don't they each have their own karma now?
When John Smith is revived, I would bet that the last thing he remembers is from before his death. So from his perspective he is still the same person. Yet according to the reincarnation theory the "real" John has become Harry, so who is this newly revived John? Is he just a duplicate of the real John, even though he has all of his memories and feels like the same person?
It would seem that having a soul separate from the body leaves us in a confused state. The karma theory does not seem to resolve the issue either.
reincarnation
To my understanding, a fetus is not a baby, the soul enters at the third trimester and not at conception. But that is my experience, not someone else's
A thought experiment
Hi Scott. What would there be to revive if the soul/consciousness/self had already left the body?
The real issue...
... isn't "re-incarnation" it is just sloppy thinking.
All people are are physical arrangements of matter and energy. In the same way a can is recycled a person is recycled, think of all the atoms that have been recycled from planets into animals back into plants and other organisms ad infinitum.
The problem is the DEFINITION and how buddhists think about it, re-incarnation DOES EXIST but NOT as people think. If we think of consciousness as just PHYSICAL RESOURCES arranged in a particular way allowing perception then at some point this consciousness resource is re-used and recycled. The problem is each person that becomes conscious/self aware it's EXACTLY the first time all over again, i.e. the person is a new person de-facto.
We can imagine a universe in which your body's atoms are the only ones and then are purposefully re-arranged (for the sake of argument) into their basic elements then re-arranged back into a newborn baby.
So even using the SAME ATOMS in a body means you're not going be conscious as you, it'll be the first time all over again.
So talking about re-incarnation is pointless, since. It's always the first time all over again. What people perceive as themselves is merely a collection of information over a given lifetime. That resets completely at death.
The same way we were all dead atoms strewn about the earth as dead plants and animals. Everyone doesn't think in terms of the CIRCUIT/CYCLE of eating/defecating/growing food/cells shedding/brain cells dying and being replaced. Countless atoms have already been re-used and recycled into our bodies and the process will continue.
Every year your own body weight worth of cells has died off and been shed. We just don't really think about the skin cells that constantly fall off and shed that we're not aware of. The process is so invisible to the naked eye mostly because it happens so slowly.
We perceive ourselves as something solid and continuing but that's not the real way life works, countless generations of cells have lived and died inside our bodies and minds and we falsely perceive this continuous process as something "solid".
The same way you can see an alzheimers patient become someone else entirely as their brain function deteriorates, or people who've had their brain damaged in accidents.
Yes I was thinking the same
Yes I was thinking the same thing about how science can actually explain alot, law of conservation. Energy not created all destroyed just changes form. The eternity reincarnation is like you said the atoms and unseen forces that make up reality. One big meat factory recycle machine. Properly the only way it can self exist is by consuming replicating itself through its many agents of bio life forms, a feedback loop.
I think what you are
I think what you are referring to in your article is what I think Buddhism is ego - this sense of self that Buddhism also says is empty. I think to answer the question of how these children can remember who they are or former lives, one might have to look at the reincarnation of tulkus - highly enlightened lamas that can apparently predict where they will reincarnate and can even at death after their internal organs have stopped delay the effects of decay until their conscious has decided they want to leave. I think there is a term for this state in Catholicism because it's been reported in quite a number of their saints. Whilst these tulkus can remember aspects of their former lives, they are completely new people who are free to do as they choose. Some have even decided to give up their exulted rinpoche title to live as civilians. I think that yes, what is reincarnated is primarily our karma and that our previous identity has little to do with future reincarnations. This is kind of like a nature vs nurture argument - and karma being something that affects our environment, I would suggest that our sense of identity is formed from environmental events.
Reincartion as Energy Transfer
Some very interesting perspectives shared thusfar. What about the possiblity of reincarnation as a transfer of energy? Can energy carry information? I've begun to think that when a person dies part of their energy is simply transferred to another environment in which great energy was needed for creation (birth). I'm still working through this, but it feels like it has some potential. If energy is transferred, perhaps the information that was connected to that energy becomes part of the person born. It is in this way that they are able to recall information of that person's life. Could it then lend to the idea that when the person is "frozen" and brought back their memory acts as the information storage - therefore allowing the information to exist in two people at once. And we are hypothesizing that the brain would go on funtioning just as it had before after being frozen for that long. I'm not sure how Karma would play in but I have to think of it similar to the way our own energy affects those around us. My energy most certainly affects those around me and I am affected by them. In that way, might we say that as the energy transfers, the "feel" of the energy goes with it and that could be the karma? Just some thoughts and possibilities I have considered.
Réincarnation
Read the book mind war by. Mario beauregard from Montréal university on the soul in out of body experiences.
Consciousness
Consciousness, quantum and space time. It is not reincarnation. It is rebirth - the countless cycles of birth and death in accordance with the laws of the universe determined by the law of casuality, the same as any other equations in this universe. Action and reaction. Cause and effect. A manifestation of consciousness when the conditions are right.
Buddhist who doesn't believe in reincarnation?
Interesting how you claim to practice Buddhism yet in the Survey of the Paths by Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama points out that not believing in reincarnation as a practising Buddhist goes against the 10th vow, or as his holiness calls it a 'wrong view.' Reincarnation is a pretty important part of Buddhism. Just saying. I totally believe in reincarnation, it's the only thing that makes sense to me. I actually think it's very selfish to not believe in reincarnation. I could never fathom why babies and young children die... There are people that don't believe in reincarnation like the person who wrote this article, You think you were the lucky ones? We all are given many chances to live in different shells (bodies) to experience life from different perspectives. Sometimes we are born with a disability, other times we die as an infant, other times we are extremely gifted etc. Nothing else makes sense to me. We live multiple lives in the hopes of becoming more empathetic, compassionate, selfless, aware and enlightened. Habits, phobias, and some circumstances are largely determined by past lives. I don't believe of a phobia arising out of thin air. For instance I have an extreme phobia of needles, even a pin pricking me and seeing the drop of blood ooze out is almost enough to make me pass out. Why do I have this fear? It must have been carried over from a past life.
Tibetan Buddhism is only one
Tibetan Buddhism is only one branch of Buddhism and for many Buddhists it (and its leader the Dalai Lama) are not the authority they turn to to understand the teachings of the Buddha. This is not to say that I dispute that the Buddha taught a belief in reincarnation, but I think a strong case can be made that such a believe is not required to achieve Nirvana.
Phobias
I like your comments, they are very on point. Refer to Journey of Souls by Michael Newton, who has documented discussions with hypnotized patients about pain that has no source in this lifetime. You can download a pdf online, he changed his hypnotherapy practice to deal with these issues when it began to occur over and over again. There are now certified hypnotherapists around the country who have learned how to cure these issues. http://newtoninstitute.org/
reincarnation
What is more important to you, to understand where your phobia of needles comes from or what is that supposed identity that fears needles and death? Who/what hopes to be kinder, more compassionate and enlightened?
memories
I was raised by an open-minded atheist (he later converted when in his 60s to Christianity) father. When I was not quite two years old, I toddled up to Dad & asked, "when do we get to go back to Scotland & be soldiers again?" He told me never to be afraid of "old memories." So I grew up letting past life memories (to me they were just "old memories") come as they would. I've had many clear "flashbacks" from other lives.
When my nephew was not quite 3, his mother died. I'd only seen him previously when he was an infant. My brother was always gone (Navy) & his mother raised my nephew in a small, southern, deeply Baptist town. She & my brother were devoutly Baptist & against any "nonsense" like reincarnation. My brother, sister & I were talking about my nephew's mother the day of her funeral, and began laughing about some funny things she'd said & done. My nephew came up to me & said "Don't you know my Mama's dead!" I said "Yes, but we believe in Heaven & know she's up there now." He frowned and thought & then said "I used to be a mechanic but that engine thing fell on my head & when I woke up, I was (his name)" My brother was furious and asked "What have you been telling him!" I said "You have been right here with me. I haven't said one word about that stuff."
When my niece was two, the family was all out to dinner, all talking at once. Suddenly, she looked seriously at me & then at my father and said "When I was little boy, I goed at 'Fornia." (The mention of California had never come up) I said "tell us more" and she said "you know!!"
I have many experiences with children telling me this sort of thing and I always honor their "old memories." I do believe in Heaven as a final place after we've worked out all our problems in various lives. And as a stopping place between lives.
The little boy who knew so much about a downed WWII pilot seems to me a realistic recount of a past life. And the many millions of Buddhists, Hinduists and others who believe in reincarnation are quite convinced it's real.
Soul
These books give me insight related to the issue; Journey of souls and Destiny of souls by Michael Newton
It's all subjective
The problem with medical "sciences" like psychology or psychiatry is they try to take a study of subjective reality and make it objective. God can never be proved to exist objectively. The soul can never be proved to exist objectively. Reincarnation can never be proved to exist objectively. A thought can never be proved to exist objectively. Opps. Did I just say that? A thought can't be proved to exist objectively? Ask a brain surgeon or neurologist if, in all their operations of cutting into a brain, if they've ever seen a thought. No one has ever seen a thought. They doesn't exist, objectively speaking. It is impossible to prove that thoughts exist, yet everyone has them. For that matter has any brain surgeon ever seen a memory? Hmm. The act of trying to objectively prove something that exists subjectively is impossible. Reincarnation falls into this category. It's a memory. You can't prove it exists or doesn't exist. But I would think psychology would be most interested, not in proving if something exists on an objective level, but simply making the person feel better subjectively.
the right view
Reincarnation can be proven I and only if only if you are able to let your fragile reality collapsed and forge into a new one.
The Buddha's teaching associated reincarnation with karma to some extent, if you acknowledge that karma exist then reincarnation exist.
Just so that everyone's knows, Buddhism acknowledge heaven...it is another realm of illusion just as everything.
Karma and Reincarnation
Karma is both the negative and the positive culmination/reactions to your actions and that which you've done and lived. I recently discovered after waking flashbacks to a place that only research would verify for me, that I was Gia Carangi in my last lifetime. Until the point where that happened, all my life I had recurring dreams about being stuck in a house as it collapsed around me and not being able to get back to the first floor (the physical). As a child, I had asthma and breathing problems so bad that I could not breathe without being on codeine cough syrup and a breathing machine multiple times a day. When researching the subject, I discovered that she was kept alive after massive organ failure and her body falling apart to the tune of huge strips of skin literally falling from the bone (Steven-Johnson's Syndrome) via a respirator. After piecing together that research in other fields has shown dreams as connected to past life karma, I realized that it was being trapped there while she was on life support that caused me to have the nightmares I'd had all my life. After this, I had the dream one more time, and did manage to get back to the ground floor, only it was a different house. I've not had it since. There are also the question of sameness in gesture, word choice, activities, interests, even sexuality and gender identity, relation with mother, the rabbit hole has no bottom. It's literally ALL connected to other lives. That is the reflection of your karma. That is you. My interest in modelling when I was a five year old child? It was my career. My desire to be a cook? She worked in a sub shop before the modelling. I think if one has access to enough information about enough lifetimes, it is readily apparent that there's not a single iota of who you are that is NOT a carryover from a past life, except things that happen as the result of actions in this life, which will go on to be a part of you in the next, and so on.
Buddhism teaches rebirth, not
Buddhism teaches rebirth, not reincarnation. There is not a self. Buddha uses the example of the flame and the candles to explain about the anatman/anatta. Imagine 4 candles. If I use the first one to light the second, the second one to light the third one, and the third one to light the fourth one, could we say that the fourth candle has the same flame as the first one? No, but there is a continuity or a link between the first flame and the last one. But there is not an essence in the first flame that makes the fourth exactly the same thing as the fourth one.
My english is horriblle and I don't know how if u can understand me. But actually I am surprised, because your explanation is about reincarnation (Allan Kardec' spiritism), not about rebirth (Buddhism).
reincarnation
I found this article at the top of Google when I did a search for what percentage of the world believes in reincarnation. As far as your question, you could look in yoga. Did you know that Buddhism and yoga are essentially the same. Example is that Wikipedia says that Milarepa is a yogi that is a major figure of Tibetan Buddhism.
Only people that suffer reincarnate. You get as many turns as you need to get to the point where you do not suffer and then you need not reincarnate. An example is Buddha. While alive he became what he really was and there is no longer a need for reincarnation. In fact you can say that what incarnates is the illusory self. So people that suffer (because of ego or illusory self) reincarnate until they no longer suffer and become one with oneness.
It is difficult to talk about this since in the physical world there is quantity, time and space. In the non-physical world these things do not exist. For example are there 7 billion souls or one soul?
past lives
First this is not proof to anyone but I have had experiences with reincarnation. Like I met the woman that used to be my grandmother who died when I was 6 years old. Also I have had other experiences. Of course if you cannot remember them, they never happened. Here is an article about them.
Scientology originated their own beliefs. For example they believe in past lives but not reincarnation. Now you could ask what is the difference? They do not believe in a system of beliefs called reincarnation created by someone else.
Dianetics was a perfect system. They used a system of regression where they could get rid of a person's mental/emotional problems. When they got rid of them all, a person is perfect. So it was a perfect system where people could become perfect and they were called clears. They got rid of all the problems of this life and as any American knows, we only have one life. There was even a 500+ page book written about this system, called Dianetics.
But when they did regressions people remembered things that happened before they were born. Since that is impossible, they ignored them. Then L Ron Hubbard thought he would have some fun by running a memory that happened before someone was born. So he did and the person had better results than spending months of regressions.
So he did it some more and then decided that people do have past lives. Of course that ruined the perfect system of Dianetics. Also people make fun of Scientology's belief in past lives. You can get rid of the problem's of 85 years but to get rid of problems of thousands of years takes much longer. That is why it takes so long to get enlightened like Buddha did.
A continuum of consciousness
@ Alex Lickermann,
Your mind is puzzled by the right issues. And your assumptions and grounds regarding consciousness, reality and the relationship between body and mind all display a lack of basic understanding.
The zenbuddhistic "koans" were used to awaken the students ego from a rigid and limited use of the brain to another and more clear reality. Did you ever have a dream at night, in which you felt certain that you were going to die? The dream was real, and the threat you experienced was just as real?
And the very instant you were killed in that dream, you realized that you did not die. Death was an illusion. Because you woke up and realized that you had just reached a deeper level of consciousness. You were now waking up in your bed, realizing that you had participated in some kind of virtual reality. Just as your nightly dreams seems very real, what you call "reality" or your everyday life also seems very real. You are Alex Lickermann, right? Or at least this is what you have been led to believe through your socialization.
Your problem with reincarnation, is the same as your problem with consciousness. You mind has been trapped. And the zenbuddhistic koans were made to "untrap" the students minds from the very same trap in which you are helplessly stuck.
Think of the nature of Newtons Laws, which functions so fine at the macro level. But at the subatomic level completely different laws apply. Here you need to apply the theory of relativity.
If you want to identify the "Mechanism" of socalled "reincarnation" you need to apply the 12 dimensions of advanced physics and not just the 4 dimensions perceived by an enslaved mind.
Recent studies regarding near-death- and out-of-body-experiences points towards a completely different understanding of consciousness.
Consciousness seems to be able to exit the body and still exist.
Maybe because the whole definition of inside the body and outside the body is wrong. A misconception.
You are living a dream within a dream. Wearing virtual reality goggles. When you take them of, you do not die. You simply return to a deeper level of consciousness. And realize that what you thought was your identity was just a dream-illusion in which your mind was trapped.
The term "Reincarnation" is a latin term. Meaning "again in the flesh". This term is in itself misleading. And probably spawned by the Roman Church, which is said to have erased all indications of reincarnation from the scriptures which they picked to form The Bible. This is supposed to have happened at the Church meeting around the years 319-322.
It is a christian belief that we humans are sent here to Earth by God. But only once. But this is not logical. If God has the power to send us here, we are here, but we do not know how we got here? Then of course God can send us here again. Countless times without us understanding the "mechanism".
Perhaps until we finally get it.
Master [Hui-an] asked [Huai-jang], "Where are you coming from?"
Huai-jang said, "Mount Sung."
The Master said, "What sort of thing comes here like this?"
Huai-jang said, "To call it a 'thing' is to miss the mark."
The Master said, "Can it be cultivated or experienced?"
Huai-jang said, "It's not that it isn't cultivated or experienced, but rather that it isn't corrupted or defiled."
The Master said, "It's just because it isn't corrupted or defiled that it's treasured by all buddhas. You're like this. And I'm like this."
Whose Problem?
This article should be called "My Problem With Reincarnation" instead of "The Problem With Reincarnation"
reicarnation
A lot of what is said at a certain time depends on where it was said and the time it was said at. I have an article that says that they say that Jesus was one with God and the Buddha was enlightened. I say that though it is different words, it is the same thing. http://hub.me/ak3wB
Science
Have to say that science lacks explanation at times but is given time to formulate explanation when society agrees. On the contrary, spirituality is beyond the infancy of science. Until science can catch up, we will dismiss the obvious in spirituality.
Science
Thank you for your brief comments that sum this all up, totally agree with what you have said here. I would add that until someone is accepting and awake, they will not see the obvious. It took a cat soul to make me see more clearly, it's been quite an amazing story but I've learned thousands of others have pets returning to them all over the world. How many times she has come back to me is unknown at this point but she knows more about my past lives than I do and can recount them. I plan to write out this story one day as we are on our second life for her this time (that I am aware of) and each time I am led by a series of clues to where she is. The last time she reached out to me through a closet psychic in my cooperative and I found her through a species communicator. Unfortunately my siblings have not yet reached this stage so my disclosures are not taken well, they are very competitive and think they should be at the same level. It doesn't work that way, it's like we are all playing different parts in a new play each time we chose to come back. We all have different lessons and move forward at our own speed. Free will often gets in the way of progress from what I've seen. This is not about religion, which is clearly mind control (obviously necessary for humans). It is about science that society does not yet fully understand. Those scientists who clearly do see it appear to veil their knowledge to fit what the public will understand. If people are not ready to see it, there is nothing we can do to speed it up. It's their journey, one life at a time.
STUDY HINDUISM
Sir
Buddha(Gautama Siddhartha) is a Kshatriya. And he called himself as a reincarnation of Lord Rama(an avatar of God Vishnu). All the Buddhism concepts came from Hinduism. We followed Sanatana Dharma for more than 8000 years. And we believe that Vedic civilization was spread all over the world before the advent of Abrahamic faiths. The story of Jesus is strikingly similar to that of Lord Krishna(few thousand years before Jesus). Sir for us GOD is cosmic energy called Brahman and it is present in entire universe. Buddha explored one of the 114 ways of Shiva. I request you to kindly read Hindu scriptures to find an answer. And Patanjali's Yogashastra deals with this concept of reincarnation. Please go through it sir.
Considerations on the Plurality of Existences
Since I knew "the Spiritism," which is a philosophy based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, codified in the 19th Century by the French educator Allan Kardec, I have been convinced of the immortality of the soul and the plurality of the existences.
With all due respect to all different beliefs, I just want to pose some reflexions that I have always thought to myself, since I was a little boy. I want you all to think with me:
If God exists, He is the Supreme intelligence, infinitely Good and Fair, the Sublime Spectrum of Love and Gratitude, the Creator Uncreated, and the Divine Father of all of us.
So, how can we explain that in one hand some people are born in wealthy families, surrounded by love and protection. How can we explain that these same individuals may be attractive and healthy and well-educated. On the other hand, what is the equation that counterbalance the misery and calamities of being born in some forgotten region of Africa, where those unfortunates are doomed to die in young age by famine and thirsty or from some unbearable malady. How can we understand that are at this exact moment that you are reading this humble elucidation thousands of infants crying because of injustice and war, without even know why they were destined to such miserable fate. Even more, why some people die from cancer while others who are heavy smokers will never have any kind of suffering. If you try to answer these questions based only on the science, I may say you could eventually find temporary answers to support your opinion; however, based on the materialistic approach in which all sciences are grounded, you will find sooner or later some discomfort due to the negation of something sublime than all human Knowledge. Even though nobody never came back to tell us the vision of the other side, I shall nurture in myself that exists something greater and bigger that this here-and-now experience. Yet, I do believe that our knowledge is too limited and restricted to answer such argument. In other words, we are yet too "human" to understand the God's creation.
YOU PSYCHIATRIST ARE AFRAID OF KARMA IN NEXT LIFES
you will pay for what you do with inocent people in mental asylums. being atheists wont solve nothing. demiurge will punish you like the punish people like me. YOU WILL SUFFER.
Reincarnation, Karma
A water molecule doesn't know or worry about its incessant course from rain to ocean. It is part of the general movement of the essence that is impersonal and that is beyond times and concept. Unfortunately, we can seek and try to understand as persons, but until it reveals itself on its own, we can have no idea of what we're seeking, what the seeking is about, what is illusion, what is reality and how the two are intertwined.
Awareness seems to be more fundamental than to know if "we" will live a favorable or unfavorable future life and therefore watch our step in this one to influence our future, our karma, by doing this or that or refraining from certain postures and actions. If we understand that karma is in effect till identification ceases, what is the use of perpetuating identification with the preoccupation with our specific personal future(s)? That's a momentary distraction. It is for the mind to discover itself till it merges with its essence beyond all concepts, not try to manipulate the present and the future according to egocentric interest in gain that creates a world of concepts and conflicts. The process of merging that has no beginning or end is totally independent of the egocentric will. It dissolves it and all concepts as it unfolds. We're all, with very few exceptions, identified with our image and sense of personal identity. We didn't choose this, it is. Some quite happily, others less so. We don't choose the process that animates us nor the length to the merging/disappearance of identification. Karma is neither reward nor punishment. Obviously, we are more naturally drawn to happiness than to suffering. We don't like or want to suffer and we tend to want to alleviate the suffering we see in ourselves and in others. That's how life wired us. Energy doesn't die, it is and transforms. That's my perception, which must be limited.
Kudos
This was such a thought provoking and brilliant article, you spoke of a concept I had not begun to imagine nor comprehend. Thank you so much for your words, please keep writing and I hope you get the recognition as you deserve in your career.
reincarnation
Problem with reincarnation is if there is a finite amount of souls to be born what would happen if there are more people on earth than there are souls to be born. And if there is infinite amount of souls new people should be born, not the same ones over again.
Beings in different planes of existence
Milos: Buddhist teachings describe thirty-one different planes of existence - so, if beings from other planes of existence (such as the animal realm) were born into the human realm, then a population increase would be observed.
Understanding the causal connections
The “me” related questions together with reincarnation can be understood by considering how the ‘mind’ is comprehensively described in Buddhism, where its moment-by-moment manifestation happens as a result of causes and conditions constantly leading to other causes and conditions. When one understands this, one can realize that reincarnation HAS to be correct.
It should also be noted that Buddhist teachings separate “conventional reality” from “ultimate reality.” Conventional reality refers to knowledge and information concerned with living in the social world where we make various assumptions including the assumption of the existence of an unchanging ‘I’ and a ‘me’. Ultimate reality on the other hand is about developing wisdom that includes understanding what we refer to as an ‘I’ and a ‘me’ represents a constantly changing psycho-physical process. I suggest reading the following article to understand this process:
Karunamuni, N., and Weerasekera, R. (2017). Theoretical Foundations to Guide Mindfulness Meditation: A Path to Wisdom. Current Psychology, 1-20.
Reincarnation falls into the
Reincarnation falls into the realm of the paranormal. Is the paranormal emperically provable? No. Not by a long shot. What we have is a lot of alleged "unexplainable" phenomena and even some complicated theories as to what might exist in some undetectable dimension.
In hind sight regarding the paranormal in skeptical vernacular terms is woo. There's a very well written book, "Why People Believe in Weird Things", authored by Dr. Michael Shermer, Ph.D a world renowned skeptic, historian, scientific researcher and debunker, who painstaking presents the history and evolution of odd beliefs through the the ages. I highly recommend reading this book if ever you've come to crossroads with paranormal, religious or spiritual beliefs and want to know the intricacies of why irrational beliefs persist in modern established societies. I personally think that this book should be a mandatory text in schools and universities.
The evidence for reincarnation is strong
Hi Anuja: Being a skeptic is too much of an extreme – one can avoid that and think of these things as very plausible phenomena. Scientists (not all scientists though), need to know that there are other ways of understanding the world (i.e., there are different epistemologies). Dr. Rupert Sheldrake explains this issue well where he talks about the difference between “science as a method of inquiry based on reason, evidence, hypothesis and collective investigation vs. science as a belief system or a world view” he says that “the latter has started to inhibit and constrict free inquiry, which is the life blood of the scientific endeavor.”
Regarding reincarnation - many research studies (conducted by Dr. Ian Stevenson, Jim Tucker and many other researchers) have carefully investigated children who remember past lives. In these studies, children who present with memories of previous lives are extensively interviewed and if they give specific names or locations (cities, towns), the previous life individual is traced and verified using death certificates and autopsy records, etc. They have studied thousands of such cases (there are many books by these researchers). But several scientists do not even look at the evidence because they have ‘confirmation bias’ (the tendency to search for and favour information in a way that confirms one’s pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses).
the problem with reincarnation
I once read a book by a French author, Denise Desjardins, on past lives and reincarnation where she wrote about her own experience. You may be familiar with the name of a 20th century Indian sage, Ma Anandamayi. In Denise's previous life, that sage had saved her life, and in this one she became her disciple...
Memory is not in the brain
“Rather, it's this: just exactly what do they think gets reincarnated?” – All your questions have been answered already. Bible says – “There is nothing new under the sun.” That means no new answer can be given. In the same way Vedas say – “Nonexistent cannot become existent.” If you search the internet you will find your answers. Internet has erroneous and misleading information, but it also has all the truths. Entire Veda is there on the internet also. The answers will be very long, but the following free book may help - Soul Theory at Wordpress dot com
Human body has three parts – (1) Soul, (2) Subtle body, and the (3) Gross body. It is the gross body that you see and touch. Gross body dies. The subtle body reincarnates. Soul always stays with the subtle body, but it is not part of the subtle body. It is the soul that created both the subtle body and the gross body.
EXAMPLE1 - Human body does not grow naturally in mother’s womb. You know about birth-mark type reincarnation examples from Stevenson’s book. But you probably do not know that in one such case to save the child, the doctors performed surgery on the baby, and found the complete straight line bullet path inside the body, matching the autopsy data of the previous life body. This clearly proves that the soul was manufacturing the body according to the destiny of that soul, because during this manufacturing process there was no brain for the baby.
Subtle body has (1) Intelligence (2) Mind (3) Identity (4) Sense organs (5) etc. See the above book for details. Thus our brain has nothing to do with our performances. Soul commands the subtle body, subtle body commands the brain, then the brain controls the gross body to gain all the experiences the destiny needs.
Memory is not in the brain, not even in the mind, memory is in the universe. Your memories, my memories for all times, are all already written in the memory of the universe. Any high level yogi with the power of third eye, will be able to read this memory, and can tell what will happen, when, and how. The above surgery example also proves this design. Here is another interesting example, to establish this memory concept.
EXAMPLE2 - Pat Norris came to see a yogi, visiting USA from India, during the early 1970s. When she entered the office of the yogi, he told Pat to ask seven questions and one by one she did. Then the yogi picked up a paper from his desk, turned it upside down, and gave that to her. In that paper all her questions were already written along with their answers.
There are many such examples in the literature. For more answers, please take a look at the yogic power, reincarnation, destiny, and also the soul theory chapter in the above free book.
advaita vedanta
Please read advaita vendanta purported by Adi Shankara to find your answers
reincarnation
Not everyone is going to remember their past lives. I remember (some) of my past lives from this planet, but apparently some of my memories go beyond that. I believe strongly in life on other planets, and i remember some of my lives from other planets too. I mean its ok if there are Buddhists that dont believe in reincarnation, but dont dare tell me I am wrong, because that will not convince me otherwise, because what i remember is probably not the same as what others remember.
The river is essentially water
I realize I am responding years down he line from when this article was originally posted but I wanted to share an idea that struck me when I read the sentence: "Our lives are in constant motion, and to imagine that we could take a snapshot of them at any one point in time and somehow capture that which represents our essential selves strikes me as arguing that an actual snapshot of a flowing river represents its one true shape."
Doesn't water represent the essential nature of a river? Isn't water invariable, in that it is ALWAYS comprised of the same ratio of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, regardless of what shape or form it takes, whether liquid, vapor or ice? And, more profoundly, don't all rivers lead to the sea? What happens to the river when it meets with the ocean? It merges with more water. So, applying this metaphor, perhaps our "essence" is simply a small part of a universal essence that, upon reincarnation, collapses into individual shapes and forms. This universal essence is what gets incarnated. Doesn't Buddhism teach about the illusion of separateness? Perhaps our sense of "self" or separateness is merely an illusion that seems "real" to us when we incarnate. Perhaps who we are is just a portion of a whole that is indistinguishable from anything else in the sphere of spirit and mind.
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