Reincarnation Essay

After watching the movie “Unmistaken Child”, we can see the idea of people being reincarnated after they die. This process claims that after a person dies they begin a new life through a different physical body but hold their same ideas from their previously lives. It was believed to be an involuntary process that people would experience and only those who reached enlightenment could choose their form in the next life. The movie is based around one of the most revered Tibetan masters name Geshe Lama Konchog who passes away. Before he does his disciple Tenzin Zopa request that he come back to him in this world and he told him that it would depend on their prayers. The funeral of his master was a fire sacrifice. His body was set on fire and prayers were recited to

Plato says “Sleep comes after being awake and being awake comes after sleep. Likewise just as death comes from life so must death return to life again.”(Tolstoy) Plato is explaining that life is like a rotating wheel with only two parts. You will live and then you will die but then there has to be something after that which is life again and the circle restarts, and this process never stops. Plato says “They have stayed for certain appointed periods, some longer, some shorter, they are sent forth again into the generation of living things.” “The inhabitants of the upper realms live there longer than those of the lower realms and without the pains, but they are only more like the Immortals, not actually immortal themselves. When they have to fall down, they are forced to fall back again and are assigned to an appropriate status, depending on their nature and according to their deeds” (hellenismo). It may take years for a person to be reincarnated. And who or what you are reincarnated into depends on the nature of the spirit and what you need to do in your next life. Plato says it’s not by chance you get a certain body or born into a certain family it’s for a reason... “ Famous philosophers socrates and pythagoras also believe what plato believed. They believe reincarnation is real. In Hinduism, it is believed that an enduring soul survives after death, spends a variable amount of time in another realm, and then becomes associated with a new body.”. “Hinduism includes the concept of karma, the idea that the conditions into which one is born are determined by one's conduct in various previous lives”. Buddhists believe also that once some has dies they reincarnate but they believe that who you reincarnate to is based on your karma except for the Dalai Lama. They believe that the Dalai Lama doesn’t get karma because of their “devotion to complete compassion for all sentient beings”

Buddhist believes that all people are reborn over and over again until they reach spiritual enlightenment and then Nirvana. In Buddhism good deeds are rewarded by receiving a better rebirth. Karma dictates a person’s rebirth including their financial state, appearance, class, health, species, and intelligence. Buddhist ultimate goal is to strive for Nirvana. Nirvana is the state that exists beyond the cycle of reincarnation, freedom from Karmic suffering, and provides a state of heavenly paradise.

My position on reincarnation is that I do not agree with the concept of coming back to life after death. Although I do believe in karma in the sense that what you do does come back around you will reap what you sow, however I don't believe that you get another life and another body to work through the sins that you have committed in the present life.

Every Religion believes in either a God(s), a leader, or supernatural forces. Unlike Christians who believe in Jesus Christ, is the divine savior of God, who died upon the cross to save others from their sins, Buddhists believe in an enlightened man referred to as Buddha. Buddha is believed to have lived between circa 563 to 483 BCE and believed to have taught in northeastern India. Buddha’s teachings are based upon his life, and provide guidance and support to his followers.

252). When it comes to actual belief in reincarnation, some studies seem to suggest the concept has become increasingly popular in western cultures. From 1982 to the early 1990s, the amount of people in the United States who reported believing in reincarnation increased from 23% to 26% (Stevenson, 2000, p. 30). However, other research on the subject shows that it is often not a religious or even spiritual belief. For some, reincarnation was simply an idea they found attractive, something they would like to believe in but were not sure if they actually did. A few others had some sort of experience, such as precognition or deja vu, that they did not know how to interpret but felt it left them more open to the possibility of reincarnation (Walter & Waterhouse, 1999). This seems to suggest that the idea of reincarnation may be interesting to western people, but due to the dominating presence of Abrahamic religions it is not taken as seriously as it is for those who practice religions with rebirth

The Buddha described reincarnation as lighting successive candles using the flame of the preceding candle. Although each flame is casually connected to the one that came before it, it is not the same flame. When one personality dies, a new one comes into being. Buddhism teaches that what is reborn is not the person but that one moment gives rise to another and that this momentum continues even after death. Instead of a fixed entity, what is reborn is a “stream of consciousness,” whose quality has been conditioned by karma. It is similar to Hinduism in that karma determines the circumstances of subsequent lives, so there is continuity between personalities but not persistence of identity. Circumstances of rebirth are not seen as rewards or punishments from a controlling God but are the natural results of various good deeds and misdeeds. The cycle of rebirths involves suffering and continues until all cravings are lost and nirvana is achieved.

The Little Buddha is an amazing, and uplifting movie, and full of positive meaning, yet it also is full of religious meaning. Aspects of life and death are shown throughout the movie, but the film mainly explains three key aspects of Buddhism. Buddhist teachings of reincarnation, impermanence, and enlightenment, are connected deeply to each other and is illustrated throughout the film. The first Buddhist teaching of reincarnation is evident from the beginning of the movie. The audience starts to see these teachings when a Buddhist teacher is making it evident to his student (Lama Norbu) that he is ready to reincarnate, after he passes away. Lama finds out that there are three potential reincarnations of his teacher’s soul. These reincarnates

Buddhism began in the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ by Siddhartha Gautama. The teachings of Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, are the major beliefs of Buddhism. Buddhism is a belief and religion based on an assortment of customs, principles, and practices. The name Buddha means the awakened one. Buddha’s teachings were of the termination of suffering, attaining nirvana, and absconding from the cycle of suffering and rebirth. Buddhism has spread all across Asia and throughout the world, now with between two hundred thirty million and five hundred million followers. Buddhism is largely based around the belief of Karma. Karma is the “action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation” (Dictionary.com) or “the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person’s deeds in the previous incarnation.” (Dictionary.com) In simpler words, how you live your life now determines how you will come back when your current soul expires. Buddhists live their lives in hopes of achieving to be placed in the highest state known as Heaven. The after-life stems from Karma and leads into Rebirth. Rebirth is a course of action where humans proceed within multiple lifetimes in one or more of the six states of after-life. Each lifetime begins with birth and ends with death. Buddhists believe that we should not fear death because

Reincarnation a term that we’ve all heard many times. In fact if I had a dollar for everytime I heard the term of discussed it then I’d have my college funds already. The term is often associated with religion god and a set of twin girls. In your mind you're probably thinking wait what twins girls involved with the term reincarnation? Yes you heard me right. No one currently knows what happened to make the Pollock Twins the way they are, but with the evaluations of evidence, the study of the brain and the elimination of theories we may soon understand.

The Hindus believe in reincarnation because the “souls should travel after death even the highest ones are part of Samsara. They are just as important as the earthly realsm” (Deziel). Hindus “are subjected to the impurities of the attachment, delusion and laws of karma” (Jayaram). Hindus dying is a natural practice “in the existence of the jiva, and is a resting period during the resemblance of its resources that adjusts its course” (Jayaram) the Hindus adjust their course by “returning to the earth to continue their journey again” (Jayaram). The Bhagavad Gita compares reincarnation to the body which means when a human is changing their clothes, they are taking their physical bodies out of their clothes and placing new ones on their bodies and “giving up the old and useless ones” (Bhagavad Gita 2.22). The Hindus believe in reincarnation because “a being has to live many lives and undergo many experiences before it attains perfection and becomes one with the Divine”

In the western world, a dominant belief is that after life, a person’s soul is sent to a place of eternal bliss, heaven, or a place of eternal damnation, hell. To Buddhists, this concept is not the norm. Buddhists believe that a person is reincarnated into another life form, either human or animal. What life form a person is reincarnated as is determined by the person’s karma. The concept of karma not only affects reincarnation, but also what path a person’s life takes. While much of the concept of karma is believable and comprehensible by a person of any denomination, some aspects are dependant upon a belief in reincarnation and that a person will eventually be punished for his sins or rewarded

Reincarnation usually catches criticism of what it entails from the western hemisphere as we didn’t to put our beliefs into physical things or something we can prove exists. However, when asking religious groups about reincarnation

The Buddhist theory of rebirth asserts that the fruits of some karma may manifest themselves in "future lives". This brings us to the Buddhist theory of rebirth. Similar concepts occur in other religious systems - e.g. the Platonic theory of the "pre-existence of the soul" and the Hindu-Jain theory of re-incarnation. Such reincarnation theory involves the transmigration of a soul. In Buddhism, however, it is the unripened karmic acts outstanding at the death of an individual, which conditions a new birth. The last moment of consciousness too is also a conditioning factor, but it is the store of unripened karma generated by volitional acts (the sankhâras) of previous existences which generates the destiny of the new individual. A newly born individual needs not only the genetic blueprint derived from the genes of the natural parents, but also a karmic blueprint derived from the volitional acts of a deceased person.

It is believed that resurrection does not happen all at one time. Instead, it happens many more times as part of a process for mending the world. This is not necessarily the belief of all people in the religion. Like other ideas, there are even differences in beliefs of reincarnation itself. Some say that it would likely happen to anyone on a routine basis and all that you would need to do is live a good life. In other cases, it seems like the beginning of a modern ghost story. It’s believed that reincarnation would only take place if the soul had some sort of unfinished business to attend to. I am not sure what sort of unfinished business that these souls would have. My only idea, would be some sort of closure needed from a living loved one. Another reason that I do not believe in reincarnation is that animals would act very different if they were being possessed by the souls of those that have already passed away. Plants would not be likely recipients of reincarnated souls in my opinion, especially if they are only being reincarnated for unfinished