website wrote:If we start to examine the basic views of the New Age movement and the Oriental religions, it is good to start from reincarnation. This doctrine is namely in the background of almost all teachings of the New age movement and it is also the basic belief of the Oriental religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. About its commonness has been estimated, that about 25 % of people in the western countries believes in it, but in India and other countries of Asia, where the origin of this doctrine are, the percentage is naturally much bigger. Mainly in India and other countries of Asia they have taught this doctrine already for at least 2000 years, and obviously it was accepted generally about 300 years before Christ, not just before that.
Reincarnation was being taught
well before Christ, not a mere 300 years prior.
website wrote:When it is a question of reincarnation, it in any case is based on the fact, that our life is believed to be a continuous circulation so that each person is born on the earth again and again and again, and gets a new incarnation always according to how he has lived in his former life. All bad things that happen to us today are only the result of earlier events, and we must now reap what we have sown earlier. Only if we experience enlightenment and at the same time are freed from the circulation and achieve moksha, this circulation does not continue eternally. (However, in the western view achieving moksha is not very important. Instead, in the western world reincarnation is seen in positive light, mainly as a possibility to develop and grow spiritually. It doesn't have the similar negative nuance to it.)
For one, our life is not believed to be a continuous circulation. Our life is simply believed to be continuous. "Circulation" refers to the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, which pertains
only to the material body. We are not material bodies. We are spiritual souls. That spiritual existence is what is continuous; a nature opposite to the fleeting material body.
Secondly, I don't know what "western view" they are herein referring to. Whoever believes that reincarnation is something to indulge is obviously not very intelligent. As I explained above, we are not the body. In our constitutional position we have a pure spiritual body. That spiritual body never gets old, never gets sick, and it never dies. Returning to this constitutional position is the perfection of moksha or mukti (liberation).
website wrote:But what can we think about reincarnation; is it really true or not, and is it worth believing in? We try answer this in this article.
Certainly, the general Christian population will reject the concept of reincarnation because it is not explicitly spoken of in the Bible. Nevertheless, there are some misconceptions many people have about reincarnation. So I will go through and address the points in this article.
website wrote:As far as the doctrine of reincarnation is concerned, we have to note, that we can find many logical inconsistencies and question marks in it.
And my purpose is to clear up those supposed inconsistencies and answer those questions.
website wrote:The same also applies to the research which has been done on reincarnation and which has done using hypnosis and spontaneous reproductions. We will look at this in the light of the next examples:
Certainly such research is imperfect. That goes without saying.
website wrote:Why don't we remember? The first and certainly justifiable question concerning the former lives is, why we usually don't remember anything from them? For if we really have behind us the chain of past lives, so wouldn’t it be justifiable, that we could remember many events from these past lives, events connected to family, school, residences, jobs and old age. Why don't we remember these things from our former lives, even though we can easily remember hundreds, even thousands of events from this life? Therefore, isn’t this clear evidence, that those former lives have never existed, because otherwise we certainly would remember them?
The answer is, no. Not remembering an event is not grounds for that event not taking place. Memory is imperfect. For example, if you can remember what you ate for dinner on April 11th, 1994, you are either a genius or have some form of autism (like Dustin Hoffman in that movie, "Rainman"). Also, just as you don't remember so many things from your child body (which is also a past body), you remember even less (if anything at all) from your body previous to your most recent birth.
website wrote:If you are a member of the New Age movement and you believe in reincarnation, you should ask yourself, why you don't remember anything about these former lives. Take also into consideration, that several supporters of reincarnation deny the possibility, that we could remember these former lives. Even H.B. Blavatsky, the founder of the theosophical society, who perhaps more than any all made reincarnation known in the western countries in the 1800's, has wondered why we can't remember:
"Maybe we can say, that in the life of a mortal person there is no such suffering of soul and body, which would not be the fruit and consequence of some sin, which has been done in the previous form of existence. But on the other hand, his current life doesn't included even one memory of those."
The concept of reincarnation originates in ancient Sanskrit literatures known collectively as the Vedas. Regarding memory, here is what Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has to say:
sri-bhagavan uvaca
bahuni me vyatitani
janmani tava carjuna
tany aham veda sarvani
na tvam vettha parantapa
Translation:
The Blessed Lord said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy! (Bhagavad-Gita 4.5;
http://www.asitis.com/4/5.html )
website wrote:Population growth. The second problem we have to face is the population growth. For if reincarnation is true and someone would always achieve moksha, leave the circulation, the number of people on earth should decrease - or at least it could not increase. In other words there should now be much less people on earth than sometime earlier in the past.
There are factors not being considered here. For one, although there may be individuals achieving moksha all the time, there are also souls falling down into material existence. Secondly, reincarnation is not limited to the human form. Therefore, although the human population may go up, the population of another species of life may go down. Moreoever, reincarnation is not limited to the earth. Therefore if earth population goes up, the population may go down somewhere else in the material universe. Of course, this is all aside from the fact that there are also souls who are falling into material existence. Ultimately, the answer is inconceivable to us. We cannot account for all the factors that go into reincarnation and material embodiment to calculate where there should or shouldn't be a popluation increase.
website wrote:There are actually right now more people on earth than ever
Off subject, but the above has not been shown conclusive. Modern historians can barely scrape a history of 5,000 years. It is assumed that humans are a relatively new species and that their numbers were few because this correlates with modern evolution theories. Either that, or it correlates with Bible theories on a 6 to 10 thousand year earth. In any case, knowledge is being filtered through politics.
website wrote:The population grow is a real problem from the point of view of reincarnation - especially if some souls are freed at from the circulation. This doesn't speak on behalf of reincarnation, but against it.
Actually, as I have shown above, this doesn't speak for or against reincarnation.
website wrote:Oriental and Western reincarnation. One feature, which is characteristic to the Oriental view is that man can become an animal or even a plant. For when in the Western countries men are assumed to remain as men, the older and more original Asian view includes all forms of life; that's why it is called the transmigration of souls.
I am not addressing any "western" concoction of reincarnation. I am addressing reincarnation in it's original and authoritive form, as per the Vedas.
website wrote:We can justifiably wonder, why there is such a large conflict as this between the Western and Oriental view. Isn't it one proof that people don't have any concrete information, but that it is based more on their beliefs, which are difficult to prove to be true.
Christians and Mormons also conflict on many points. Now, because they conflict, does this therefore mean that no one has any concrete information? It must if you apply the same logic used above.
website wrote:The interval of reincarnations. One of the view in reincarnation is the different interval of reincarnations, in other words the interval time, which has been spent in the other world. For the views are not similar on this, but greatly vary according to the culture or society. For example the following fixed times have been given for the interval which has been spent in the other world:
This is another concoction that has no basis in authoritive Sastra (Sanskrit term for Scripture). It is also a confused point. The reason being that we must always take some body. Even if one is not here on earth, but is in some kind of "other world", it still constitutes taking some type of body. Therefore this interval conjecture is nonsense. Even when we are liberated from taking multiple births, we have our pure spiritual body. So in any circumstance, some type of body is had.
website wrote:So a good question is, which of these views and beliefs is right, or are any of them right? Don't these contradictions prove, that these people have no factual information about this, but it is a question of everyone’s own and false beliefs? Perhaps there has never been these intervals or former lives?
Incorrect again. Apply the Christian versus Mormon analogy here as well.
website wrote:Another more serious problem is that if we have been in the other world tens or hundreds of years and even several times, so why don’t we have any recollections from them? Why are we so unaware of these intervals in the spirit world such as we are of our former lives? Some have of course explained this problem, by saying that our memory has maybe been wiped away. But if our memory has been wiped away, what then can prove reincarnation? If we don't remember anything from our former lives and intervals between them, the proof for reincarnation remain very small.
Similarly, one cannot empirically prove the existence of God, or the divinity of the Bible, or of the divinity of Jesus, or even that Jesus ever existed. There are so many things that cannot be proven. There are even scholars who maintain that the Biblical Jesus never existed, but was made-up based on older legends. Now, my point isn't in support of these theories, it is just to show that there are many things we are unable to prove, or disprove at that. Therefore this cannot be a question of proof. One has to simply consider the nature of the body. Reincarnation means changing bodies. And actually, you are changing bodies all the time. You had a child body, then a youth body and then an adult body. You simply
call these the same body. Actually, just as you have changed bodies since your most recent birth, you had a different body prior to that birth, and you will have a different body after your upcoming death. This is the logical flow of bodily change. In everyone's knowledge, we changed bodies in the past, we do so in the present, and we will continue to do so in the future.
website wrote:Connection beyond the border and reincarnation. It is typical, that many members of the New Age movement who believe in reincarnation, also believe that they get messages from the spirits of the dead. For they really believe, that they can be in connection with the dead, even though they also think reincarnation is true. They may have arranged special spiritualism sessions, in which they then believe to receive messages from people who have already moved beyond the border. For example one of the best known mediums, the deceased Leslie Flint, had contact to such persons as Marilyn Monroe, Valentino, Queen Victoria, Mahatma Gandhi, Shakespeare , Chopin and other famous and notable people from Hollywood.
What many members of the New Age movement don't take into consideration is how these two things, reincarnation and contact with the dead, can be simultaneously valid. For if we try to put them together, it will only become a mess. We can notice this from the next examples:
There are two options here. Either the psychic medium is fraud, or the entity being contacted is lacking a definite body. This ghostly condition can happen, as per the Vedas, but is considered very abominable. Therein one still has a body, but it is more or less the entity's mental rendition of their previous incarnation. By the way, the mind also consitutes a type of material body, as per Vedic understanding. There are two material bodies: the gross physical body, and the subtle mental body.
website wrote:Why are people still in circulation? One thought in reincarnation is, that we are in a continuous circle of development, and that the law of karma rewards and punishes us according to how we have lived our previous life. Civilisation and goodness should therefore constantly increase in the world, as we develop.
Not necessarily. Although the ideal is to advance toward spiritual life, this does not mean that everyone will automatically do so at every step.
website wrote:Our life on earth and beyond the border. It belongs especially to the western idea of reincarnation that we sometimes go beyond the border, spending time there after our death. Usually, when it is a question of life after death beyond the border, it is in the Western countries described as a place, which is filled with harmony, peace and love.
This "beyond the border" is not clearly defined. Assuming it exists, it may possibly refer to God's absolute, spiritual kingdom, or it may refer to some place in material existence. either way, one takes some type of body, as I explained above.
website wrote:Why be born to earth, if we don't have to?[/quote]
Simple. If we don't have to, we won't.
website wrote:How does the law of karma function? If we look for the mysteries of reincarnation, one of them is the law of karma. According to the typical view, it should function so that it always rewards or punishes people according to how they have lived their former life. If a person has done bad things or thought bad thoughts, the result of it is negative; on the other hand good thoughts will result in a positive way.
However, the mystery is how any impersonal law can function like that. Any impersonal power or law can't think, differentiate between actions or even remember anything what we have done – just like a law book can't do that, you always need an executor of the law, a personal being; mere law can not do that.
Correct. Laws run under law-makers. Insert Supreme Being here. It is not a part of the concept of reincarnation that it must run simply on it's own.
website wrote:The second problem is also that if the law of karma rewards and punishes us always according to how we have lived in our previous lives, so why can't we remember anything of our past? For if we are punished because of our former life, we should also know why we are punished. What is the basis of a law if the reasons for punishments are not clear? This is one of those mysteries and question marks which are connected to the doctrine of reincarnation.
Not knowing is part of the "punishment". The Vedas hold that there are two reasons the material universe is created:
1) To give facility for the conditioned souls, the illusion of enjoying separate from God.
2) To give facility for the conditioned souls to return to God.
God has no Personal desire for this creation. Why should He? He is eternal and never falls down, so He enjoys only eternal things. Due to our minute nature, we are prone to fall down. Therefore this universe is created in order to give us facility for such desires. God does not force us to love Him, since force contradicts love. So instead, God gives us Scripture, sends His pure representative, or even sometimes comes to earth Himself to persuade us to take up the spiritual path of developing love for God. Hence, reason 2).
Now, because of reason 1), we tend to not remember past lives. Reason 2), i.e. love of God, is not dependent on such remembering. Therefore, why we are punished, says nothing of advancement.
website wrote:What about the beginning? (...) One point people don't usually thing about is the beginning. What was the beginning like, as no-one had yet lived on earth and there had not been bad karma because of the previous lives? Somewhere there must be a beginning, with nothing and no-one on earth.
Every soul has it's constitutional position in the Lord's absolute, spiritual kingdom. At some point in our eternal existence, we developed desires that constituted our taking shelter of the material creation. In the spiritual manifestation, all activities are centered on God; every act is a matter of loving devotional service. Therefore an example of a soul falling may be something like this:
A soul develops the desire to create as a service to God. Now, creation has no facility in the eternal, spiritual kingdom. Therefore such a desire constitutes that this soul takes shelter of the material universe. Then, as a result, this soul may become enamored by the material energy and thus fall deeper into it's entanglement. Although it started with a simple desire to create, he became passionate for the material manifestation and again took shelter of another body after the first incarnation's death. In this way, the soul becomes forgetful of his relationship with the Supreme Lord.
Anyway, this is just an example. It is truly inconceivable, the details of each individual's fall. Karma is a law that applies to those who seek to please themselves or others, instead of God.