Reincarnation

[QueenSusanofNarnia]

I was thinking last night about reincarnation. I know that Hindus and other religions believe in reincarnation (ie, after death, you are essentially "born again" in a new body as a completely different person or being), and I was wondering what your thoughts were about it - whether it is possible, whether it happens, why it happens, etc.

I personally think it'd be pretty cool, but that's just me being a teenager not wanting to completely die at some point in my life. I know it's different from immortality, but it still seems interesting that there is a belief that at some point in history I could have been, like, Marie Antoinette or something.

[Wild Rose]

I personally particially believe in this concept, though not fully. There are some aspects of the concept that constantly fail to wrap my mind around. I've studied reincarnation numerous times now, due not only to school but due to wondering what it fully is, and I still find myself believing in it. Now I know that most christians do not believe in reincarnation, but since my beliefs are not up to the standars of my roman catholic church natrually I find it okay that I am believing in it.

The possiblity that I might have once been a animal or flower or a nun facinates me and I find it truely a good thing to believe in when coming upon the fear of death. I believe that when one fears death the merely have to find a way to handle it and reincarnation is one of those many ways.

[dayhawk68]

I dont believe it

but it would make an interesting fiction story for a person who remembered their past lives


like Xena sorta did:rolleyes:lol

[Copperfox]

Reincarnation is NO COMFORT AT ALL; that's why HINDUS AND BUDDHISTS THEMSELVES, who do believe in it, wish to be done with it and OUT OF the supposed cycle of births and deaths. It means dying REPEATEDLY, with death rather than birth having the last word at each incarnation. But the Book of Revelation promises that in Heaven there will be NO MORE DEATH.

[theorangejello]

Yes i do believe in it
mainly because i am hindu.
I think in a sense just the way Christian children are brought up by their elders to know that after death you go to heaven.
It's teh same with us.
We know that we are reincarnated for many lives until we finally break free of the cycle and be one with God
i'll go into more detail later -
got to go study
bye

[Copperfox]

You see, she said it: "BREAK FREE OF THE CYCLE."

[Pardine]

Why do people never have past lives as plague victims or peasents or slaves? Why does everyone end up being a prince, or nobility, or a wealthy singer, or an author?

It's wish fulfillment, nothing more. And even if it was real, why? To what end? How many times would you reincarnate before you get the final reward?

Copperfox is right. It's a cycle of lives, but it's also a cycle of death. And as someone who nearly died last December, it's NOT fun to die. It was oddly peaceful, and even a little surreal, but it's not something that I wish to be doing every lifetime.

[Wild Rose]

You see, she said it: "BREAK FREE OF THE CYCLE."

Yes I know that but in my personal belief when it comes to reincarnation there is no way to break free, yet maybe that's due to the many problems that have always surrounded me in life, maybe not. Yet when ever I come to think of reincarnation I find it a way to think that there is nothing more to death then closing your eyes for a mere few minutes, like when your asleep, and waking up finding yourself in a new life.
Though once agian this personaly belief is obivously flawed due the many issues that have ruled my life.

[theorangejello]

right..i'm not in the mood to read everything..as my brain is half in physic land

anyways
We get reborn so we can learn the lessons of life. Now i have no idea if this is my first birth or my thirtieth.
But i do know a few things

1. What you will be in your next life is based on your Karma
and your Dharma

2. If your karma and Dharma are bad - you either go down in the class system
or you became an animal (in respone to pardine) - yes you can became a slave or something.
It really depends to us, what you do in this life.

3. One can only reach God once they are free of 'sins' and have good karma.


And you basically are reborn until you do number 3
Hey some people are very much in touch with God (bhagavan)
and some are not.
I have this feeling that my Nana (grandpa) who was a very religious and devout man. Must have skipped the cycle.
It's all about getting rid of your matrial desires.

[dayhawk68]

Why do people never have past lives as plague victims or peasents or slaves? Why does everyone end up being a prince, or nobility, or a wealthy singer, or an author?

It's wish fulfillment, nothing more. And even if it was real, why? To what end? How many times would you reincarnate before you get the final reward?

Copperfox is right. It's a cycle of lives, but it's also a cycle of death. And as someone who nearly died last December, it's NOT fun to die. It was oddly peaceful, and even a little surreal, but it's not something that I wish to be doing every lifetime.

lol I can see me having a past life as a greek slave girl for some Roman Lady....

or as a slug

or as scapegoat general *cough*Arnold*cough*

if I believed in such a thing

[theorangejello]

Haha - Truthfully
I don't like to htink about what I might have been or what not.
It's very strange
to think that like 100 years ago you could have been a slug..(and I could have been who knows)

[dayhawk68]

Haha - Truthfully
I don't like to htink about what I might have been or what not.
It's very strange
to think that like 100 years ago you could have been a slug..(and I could have been who knows)

lol

or worse...a dung beetle:eek:

[theorangejello]

In fact I don't like to think about it all...or atleast not know.
I just want to enjoy this life and do good right now
than think about the possible next one.

I'm not going to lie that as a young child when I felt like being suicidal, I thought about this but as I start to think more and more about it..I realize that I'm not going to go to this 'heaven' I'm going to just be reborn as someting/someone else.
And frankly that scares me. And I start to think about how there are things in my life that I shouldn't have done and could possibly make me be a begger in my next life or there things that could make me move higher....
The whole things is really strange and hard to describe. But I do know i'm not at all suicidal, because the whole Karma thing basically brings me back and tells me that I need to work for my eternal rest (which in a sense I do hate). But then again, it's my soul that's moving on , not necessarily my body (I do hope you guys knew that)

[dayhawk68]

In fact I don't like to think about it all...or atleast not know.
I just want to enjoy this life and do good right now
than think about the possible next one.

I'm not going to lie that as a young child when I felt like being suicidal, I thought about this but as I start to think more and more about it..I realize that I'm not going to go to this 'heaven' I'm going to just be reborn as someting/someone else.
And frankly that scares me. And I start to think about how there are things in my life that I shouldn't have done and could possibly make me be a begger in my next life or there things that could make me move higher....
The whole things is really strange and hard to describe. But I do know i'm not at all suicidal, because the whole Karma thing basically brings me back and tells me that I need to work for my eternal rest (which in a sense I do hate). But then again, it's my soul that's moving on , not necessarily my body (I do hope you guys knew that)


yes well its the only time I can say im happy for the Caste system, when you dont commit suiside b/c of it.


and yeah I knew :Dd

[QueenSusanofNarnia]

I think that reincarnation may be possible. It's kind of strange to think about, though. I can't exactly imagine myself as someone else.

Paradine;
I simply used Marie Antoinette as an example to show the vast possibilities of reincarnation.

[theorangejello]

Don't even get me started on that.
I suppose I'm lucky in that though
My mom's family is Brahmin (the highest class)
but because she married by dad who is a Kshytria (second highest)
she's gone down a level
and me and my brother are also Kshytrias.
Luckily most people don't go by this
though a miinoritie do (especially for weddings)


Pardine: Bollywood movie directors seem to love to take the idea of people getting reborn in their new life for revenge.
And I think there was a movie in which the hero was a bad guy in his last life ( he eventually did do something heroic to make him who he was now)

[dayhawk68]

Don't even get me started on that.
I suppose I'm lucky in that though
My mom's family is Brahmin (the highest class)
but because she married by dad who is a Kshytria (second highest)
she's gone down a level
and me and my brother are also Kshytrias.
Luckily most people don't go by this
though a miinoritie do (especially for weddings)


Pardine: Bollywood movie directors seem to love to take the idea of people getting reborn in their new life for revenge.
And I think there was a movie in which the hero was a bad guy in his last life ( he eventually did do something heroic to make him who he was now)

oh yeah yeesh! do they try to set up your marriage partner or do your parents have faith in you to be able to find your own?

[theorangejello]

Haha
Right now my parents only care about my studies.
But I do know that my dad would love for me to settle down by the time i'm 25 (most of my older cousins are this age - and they are being pushed to find husbands and wifes).

About teh selection process
well I know my parents want me to marry an indian guy.
I personally would love it if he was half european or something (mainly because I grew up in england..and i'm attracted to european guys more than indian lol) or if he is indian he needs to have green eyes.

Relating this back to reincarnation - we believe that a husband and wife are togheter for seven births.
Like i said before i don't know which birth this is, but who know maybe in my last life I married a guy with green eyes ( I really do like men with green eyes...)

[SongsofLife]

lol Dayhawk...a slug:D:eek:

ToJ -- thankls for sharing your beliefs...glad to get to know you better! :)

As for me...hmm...reincarnation? resurrection? I'll hope for the resurrection, thanks! :)

[dayhawk68]

Haha
Right now my parents only care about my studies.
But I do know that my dad would love for me to settle down by the time i'm 25 (most of my older cousins are this age - and they are being pushed to find husbands and wifes).

About teh selection process
well I know my parents want me to marry an indian guy.
I personally would love it if he was half european or something (mainly because I grew up in england..and i'm attracted to european guys more than indian lol) or if he is indian he needs to have green eyes.

Relating this back to reincarnation - we believe that a husband and wife are togheter for seven births.
Like i said before i don't know which birth this is, but who know maybe in my last life I married a guy with green eyes ( I really do like men with green eyes...)

*crosses fingers*
but they dont arrange your marriage?

[Laura Lee]

It's all about getting rid of your matrial desires.

I know the less I care about my material things the happier I am.

And I'm inclined to believe in reincarnation for two reasons... the first is that when we're alive there's energy within us, when we die it's gone; energy doesn't just disappear... it has to go somewhere and I figure where it goes I am. The other has to do with a lucid dream I had well over 10 years ago. I was myself in someone else's body, I was doing heroine and died as I awoke. Yet in this life I have never touched a drug... it could've been just a very vivid dream, but for whatever reason my subconscious has plunked that down in my brain as more memory than dream.

[Copperfox]

>> I need to work for my eternal rest....


Jesus Christ DID THE WORK FOR ME to earn MY eternal rest--and more than rest, a LIVELY eternal life, in which my two deceased wives and I, and other loved ones, will all know and enjoy each other as individuals, NOT absorbed and dissolved in the Everything-ness.

[theorangejello]

Well Cf - if you have read about hinduism
i'm going to be putting up this really nice article about it..soon.
i hope you do read it.
-
Toj

and to Kim

my parents had a love marriage
but in my case it can go either way.either I'll find a man or they'll find one for me.

[EveningStar]

In a spirit of respect for both sides of the discussion, I must admit I shudder at the very possibility of reincarnation UNLESS it is some form of mercy for people who died in a state of utter separation from God. A last chance for the desperate.

Reincarnation is a relationship eater. Children, family history, life experiences, all consumed. A weary toilsome road where nothing remains, nothing endures, nothing matters. And from what I understand at least of Buddhism, some people look forward to that realization and embrace it. Certainly by not caring what happens, you can no longer be disapointed. I'd rather die. I am passionate about my relationships, devoted to my late family, iron clad loyal to my friends, wrapped up in my interests, proud of my acquired knowledge and utterly ready to see God and all that was swept away by the tides of mortality when this body is no longer a fit vessel.

As good or bad as this life has treated me, it is MY LIFE, and it is wrapped up in who and what I am. I want it. Don't take it from me. You, your sister, whomever is out there listening in the great beyond, don't take away either my good memories or my painful memories. Don't take away my relationships, my legacy. Judge it...harshly if need be...but I want it.

[theorangejello]

And i respect that..completly

;)

[dayhawk68]

Well Cf - if you have read about hinduism
i'm going to be putting up this really nice article about it..soon.
i hope you do read it.
-
Toj

and to Kim

my parents had a love marriage
but in my case it can go either way.either I'll find a man or they'll find one for me.

ahh thats what Sheena (my Hindu friend) has to do. She's in HS but yeah if she cant find someone to love she is getting set up. But lol I guess shes not that good of a Hindu since all her boyfriends have been kept from her parents and they were all white or african american. lol

either that or she just wasn't serious about any of them

[EveningStar]

Thank you.

I think it's worth mentioning that the phrase "the meaning of life" is bandied about but poorly understood. It's a matter, I suppose, of how we answer the great questions. "What am I? Why am I here? Is there something more?"

I think that neither Christianity nor Hinduism has done a thorough job of telling us why we matter or what function we serve.

For those of us who do not believe in reincarnation, the concept of self as an identity based on unique experiences is very important.

[theorangejello]

haha all i konw is that i can't date blue eyed guys (long story)
so yea

many indian guys do have green eyes luckily!

and to me they shoudl be happy even if he's 1/8th.

To ES = that question has always confused me.
My grandpa had narrowed it down to serve God for him personally (or atleast that's what I understood)

[Darth Sparhawk]

"I just want to enjoy this life and do good right now
than think about the possible next one."

I like that, orange:)

[EveningStar]

The notion that I can eat chocolate every day and be reborn skinny isn't that frightening, actually... :D

[Darth Sparhawk]

The notion that I can eat chocolate every day and be reborn skinny isn't that frightening, actually... :D

Yeah, you bet :o :p

[Laura Lee]

The notion that I can eat chocolate every day and be reborn skinny isn't that frightening, actually... :D

I'm in the camp that chooses to not be disappointed in whatever comes because I'm not going to worry about what I have no control over, I'd rather worry about the things I can do to improve myself in the now. And as for the chocolate, well... I eat chocolate everyday and I'm skinny... but I guess you mean a lot of chocolate... so... I'd be more concerned about how that would effect you in this life time... and who knows, maybe the pudge carries over. :eek:

If everything we've learned from our past lives is completely erased with each new birth, than that would seem a redundant thing to have to keep making the same mistakes over and over. And I hope you're right, at the end of all things it would be nice to reconnect and stay forever with the ones we love... until we tire of forever and decide to start it all over again....

[theorangejello]

Laura - Not for everyone.
Some people have supposdly regained memory of their past life.
Like i said before
I'm enjoying this life and my parents and siblings and friends in THIS life.
I'm not even thinking about my past life (even though i'm sure, I met wonderful people back there and who knows maybe their soul has passed on to people i'm associated with today).
I don't think about what i will be in my next life - mainly because I know i have a still a lot to live in this life.

[Laura Lee]

Laura - Not for everyone.
Some people have supposdly regained memory of their past life.
Like i said before
I'm enjoying this life and my parents and siblings and friends in THIS life.
I'm not even thinking about my past life (even though i'm sure, I met wonderful people back there and who knows maybe their soul has passed on to people i'm associated with today).
I don't think about what i will be in my next life - mainly because I know i have a still a lot to live in this life.

I agree with you completely. :o I just was trying to say to EveningStar that if there is reincarnation, it's probably not all lost because then we wouldn't be able to better ourselves. :)

[BarbarianKing]

My next 3 lives: an American hero, a homeless person, and a video game character. I can't wait for that last one!!!:D

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g144/michaeldel/chuck_norriss.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g144/michaeldel/chuck_norris-1.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g144/michaeldel/super-chuck-norris-bros.jpg

[Solya]

Mmm, I've had a lot of thoughts about reincarnation ever since I was old enough to think about these kind of things. To me, it has always made perfect sense that this would not be our only life down here on Earth. It is something I clung to in the best and worst of times. Most of the time I do feel like I've been here before, lived down here before, followed a different path in another time before... but there is no tangible proof for it other than an experience so deep that I cannot find words for it, and so my heart is content in defining its purpose in the life that is now.

I think that, if reincarnation does exist, this is the reason why few of us will ever remember a previous life. We might get so caught up in our past that we forget our present...

[Truman]

"See you in anotha life, brotha!"
--Desmond
:rolleyes: No. Ridiculous idea made up by geeky nerd-hindu people who had no friends and no lives. "We're not really here; we just think we're here." Reality doesn't exist... I'm reminded of the song "Imagine" (Lennon). It's just ridiculous, to me anyway. Doesn't make sense. Plus, the Bible has prophetic evidence and factual statements that the Vedas simply don't contain. Rather believe logic than the idea that if you aren't "good" enough of a person, you'll end up a fly, a rat, or something to that effect.

It's a cool idea, I admit, but nonsense, nonetheless. No offense to those who believe the idea, that's just my take on it. :)

[theorangejello]

Right i'm not tring to be mean.
but that was still pretty offensive to me.
Being a Hindu -
If you had nothing nice to say abuot my religon or my people you should have not included it in your post.
You could have just said, i don't believe in it
instead of putting others down
And I would never ever ever ever say something bad against the bible.
So yeaaa..

[Truman]

No, I was talking about reincarnation. The Hindu religion, I agree, is very peaceful. I've had a friend before who was Hindu. Nice guy, too. And you're nice too. :D Very sorry if I offended you. I just think the idea of reincarnation as... kinda silly. I don't have much else to say about it except that it's an interesting idea; I don't believe it, but it's still intriguing to think about.

I enjoyed the movie "Defending Your Life," (about reincarnation; Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep; comedy). ;) It was a fun movie, with a lot of correct outlooks on life. I also thought it had many erroneous outlooks as well-- I really couldn't care less. I mean, look at my signature! Centered around a movie that promotes evolution and atheism, the two things I debate most often about and most strongly oppose! And yet I loved the movie; why? The idea was still interesting.

The truth is, I don't care if you're Hindu, Buddhist, atheistic, Muslim, Catholic, or whatever. I'd like to talk to you more about Christianity, and I'd like to convert you, but only if you listen. If you don't, that's fine; I don't care what you believe. :) Really, I don't! I agree your religion is peaceful and most Hindus are happy with their lives... I also think your belief gives rise to problems, such as in India, where most are poor because the majority refuses to kill animals or bugs, making them susceptible to disease, starvation, etc. There are some spin-off versions of Hinduism where people can only come back as other people, not animals, bugs, or plants...

I'm really trying to be as nice as I can while still putting in a bit of info while I'm at it. :o Please accept my apologies about offensiveness; I didn't mean to be mean.

[theorangejello]

Its perfectly alright, I just think time to time we seem to forget that things get intrepreted differently thought the internet vs real life.