Hello, dear readers – seekers of knowledge and truth!
These questions worried people thousands of years ago and continue to worry us now: what awaits the soul after death? Is there a transmigration of souls? If so, how does it happen?
So, the topic of our conversation today will be difficult, but very interesting - we will talk about what the reincarnation of the soul is and try to get a little closer to unraveling the eternal mysteries of humanity.
We will also learn how Buddhism views the phenomenon of reincarnation, how it occurs, and what the main directions of Buddhist thought say about it.
What it is
Probably everyone who saw off loved one V last way, secretly dreamed of meeting him again, even if not on earth. Meanwhile, many thinkers of different times were confident that the soul of the deceased would soon move into a new body, so in theory, a meeting with a loved one is more than real.
Reincarnation is the name given to the phenomenal phenomenon of reincarnation of the soul. The word "reincarnation" is of Latin origin, literally meaning "reincarnated." The ancient Greek version of the concept is metempsychosis.
It turns out that only the body dies, but the soul is immortal. Such ideas arose among the Eskimos, Jews, Indians originally from North America. They believed that the soul of his grandfather or another older deceased relative lived in the newborn.
Thinkers seriously thought about rebirth Ancient Greece: Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato. The idea of reincarnation became fundamental in Jain, Sikhist, and most importantly in Buddhist and Hindu philosophy.
How the soul is reborn
All feelings, thoughts, sensations of a person are the subtle body of the spirit. When a person dies, only his physical shell actually dies, but his mind and dreams remain at the level subtle body, which will later move into a new physical shell. After how long - the teaching is silent about this.
But we know what happens during reincarnation:
- death of the physical body;
- transmigration of the soul;
- birth in another body.
According to Buddhism, namely the teachings of abhidharma, there are 6 worlds of samsara, where they live:
- hellish creatures - naraka;
- spirits consumed by hunger - pretas;
- animals;
- People;
- demigods - asuras;
- celestials, gods - devas.
This means that the soul can incarnate in one of six creatures. The law that influences who she will be born in her next incarnation is the law of cause and effect. It says that positive actions and thoughts entail favorable consequences, and negative actions lead to bad consequences.
On a more global level, this law can be understood as follows: for good deeds the soul will be incarnated in the higher worlds: the creature will become a human, an asura or even a deva, for bad deeds - in the lower ones, which means it will end up in the abode of animals, pretas or hellish creatures.
In the lower worlds, the soul will suffer, working out karma, in order to then be reborn at a higher level.
This is due to two reasons:
- It is a person who is prone to thinking and critical worldview.
- Only man can comprehend the essence.
Reincarnation in the main directions of Buddhism
There is no unanimous statement as to how the Buddhist tradition and the Teacher himself relate to the concept of reincarnation. There is an opinion that the Buddha argued that it does not matter whether it exists, whether a follower of the Teaching believes in it, but what is really important is to keep the mind pure, flexible, noble.
Two major currents of Buddhist thought have different views on the process of rebirth and the fact of its existence in general. Let's try to understand the intricacies.
Theravada
At the beginning, a small explanation - Hinduism operates with the concept of “atman”, which means “soul”, “I”, living forever. The southern branch of Buddhism adopted a radically opposite position: worldly creatures do not have a soul - “anatman”. If there is no soul, then there is nothing to reincarnate.
He speaks ambiguously on this matter. She claims that what many are accustomed to calling the subtle body is actually a system of elements:
- material shell;
- Feel;
- sensory perception;
- motives, motives;
- consciousness.
When Living being dies, these elements disintegrate. But it does not mean complete death, non-existence. Some substance absorbs them, and later incarnates in another body, thereby reconnecting the elements.
It turns out that Theravada does not completely deny reincarnation, but rather sees in it a new milestone in the development of the elements of the subtle body, new life. This process is sometimes called “karma of the five elements.”
Mahayana
The current fully recognizes the process of rebirth in its classical sense. Bright to that an example is the Tibetan Dalai Lama. After the death of the spiritual leader, the council of lamas goes in search of the boy who embodied the spirit of the Dalai Lama.
And he really finds it. The teacher, having been reborn in a new body, feels his personal belongings and unerringly selects them among other objects that the lamas place in front of him as a test.
Mahayana believes that three things stand in the way of awakening:
- ignorance;
- attachments;
- disgust.
Achieving nirvana is impossible without defeating these mistakes. But if the spirit succeeds, he ascends above the six worlds and receives eternal liberation.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, in the format of one article it is difficult to consider in detail such a complex issue as rebirth, but we will definitely return to it later. Let us consider that today is just the beginning.
Thank you very much for your attention, dear readers!
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Many of those who pay attention to their spiritual development have come across stories that talk about such a phenomenon as the rebirth of the soul after death.
After the death of the body, the soul immediately or after some time incarnates in another. The ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Pythagoras and Plato believed in it.
Reincarnation is spoken of in Kabbalah. Many
They describe cases where people remember their past lives and identify themselves with a specific person.
Behind last decades The number of people who believe in reincarnation has increased significantly.
The souls of children return
Often mothers who have lost their children for some reason see their souls in the newly born.
The small North Ossetian town of Beslan in 2004 turned into a territory of sorrow. 186 children died. In the first three years after the tragedy, seventeen children appeared in the families of those killed in Beslan.
Zarina Dzhampaeva, who lost her son Zaur in that tragedy, was categorically forbidden by doctors to become a mother for the second time. Even after the birth of her first child, she received a transfusion of contaminated blood, resulting in cirrhosis of the liver, chronic hepatitis and disability. Three years were a real nightmare.
One morning, Zarina approached her mother in a completely different way - she was unusually cheerful, saying that a swallow had begun to build a nest above one of the windows of the house - which meant that they would soon have a child.
Lidiya Dzampaeva: “ I saw Zaurik in a dream, and he was such a cheerful boy. He came, stood next to me and told me - Granny, I was born again, I am yours again. I told this dream and say, Zarina, don’t be afraid, this child will be born.”.
After another examination, it became clear that Zarina was carrying a child under her heart. How one doctor tried to persuade her to terminate her pregnancy. Having given a receipt, the expectant mother refused. Doctors called the birth of an absolutely healthy boy, Alan, a miracle.
Zarina believes that she has already met the soul of her dead son. The soul was reborn after the death of Zaur. For Zarina they are obvious. The boy is most drawn to his deceased brother's favorite toys, and when he looks at his photographs he becomes indescribably delighted.
Resurrected
Along with Zaur, 14-year-old Sonya Arsoeva died on that fateful day. Exactly to his mother, promising to return. Fatima Arsoeva, the mother of the deceased Sonya, endured the pregnancy surprisingly easily, carrying 
depending on your age. The girl was named Anastasia, which means “resurrected.”
“Every day I find something new from Sonechka in my daughter. Nastya can play with Sonya's favorite toys for hours.”
The girls are very different only in appearance. In her habits, character and even her first words, little Nastya exactly repeats the deceased Sonya.
“My first daughter, Sonya, and I were a very strict mother - both in clothes and in everything. I really regret this“says Fatima Arsoeva. - " If the soul of the deceased Sonya really incarnated in her sister Anastasia, this time her childhood will be happier«.
Conscious rebirth of the soul after death
Do you want ? It is believed that the conscious rebirth of the soul after death is within the power of a few enlightened Tibetan lamas. On the eve of their death, they can name the date and place of their future birth. Which greatly simplifies their search in the future. This is what happens with the line of the highest Tibetan lamas of the Karma Kagyu tradition - the Karmapas.
Back in the twelfth century, the first Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, left a letter before his death indicating the exact time, place and family into which he would next be born. His followers just had to go there, find him and start teaching him. Since then, he has been dying and being reborn to continue his mission. Conscious transformations help preserve the traditions of this religious teaching. The chain of reincarnations from the 12th century was not interrupted until today never.
In the last century, the sixteenth Karmapa was born in 1924 in one of the provinces of Tibet, where the monks found him thanks to a letter from his predecessor. After his death in 1981, the search was on for his next reincarnation. For the first time in many centuries, a successor was not immediately discovered. This time, ordinary people helped find him. They said that they knew an unusual child, who has called himself Karmapa since childhood.
The seventeenth Karmapa, Thaye George, was found at the age of eleven. The monks carried out a check - they showed the boy several personal belongings of his predecessor, and the child unmistakably chose them. After which he was recognized as the next reincarnation of the Karmapa, which allows us to talk about the reality of conscious reincarnations.
Now, looking at Thaye George, it’s hard to imagine that he survived more than one life. One day the day will come when he will leave a letter of prediction with information about where and when he will be reborn next time.
While the Tibetan Karmapas are reborn once every century.
How does organ transplantation affect the soul experience?
But what happens when a person real life suddenly receives a memory of another soul's experience? As happens with organ transplants and blood transfusions.
Doctors have noticed that organ transplant patients experience personality changes. They develop character traits that patients did not possess before the transplant.
The concept of reincarnation is closely related to knowledge about human cellular memory. Memory of the soul, And from life to life the soul transfers all its experience, entering a new one with each incarnation physical body.
An organ entering another body can lead to changes in psychosomatic reflexes that are not
controllable by the brain. In other words: Together with donor organs, a person receives a piece of the donor soul.
Jewish girl Yael Aloni received a heart transplant at the age of nine, after which she began playing football. The donor for Yael was a thirteen-year-old boy, Omri, who was covered with sand while playing.
Despite all the efforts of the doctors, the miracle did not happen. The boy died without regaining consciousness. Doctors persuaded the parents to donate their son's organs to other people in need. So, after his death, the boy was able to help seven people.
In order for rehabilitation after the operation to be successful, the girl needed to take many medications. She took them while snacking on chocolate - with a new heart she received strong love for sweets.
Passion to active species rest was also a new “acquisition” for her - immediately after the operation she went on an excursion with her classmates.
“I have much more strength now. I now put more effort into fulfilling my desires. If before I had no serious hobbies, now I am seriously involved in dancing. I really like hip-hop because it has a lot of sports elements.“says Yael.
The girl’s mother noticed that from a withdrawn, uncommunicative child, her daughter became the life of the party. Any injustice could cause Yael to have an attack of aggression.
“She became bolder - in in a good way, began to answer me in a way that she had not answered before. She began to show more clearly that she didn’t like something. I don’t know where she gets her character.”
According to the boy's father, Ofer Gilmore, his son was cheerful, active child. He was respected by his peers for his fairness and honesty. He never let himself be offended and always defended the weak.
Yael Aloni's mother wanted to meet the parents of the boy, thanks to whom her daughter is now alive. The meeting was tense, because the boy’s parents were in mourning. To defuse the situation, the girl turned on music. The boy's parents were shocked when, out of all the disks, Yael chose the one that their son liked best.
“At that moment I realized how similar they are, says Omri's father, Ofer Gilmore, Even their manner of speaking and remaining silent is the same. Yael reminds me a lot of my son”.
One day, when Omri came across information about donation in a cafe, he read it and for some reason said that he could become a donor. Remembering this incident, his parents decided that it was a kind of testament to their son.
To date, Yael Aloni has also filled out the donor card - lifetime consent for transplantation internal organs those in need in the event of her death.
Heart transplant helps solve crime
Several years ago, in one of the US cities, residents were shocked by the murder of a ten-year-old girl. There was no evidence, no witnesses, and the case was about to be closed. But a girl called the station who was in... The narrator received a heart transplant from a girl killed by a maniac.
After the operation, the child began to have nightmares in which she was killed. She told her doctor about this. After listening to the smallest details of his patient’s story, the doctor was convinced that we were talking about the circumstances of the death of the donor girl.
The phenomenon of the rebirth of the soul after death allows traditions to continue and gives people hope for the revival of their loved ones and a meeting with them.
We have all heard about such a phenomenon as Reincarnation. Some have read about this in books, some have seen films about it, heard from friends, but for the most part, this is where acquaintance and analysis often end this concept. But understanding this phenomenon and the process plays important role for each of us.The one who is born will certainly die, and the one who dies will be born again...
Bhagavad-gita, 2.27
Reincarnation, or reincarnation, is the opportunity given to us by God to be born again. The entire Universe and man as a particle of it develops and lives according to certain Laws. They are called Divine or Cosmic Laws. These Laws state that everything that exists in the Cosmos - minerals, plants, animals, humans - undergo certain Cycles of Evolution. These Cycles are usually called Epochs.
The Earth revolves around the Sun in one astronomical year, our solar system revolves around the center of the Galaxy in 25,788 years, and our Galaxy revolves around the center of the Universe in about 200 million years. All these are cycles, eras, time. And the life of the human Soul is subject to these cycles. As the soul goes through a cycle, it evolves, and at the end of the cycle it passes an exam for maturity. And the measure here is the well-known Galactic Law of Cause and Effect, commonly known as Karma. A driving force evolution of the soul - reincarnation.
Most people in the world have always believed in reincarnation - the transmigration of souls. This belief was widespread not only in the East, but also in the West. Before the era of Christianity, it was adhered to by the early Greek philosophers - Plato and Socrates. For them, reincarnation was not a matter of religious faith, but rather of philosophical faith.
Plato argued that there is innate knowledge, that is, knowledge not acquired through learning in this life; the fact that some of the knowledge that a person possesses cannot be obtained by being guided by the senses was, in his opinion, evidence of the experience of a previous life.
Someone may ask why you need to know this and what is the benefit of it? The benefits are actually huge. It’s as if our cravings and desire for knowledge, our interest in understanding ourselves and the world around us, have been taken away. After all, every person must ask himself the question: Who am I, why do I live, and what will happen next? People need to see more deep meaning life rather than satisfying one’s physical needs at the level of existence. Human life is not just vegetation, as they try to convince us. A person has this natural interest and questions to which he strives deep down to find answers, but social environment does everything possible to prevent this from happening.
So to the question “What happens next?” answers, including such a phenomenon as reincarnation. More precisely, it reflects the answer, but there are other sources of the answer. Essentially every religion has this answer. The phenomenon of reincarnation of souls is considered in most Indian religions, but I would like to pay attention to where the Hindus got their knowledge about this, and what quality it was. The Hindus themselves know that the knowledge - the Vedas, including about reincarnation - was passed on to them by white people from the north. Hindus do not shout about this at every turn, but try to pass it off as their own. What country is it located? north of India and what kind of white people these are, I think it’s not difficult to guess. It turns out that this knowledge of reincarnation is not alien to us.
What do other religions say about what will happen to a person after death? Take Christianity, for example. The answer to this question in this religion is this: after death a person goes to either hell or heaven, i.e. This is where life in the physical body ends, according to the concepts of Christianity, and the soul ends up where it deserves to go. But few people know that the idea of reincarnation previously existed in Christianity and was excluded from its doctrine only in 1082 at the next Ecumenical Council.
Here, for example, is a fragment from the Gospel of John, chapter 9, verse 2:
“One day, seeing a blind man on the threshold of the temple, the disciples approached Jesus and asked: “Teacher! Who sinned, he or his parents, that he was born blind?”
It follows that Jesus' disciples knew that the future incarnation would be affected by the quality of a person's life, and that the reincarnation of souls is natural process. It turns out that in the past the idea of reincarnation was adhered to most of the world, if not the whole world. So why was this concept suddenly excluded from Christianity? Has the phenomenon of reincarnation become so untenable that everyone has forgotten about it? Are there really no facts to support this?
There are quite a few. Take, for example, Ian Stevenson's book "Evidence of the Survival of Consciousness from Memories of Previous Incarnations." The author, having been dealing with this issue for almost thirty years, collected great amount facts. It turns out that in the past the peoples of the world had reason to believe in reincarnation, just as today there is plenty of evidence of this “phenomenon”. So why are we taught the clearly opposite - that a person lives only once, and then best case scenario to heaven or hell?
Let's see what they say famous people who were engaged to one degree or another in understanding the world, looking for answers to such important questions. Here is what the writer Voltaire says on this topic:
“The concept of reincarnation is neither absurd nor useless. There is nothing strange about being born twice and not once.”
Here are the words of Arthur Schopenhauer:
“If an Asiatic asks me to define Europe, I will have to answer: “It is a part of the world that is under the influence of the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entry into life.”
Srila Prabhupada constantly addresses the issue of reincarnation in commentaries on the sacred Vedic scriptures Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita, in lectures and essays, essays and private correspondence. In a letter to the famous heart surgeon Dr. Bigelow, he writes: “The soul is individual and moves from one body to another in the same way as a person passes from infancy to childhood, from childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to youth and, finally, to old age. Then there is a change called death, where we exchange the old body for a new one, just as old clothes are exchanged for new ones. This is called the transmigration of the soul" (The Science of Self-Realization, p. 72).
In the last decades of the outgoing 20th century, the public worldview in the West began to lean towards the recognition of reincarnation. Scientists working in different fields of knowledge - biologists and doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists, religious scholars and mythology specialists - began to devote their research to this issue close attention. Observations and evidence of various kinds began to accumulate and systematize. The a priori denial of reincarnation as such was gradually replaced by an analytical approach with attempts to come closer to understanding the essence of this phenomenon.
Let us cite the statements of modern scientists who study this problem in matters of their competence. Mythologist Joseph Campbell: "Reincarnation assumes that you Furthermore what you think you are. There are dimensions of your being, potential for realization and consciousness that you do not include in your concept of yourself. Your life is much deeper and broader than you imagine it to be while here. What you experience are just scattered hints of what is truly within you that gives you life, breath and depth. But you can live in relation to this depth. And when you are able to experience it, you will suddenly see that all religions talk about exactly this.”
The words of these people make us think about understanding reincarnation or denying it. Knowing that reincarnation exists, a person will consciously acquire and accumulate in himself best qualities, strive to gain positive experience, new knowledge and understanding in order to move even further in the next life. And vice versa, by rejecting, a person in ignorance can make a mistake, for which he will then have to pay in the next incarnation or even fall out of the circle of incarnations, which often happens with suicide and other violations of the laws of nature. As they say, ignorance of the laws is no excuse.
And here it’s worth asking the question: “Who benefits from this?” Who benefits from people living their empty lives, not realizing themselves and their destiny, and often also creating problems for themselves that will then need to be sorted out? Let us remember that ideology is the most powerful weapon in dark hands. With each change of power in states, the ideology changed, and the one that was beneficial to one or another ruler was established. The people often only had to accept; what someone decided for them was often imposed by force, and gradually people forgot everything old and believed in complete opposite as ordered magic wand. Thus, everything important that man knew and realized was gradually forgotten, including the idea of reincarnation.
I would also like to draw attention to why reincarnation exists and what some of its mechanisms are based on. Apparently the soul, or to put it another way, the essence, requires a physical body to accumulate experience at a certain stage of development, otherwise the essence would not incarnate again and again. And here the interesting point is why a person, being born in a new body, does not remember his previous incarnations. Supposedly someone blocked our memory so that we would not go along the already beaten path, but would take a new path, since the previous path apparently turned out to be not so correct. It turns out that even nature itself disposes us at this moment to development.
It should be noted that in most cases, information about previous incarnations is not available to a person during his lifetime. This is due to the fact that information is recorded on the qualitative structures of the entity. And in order to “read” this information, a person in a new incarnation must reach the same level evolutionary development that was in a previous or previous lives. And only when a person has progressed further evolutionarily during his life than in any of his previous lives, is it possible to open and read all the information accumulated by the entity over the entire history of its existence.
But how can a person move forward if he doesn’t know that he needs it, or rather, it was instilled in him so. The illusion that we live once is detrimental to the development process. Thus, fertile ground is created for various manipulations and traps. Especially for young people, when the concept of freedom is substituted, presenting it as licentiousness and permissiveness. Slogans such as: “Life must be lived in such a way that you would be ashamed to remember later” are a consequence social disease, which arose as a result of a stolen worldview and understanding of the laws of nature. Following the logic: “you only live once, you have to do everything,” and a person without understanding and proper upbringing goes to great lengths in pursuit of pleasures, entertainment and imaginary happiness. But happiness still doesn’t come and doesn’t come.
All this negatively affects not only the individual, but also society as a whole. People were deliberately deprived of the core that would help them resist many temptations. People have been taught to be passive. With the ideology of a single life, the fear of death, the fear of getting problems, losing a job, money, home dominates a person, but if a person knows about reincarnation and the laws of karma, then the situation will change radically. The worst thing is not to die, but to step over such concepts as conscience and honor. A person would think twice before committing a crime, because then he will have to work it out in the next incarnation. After all, repentance will not correct the situation and there is no one who would atone for all the sins of humanity for us. Imagine what society could be like if the correct worldview prevailed in it.
Then a person becomes responsible for his own life. Injustice in society is no longer perceived as someone’s punishment or test, but as something that a person himself has the right to cope with. Without putting your vices aside, but starting to work with them, while changing yourself and your future, the future of your people and society as a whole. A person becomes responsible for his every action and thought. At the same time, he consciously develops positive traits not only for himself, but also for his future descendants, wanting to leave them goodness, not problems. But all this happened once, we just need to remember and figure it out. In conclusion, I will quote the words of Eduard Asadov:
“It’s not enough to be born a person, you still have to become.”
On our self-development portal, a very interesting and rather esoteric topic continues, namely, the teaching about Reincarnation or the reincarnation of souls and beings many times, about the so-called past lives, and therefore we will try to talk in more detail about the meaning and lessons of a wandering soul reborn in different worlds universe.
Many people on planet Earth believe in their past lives, especially in countries where Buddhism took root, and these are India, Tibet, Laos, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka. And it’s no secret that just people without any religion can also remember their past lives or incarnations.
Is it possible to remember your past life (reincarnation)?
All over the world, thousands of people have already remembered their past lives, and their description will take many books.
Sometimes people involuntarily remember their past lives, or even know them from birth, as was the case with our friend, real story which you can read about your own reincarnation on our portal. And we have already written about a whole science and branch of psychology that can try to send you to a past life in a state of hypnosis.
But most often the memory of one’s own past life in an ordinary person, without any innate abilities or deviations, it occurs in deep meditation or samadhi. When the usual senses stop working and a person begins to explore his inner world.
Why don't people remember their past lives?
Remember your past to an ordinary person ordinary thoughts and emotions interfere. It is believed that all the experience of past lives is in the Akashic Archive or in the world of Light, where everything we have done and everything we have lived is recorded in the smallest grains of light.
And so, in order to penetrate into this sacred sphere of your soul where everything is stored necessary information, it is necessary first of all to stop our mind and feelings - this the process in yoga is called pratyahara. And when this state deepens, a person can enter samadhi, with partial or complete stoppage of the heart and breathing.
Then you can enter the world of light, where the World Data Bank or Akash is also located, which we will talk about separately - then you can truly remember all of your past reincarnation. In this experience, a person remembers many lives: in such and such a life I was born there and there, ate such and such food and died in such and such a way from life to life.Reincarnation and rebirth of man in the religions of the world
The doctrine of reincarnation in many world religions came from Buddhism, because after his enlightenment Buddha Shakyamuni, about whom you can also read separately, remembered or saw in his perfect samadhi all his past lives.
In addition, the doctrine of reincarnation passed into Hinduism and early Christianity. Yes, and to Christianity too, since our early years, for some reason not described in the Bible, Jesus Christ spent in India and Egypt.
Although later Christianity began to reject the transmigration of souls, believing that for some reason the soul lives only one only life and awaits for thousands of years the second coming of Christ.
But how can they expect the second coming if they crucified the first and most important coming of Christ in the form of Jesus Christ. The second coming will come and they will want to execute him.
The reason why Christianity began to reject the transmigration of souls is that the spiritual level of the followers of Christianity was extremely low, and the founders of the Church were more concerned about domination over ordinary people, influence in society and material wealth.
There is information that in the Christian movement of the Cathars in Europe, and this was the 11th-14th centuries, there was a doctrine of reincarnation. The Roman Church recognized them as heretics and directed against them crusade, committing yet another armed bloodshed in the name of God, so to speak.
Tibet - reincarnations of the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama translated as "ocean of wisdom or great teacher" and is considered incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara- the aspect of Buddha's Compassion.
So, it is believed that The Dalai Lama has been reborn 14 times as a spiritual and political leader Tibet.
And usually, before his death, the Dalai Lama told his disciples and the people of Tibet in which place in the country he would be born and where to look for him. So current Dalai Lama XIV At the age of two, in the village of Taktser in the northeast of the country, he was found by a group of lamas (spiritual teachers) who were looking for his new incarnation.
And when a lot of toys and ritual accessories of the previous Dalai Lama were laid out in front of the child, he chose with 100% accuracy the objects that belonged to him in the past, with the words: “This is mine, this is mine!” Likewise, many lamas of Tibet, in the process of their spiritual practice, were able to remember many of their lives.
How is karma related to Reincarnation?
If you believe Eastern teachings, then every person has his own karma, every country has it, every animal has it, and of course karma (the law of cause and effect) directly affects the reincarnation of every person.
In addition, karma confirms the presence of reincarnation itself - after all, people at birth have different shapes, body color, one is born from rich parents, and the other from poor ones, someone wants to achieve something, but it doesn’t work out, and for someone it comes easy.
And the reason for birth is due to karma and nothing else. If there were no karma, no one would be born not only on earth, but in other worlds or places too.
Dalai Lama on Reincarnation
The spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, says about Reincarnation that there are 2 types of rebirth after death: firstly, due to karma and negative emotions, and secondly rebirth due to compassion and prayer.
Strong desires and attachments lead a person to the next birth and birth occurs in different worlds, depending on karma. And this is called the wheel of samsara.
If a person practices good deeds, he may be born in a more high worlds. In addition, having completely destroyed his karma, a person exits the cycle of birth and death.
How does Reincarnation happen?
It is usually believed that after his death, 49 days after his death, a person chooses his new birth, depending on the actions of the body, speech and mind accumulated in life before birth. This condition is called Bardo- an intermediate state between life and death.
There are several ways of birth from the Bardo: firstly, this is a vision of the world into which the soul must reincarnate and, captured by this vision, flies into it - this is how a new birth occurs.
Secondly, the soul is attracted to a certain type of light that corresponds to its vibration. Accordingly, the purer the soul, the more it will be for it best birth and in higher and purer worlds.
Thirdly, there is God Yama or the God of Death, who is responsible for the reincarnation of souls. This is not a general God, but precisely the one who is responsible for reincarnation and subsequent lives. Well, probably many people know the story about the white and black stones on the scales. In short, they will make a verdict and send whoever where.
Why do we live only for today despite Reincarnation?
Here, on this planet Earth, each person considers himself a separate biological being, deprived of his integrity and having forgotten his angelic essence.
After all, every person is a part of God and this suggests that, in essence, everyone is eternal and has always been, and always will be. In the state of God there is no beginning and no end. This is a circle, this is the center - wherever you go, everywhere you are as a part of God.
Many of us on this planet are quite old souls. Some were Lemurians, others Sumerians or Egyptians. There were hundreds and thousands of previous incarnations on this earth, and in other places too.Lessons on Reincarnation
Most likely, since every person is reincarnated, he goes through some of his own life lessons, associated with obtaining some qualities that he does not have, or with the goal of helping others learn their lessons.
But in general, we can say that since every person is a piece of God, reincarnation occurs in order to recognize this piece of God in oneself. Sometimes lessons are shown in the form of stories because through them it is easier to understand the big picture of people's lessons, and we will look at some of them.
Real cases and lessons of reincarnation
Childless Sofia
Sofia, even as a little girl, of course knew that she was born to become a mother. Little Sofia seemed to know everything about children, how to raise them and what they liked.
And now the time has come, and she found herself a man who told her that he wanted many children and a family. This is what I need, Sophia thought and they purchased big house. But it turned out that Sofia was barren and all her knowledge of how to raise children was useless, and her husband left her, because he wanted a family.
Sofia did not want to be angry with God; after all, she was a spiritual person and began to look for answers to her questions. And Sofia changed her life - she realized that she was the one responsible for her life and that she had planned it all herself.
Sophia gained wisdom and realized that her mission in life was to make known her knowledge about how to raise children. And she should not have had her own children, since this would have prevented her from fulfilling her mission, which, in principle, was much more important for the development of society as a whole and for divine affairs than one child well raised by her.
Favorite Alexey
Once upon a time, one person incarnated on Earth, having almost no karma - this is the story of Alexei. And when he was born, he was missing one part of his brain. And although Alexey was very smart, he lacked the part of his brain responsible for the growth of the body.
The doctors knew that he would not live long. He was loved very much by both his parents and friends. And yet, at the age of 12, he died, and it was his mission to develop his spiritual level and help his parents. How much grief and sorrow his young parents endured; they missed their beloved son so much.
But Alexei and his parents had a mutual agreement even before he was born. Alexei's death served as an acceleration for his parents to receive enlightenment. Having achieved enlightenment, the parents exhausted their karma and even became famous healers.So one sacrificed himself for the enlightenment of others. After all, since Alexey, like any person, lives forever - those 12 years he lived on Earth were a gift, a gift to other people and just a small portion of time, if we take the entire history of mankind in comprehending enlightenment and God within oneself.
Conclusion
Reincarnation and its possible previous lives and births makes every person think about the meaning of his life and this is already good. Maybe something needs to be changed in better side in our lives or even urgently make adjustments to it.
In any case, if a person does not know his essence, who he is and where he comes from, then, probably, this is the meaning of life, namely in his further self-knowledge and self-improvement. And it is precisely this ignorance that should, in theory, give us the impetus to further development and knowledge of the real world.
Well, we are not saying goodbye to you, since we are all eternal, but simply saying - see you on our Training and Self-Development portal, where we will continue to talk and communicate on spiritual topics.
Thank you for your interest in the topic of reincarnation. You might also be interested in her theory. The theory of reincarnation is that after death the soul acquires a new body. The purpose of a series of reincarnations is the pursuit of enlightenment or the evolution of consciousness.
Although there are a great many theories regarding the topic of transmigration of souls, not all of them have documentary evidence. I think you will be interested to know what actions present life can influence the next one and how. What can bring negativity into your current life? How do animals reincarnate? And who are soul mates?
Who put forward this theory?
The idea of the soul’s ability to live forever was put forward in all ancient beliefs: from Egyptian priests to Greek philosophers. Suffice it to recall one of the cornerstone myths of the Egyptians - the legend of Osiris.
If we put it very briefly, this is what we get:
The most beloved god of all Egyptians, Osiris, gave his people laws and taught them agriculture and winemaking. And his wife Isis ruled Egypt wisely and fairly while her husband traveled throughout the world, giving people knowledge. Upon returning from his wanderings, Osiris was imprisoned by his envious brother Set in a sarcophagus, and then thrown into the Nile.
After some time faithful to her husband Isis found this sarcophagus, released the power of her late husband imprisoned in it and conceived a son, Horus, who subsequently managed to defeat Set in battle, but lost his eye. Horus gave the eye torn out by Seth to his dead father, who, having absorbed the divine essence of his son, was resurrected, but did not want to return to earthly life, but began to rule the world of the dead.
The Egyptians adamantly believed that every cycle (that is, year) Osiris dies and is resurrected again, bringing spring. Since then, every dead Egyptian, whose body was mummified and properly preserved, is resurrected in the Afterlife, where Osiris rules.
Reincarnation in modern Hinduism
For Hinduism and Buddhism concept reincarnation is not a myth, A natural process and to this day. So in Nepal and India, several million people withdrew from worldly affairs and began to prepare for reincarnation. They meditate and practice yoga, preach asceticism and talk very little.
The issue of the rebirth of the soul after death worries not only residents eastern countries. Every year more and more Europeans travel to the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, where the Pashupatinath temple complex is located. It is to this temple that everyone flocks who wants not only to touch eternal life, but also to earn a worthy body and find out in whom the soul will be incarnated after the death of the physical carrier.
Reincarnation and Christianity
In all currents of modern Christian religion, be it Uniatism or Orthodoxy, Anglicanism or Presbyterianism, idea reincarnation absolutely refuted. Despite the fact that in the New Testament there is indirect evidence of the transmigration of souls.
Many theologians note the words of the prophet Malachi, with which back in the fifth century BC he predicted the events that occurred before the first coming of the son of God. In the prophecy we're talking about about the coming of the prophet Elijah. An interesting fact is that the first interpreters believed that Elijah would return like John the Baptist, and there are more than ten similar references in the New Testament. In addition, evangelists and theologians believed that rebirth awaited all of Christ’s apostles.
We should not forget about the very essence of Christian beliefs: if God is all-forgiving and all-merciful, how can he condemn his beloved children to eternal torment in hellfire?
Reincarnation in world religions
In the modern Muslim world, as in the early Islam, the concept of transmigration or reincarnation of souls is not mentioned in the Koran. However, there is the idea that Allah created the human body and his soul. Allah can kill the living and raise the dead if it is His will.
In the Muslim world, in-depth study of theological texts is not typical. ordinary people. This is done exclusively by scientists and religious leaders, so ordinary believers do not ask such exciting questions.
Jews, in turn, do not recognize the theory of transmigration of souls, but do not deny it either. For many unofficial religions, the theory of reincarnation is optional. Everyone believes in what they want.
Theory of soul rebirth
From the theory of reincarnation it follows that at the first birth a person “occupies” a pure body in all respects - beautiful, healthy and strong, which, as he travels along the path of knowledge, seems to “wear out” depending on karma.
The first-born person is pure, but naive and infantile. It is extremely difficult for him to resist temptations and he is poorly aware of the mechanism of influence with the outside world. Due to the lack of life experience accumulated by other people over several rebirths, it is extremely difficult for such people to distinguish positive experiences from negative ones, so they absorb all the information coming from the world around them indiscriminately.
The main factor, influencing a series of earthly incarnations of one soul, is karma. The concept of karma is to a certain extent familiar to everyone who walks along the path of spiritual development. It is important to understand that in the theory of reincarnation, not only the personal karma of the current incarnation of the spirit matters, but also karmic debts previous life, And ancestral karma, which we will talk about next time.
Adherents of the theory of reincarnation believe that in a series of reincarnations of the soul, a person bears a karmic imprint that persists throughout all earthly lives. The karmic imprint records all the blessings and curses, bad and good deeds, acquired skills and primary talents.
Researchers of this theory believe that Every person reaches a level of spiritual development your past life by the age of 20-25.
The aspirations of the ceased life continue to exist in the new one. This applies to both the material and spiritual spheres. Richard Webster describes in his book experience your ward Taylor Mann.
Over twenty years of studying Mann's memories of past lives, Webster came up with a pattern - in all his lives, regardless of gender and time, Taylor Mann was a craftsman, he always worked with his hands and did it well. Along the path of soul development, Mr. Mann has been a builder, cabinet maker, cook, mechanic, carpenter, wood carver, etc.
Confirmation of the continuation of spiritual aspirations are the memories of one of Indian teachers Neo-Advaitas - Lion of Lucknow, in the world Papaji, who in turn was a disciple of the guru Ramana Maharshi.
Papaji talked about how in his previous life he followed the path of spiritual development and reached certain heights in meditation and yoga. But he could not achieve enlightenment, because he had strong feelings for a woman with whom he could not be because of his vows.
After incarnating his soul in a new body, he took this woman as his wife and eventually completed his spiritual path having achieved enlightenment. Papaji's wife was his soul mate for several earthly incarnations. But he did not immediately manage to realize this.
The concept of soul mates in the theory of reincarnation
Soul mates are people who have played a significant role in a soul's life over multiple rebirths through romantic or business relationships.
Most people mistakenly believe that the concept of soul mates applies only to those whose love affair lasted over several lives. This is not entirely true, because in the case of reincarnation, one cannot downplay the importance of the relationship between student and teacher, friends who influenced the events of each other’s lives, irreconcilable enemies, and so on.
The life of every person is a series of events, one way or another connected with other people. During all the incarnations of one soul, for the most part, we are surrounded by the same people. What is the likelihood that your current lover was with you in a past life? One hundred percent, although in a previous incarnation he could have been your brother or mother or your worst enemy. Exact information you can get it yourself at .
What influences the rebirth of the soul
Since the purpose of reincarnation is spiritual development, one of the most important mechanisms of the theory of reincarnation of souls has become the equivalence of the experience gained throughout all lives.
"What does it mean?" - you probably ask. Everything is very simple. Some believe that if the current incarnation is in a female body, then the next one will be in a male one. A more precise formulation of the rule would sound something like this: gender alternation spirit bearer is necessary in order to balance was maintained in general, and obtained on the path of knowledge the experience was equal and versatile.
As you know, there are exceptions to any rule. In the case of reincarnation, this is exactly what happens. If the soul was unable to complete its mission and did not receive much-needed experience, in a new incarnation its bearer may face not very pleasant consequences varying degrees gravity. Mild consequences look like an abundance of masculine traits in a woman and vice versa. And complex ones are often attributed to a split personality, which occurs as a result of the capture of the consciousness of the bearer of the spirit by a previous incarnation that failed to fulfill its tasks.
Do animal souls reincarnate after death?
Modern theorists believe that an animal is capable of being reborn in a human body, and this is natural. But in their opinion, a person under no circumstances can be reincarnated in the body of an animal.
I am not a supporter of such a theory, since I am inclined to the Hindu theory of reincarnation, which is inextricably linked with the teachings in the wheel of Samsara, which is considered the most correct. I believe that the deceased a pet able to return to a family where he was sincerely and deeply loved.
My friends were very attached to their cat Jackson, who lived with them for thirteen years and died of illness. The family really missed their pet, until one fine moment a small squeaking lump appeared under their door, exactly like the late Jack.
This is how lost pets return to their families - it could be a stray kitten or a puppy born to a friend’s dog.
According to adherents of the theory of reincarnation, embodiment of cats after death - another story. Everyone has heard that cats have nine lives, but no one knows what happens when a cat's ninth life ends. Some believe that after passing their life cycle, cats cease to exist, others believe that cats who have lived nine lives go to afterworld, and still others, that cats are reborn in a human body.
Whatever your vision of the theory of reincarnation, you should not get too carried away with studying your past life and making plans for the future. After all important stage the spiritual formation of any rational being is the ability to live in the present, to be aware of yourself and your role in the world around you at this very moment.
Therefore, I say goodbye for today and propose to enjoy life right now: communicate with family and friends, tell them about what you read and try to guess who you were for each other in the past, without losing touch with reality. And you can check your guess at. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog - there will be a lot more interesting and important things here - and as a gift you will receive a technique for immersing yourself in past lives.
Best regards, Elena Izotova.
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