Reincarnation

[Wootah]

Can anyone explain reincarnation? Is it random? Is it per species? Is it based on what we do in this life?

[Dimmesdale]

Can anyone explain reincarnation? Is it random? Is it per species? Is it based on what we do in this life?

I believe we reincarnate according to our karma in past existences. What we do has an impact on our consciousness, which leads to different desires, which leads to places and settings in which those desires can attain fruition.

For example, a tiger may have to live in the barbaric jungle. But it is precisely this environment in which it is possible for him or her to eat flesh and blood. If he were born as a mere shrew in a field, he would have to content him or herself with eating only seeds or small insects.

There is the question of justice as well. What we do in life reverberates to other lives. Else, there is no accountability.

I agree there is a sense in which people do not want to think of reincarnation because it destroys their sense of self-control. If they have to be transplanted to a new life, and abandon this one, it would appear that they would have to abandon their identities. But this is not wholly the case. Truly virtuous people, who strive to be good, can expect a continuation of their evolutionary self. It would not, in other words, be a complete dissociation into a totally alien being. Now, if one is evil on the other hand, that is a completely different story. I think one can downgraded into the animal kingdom, and his self destroyed in the interim.

Western philosophy seems fixated on the supposedly indissoluble link between our physical bodies and the mind or soul or state of consciousness. I think this has led to a great deal of confusion. We are not our bodies. Our bodies are related, united, to consciousness in a deep and abiding way, no doubt. But matter and spirit are distinct categories. And in much of Eastern thought this distinction has thankfully been maintained.