2006-09-05 09:47:28 · 13 answers · asked by ies143 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
It's more interesting to ask how it effects this life, or rather, how this life effects life after death. The important thing about reincarnation (the traditional Indian way of e g Buddhism) is that what you do now affects and shapes your future, including your next life. If you believe in reincarnation (better: rebirth, if you talk with the Buddhists), that means you have to take care and consider everything you do in this life. If you do that, you will have a better rebirth (given you let compassion and alruistic loving-kindness govern your life and deeds).
2006-09-05 11:01:22 · answer #1 · answered by juexue 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
First define what you mean by life. The body we currently inhabit is never alive. Its a bag of chemicals and organic ingredients, none of which can ever be said to be alive. Some think that when the whole assembly of the body is together then that is life. But this idea has never been proven either.
The life force in the body is spiritual, a spiritual spark of the energy of the Supreme. As such it is eternal. What we call death is the body's demise, while the life force in the body moves on to another body and situation. This is the reality of the situation. Those committed to the dogma of mechanistic science want to put spirituality into the same box as chemistry, biology, etc. but its not rational to do so. The spirit soul, by definition, is not perceivable by the blunt imperfect senses and therefore to demand proof that is subject to empirical verification is ludicrous. Its like trying to prove what the temperature is outside with a photograph. Proof of the existence of the spirit soul is possible with purified consciousness. The process of purifying consciousness systematically is called self-realization. Its an ancient science that has proven effective and efficient in revealing the spiritual nature of the self. Check out the Bhagavad-gita at the link below. It's the most famous text on the science of self-realization.
2006-09-05 15:11:28 · answer #2 · answered by Jagatkarta 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Simultaneous-incarnation would be a better name for it.
Since time does not really exist there can be no re-incarnation.
The spirit would have to incarnate in many forms all at the same time (it would appear to be at different times and places).
Life after death is also somewhat of a misnomer. Death is really the "real" life and life is really more like a dream.
2006-09-05 14:11:03 · answer #3 · answered by Keenu 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Reincarnation can mean a lot of different things. For Buddhists, it means that they keep coming back until they learn enough to reach enlightenment. Learning is kind of a common theme. Eventually, over the course of many many lifetimes, you learn enough to fulfill your purpose, then who knows what happens. Maybe you cease to exist.
For the record, there's some dispute as to how long it takes to come back. Some people believe that the "light at the end of the tunnel" described from near death experiences is really the end of the birth canal. Other theories are that it can take as much as hundreds of years to come back.
2006-09-05 09:57:03 · answer #4 · answered by Morgan S 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well...technically if you're dead there's no more life. But, I do believe in reincarnation. That's when your soul moves on into another living being. There can be a gap too. Where your soul goes somewhere (Heaven) to rest, before getting put back on Earth into something else. You aren't your soul, your soul just adds more life to the body you're in. So you die when you die, but your soul will move on remembering things. And when you get reincarnated, you wont see what your soul saw because your soul will be preoccupied with gettin the life you're living done. Like... you only get reincarnated to do a certain job. I guess... thats what I believe (With less detail ^^;)
2006-09-05 14:16:38 · answer #5 · answered by angel 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe in today. I could imagine a future for myself after death as a way to comfort my fear of the unknown. This might be reincarnation or heaven or life in another galaxy. I believe this is what our fore bearers have done - those that got others to buy in to their theory have themselves a religion (pick one that pleases you). If you never had to die - would you bother following any spiritual teaching?
2006-09-05 10:56:00 · answer #6 · answered by justwondering 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes I believe in reincarnation. It affects life and death because you do not know when you are going to come back.
2006-09-05 09:50:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Every soul has a specific task to fulfill. In order for the world to be brought to perfection all souls must fulfill their tasks completely. A specific soul can be brought back into this world a number of times until that task is fullfilled. The only problem is that we are not told of course what that task is!!! That is our job on this earth to try to work and perfect ourselves to the best of our ability.
2006-09-05 09:52:44 · answer #8 · answered by jos e 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I do believe in reincarnation. We have a certain number of tasks to take care of in life. If we do not complete them or learn what we are supposed to - we come back and try again
2006-09-05 09:54:01 · answer #9 · answered by dkmcb02 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, actually it just sounds like a combination of fear of death and half baked thinking.
And it's not even a fair concept. Reincarnation would be robbing future beings of true individuality.
What, really, is so important about you that you need another chance at life?
As for unifinished business... who would be keeping track of that minutia, and why?
2006-09-05 09:57:36 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋