What is Reincarnation?

Answer 1

To me reincarnation is living life after life until we are able to become One again with God or the Divine. It is a continuing cycle of material life and death as we progress, learn and develop on the path of life. Our true or real self is the soul and not this material body we inhabit during our times here in the material plane. It is only the body that dies just like all other things we see around us. The soul is of like qualities of God and does not pass.

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Answer 2

Reincarnation.

Definition: The belief that one is reborn in one or more successive existences, which may be human or animal. Usually it is an intangible “soul” that is believed to be reborn in another body. Not a Bible teaching.

Does a strange feeling of being familiar with entirely new acquaintances and places prove reincarnation to be a fact?

Have you ever mistaken one man or woman who is alive for another who is also now living? Many have had that experience. Why? Because some people have similar mannerisms or may even look almost identical. So the feeling that you know a person even though you never met him before really does not prove that you were acquainted with him in a former life, does it?
Why might a house or a town seem familiar to you if you have never been there before? Is it because you lived there during a former life? Many houses are built according to similar designs. Furniture used in cities far apart may be produced from similar patterns. And is it not true that the scenery in some widely separated places looks very much alike? So, without resorting to reincarnation, your feeling of familiarity is quite understandable.

Do recollections of life at another time in another place, as drawn out under hypnosis, prove reincarnation?

Under hypnosis much information stored in the brain can be drawn out. Hypnotists tap the subconscious memory. But how did those memories get there? Perhaps you read a book, saw a motion picture, or learned about certain people on television. If you put yourself in the place of the people about whom you were learning, it might have made a vivid impression, almost as if the experience were your own. What you actually did may have been so long ago that you have forgotten it, but under hypnosis the experience may be recalled as if you were remembering “another life.” Yet, if that were true, would not everyone have such memories? But not everyone does. It is noteworthy that an increasing number of state supreme courts in the United States do not accept hypnotically induced testimony. In 1980 the Minnesota Supreme Court declared that “the best expert testimony indicates that no expert can determine whether memory retrieved by hypnosis, or any part of that memory, is truth, falsehood, or confabulation—a filling of gaps with fantasy. Such results are not scientifically reliable as accurate.” (State v. Mack, 292 N.W.2d 764) The influence of suggestions made by the hypnotist to the one hypnotized is a factor in this unreliability.

Does the Bible contain evidence of belief in reincarnation?

Eccl. 3:19: “There is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies.” (As in the case of humans, nothing survives at the death of an animal. There is nothing that can experience rebirth in another body.)

Eccl. 9:10: “All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going.” (It is not into another body but into Sheol, the common grave of mankind, that the dead go.)

How much of a difference is there between reincarnation and the hope held out in the Bible?

Reincarnation: According to this belief, when a person dies, the soul, the “real self,” passes on to a better existence if the individual has lived a good and proper life, but possibly to existence as an animal if his record has been more bad than good. Each rebirth, it is believed, brings the individual back into this same system of things, where he will face further suffering and eventual death. The cycles of rebirth are viewed as virtually endless. Is such a future really what awaits you? Some believe that the only way of escape is by extinguishing all desire for things pleasing to the senses. To what do they escape? To what some describe as unconscious life.

Bible: According to the Bible, the soul is the complete person. Even though a person may have done bad things in the past, if he repents and changes his ways, Jehovah God will forgive him. (Psalms 103:12, 13.) When a person dies, nothing survives. Death is like a deep, dreamless sleep. There will be a resurrection of the dead. This is not a reincarnation but a bringing back to life of the same personality. (Acts 24:15) For most people, the resurrection will be to life on earth. It will take place after God brings the present wicked system to its end. Sickness, suffering, even the necessity to die, will become things of the past. (Daniel 2:44; Revelation 21:3, 4) Does such a hope sound like something about which you would like to learn more, to examine the reasons for confidence in it?

If you would like further information or a free home Bible study, please contact Jehovah's Witnesses at the local Kingdom Hall. Or visit http://www.watchtower.org

Answer 3

the belief that the soul, upon death of the body, comes back to earth in another body or form.

Answer 4

The Eternal Truth

The "Eternal Truth" governing the entire system of the Universe is a truth par excellence. No Human Being ever fully comprehends the system built by the "Creator". Project this truth towards the general masses ... Persons holding high positions in the society get antagonized. They turn the masses against you. Their ego, the "I" within refuses to accept any change in the existing Spiritual and moral values of the society. They do not comprehend ... "Eternal Truth" is one. Different people interpret it differently.

Break the cordon of illusion around you. Never get bogged down by non factual values followed by the society ... Values not based on the doctrine of "Eternal Truth". Do not become a slave within yourself. Live a Life of choice. The doctrine of "Eternal Truth" hidden in the sacred scriptures of every Religion is the basis of "Mahabharata" ... An epic written by sage Vyasa. What is "Chakravayuha" as described in "Mahabharata"? Abhimanyu the great son of Arjuna in the battle with Kauravas knew the path of going within the "Chakravayuha" but not of coming out. He learnt this while in his Mother's womb. You enter "Chakravayuha of Life" unconsciously at birth. Resultant Karma of your past is responsible for the "Samsaric jivan" you spend on Mother Earth. This compulsory performance of Karma based on samskar's of earlier lives manifested by your "Atman" is the "Chakravayuha of Life". You have to live ... in or out of it.


Your Destiny

Based on earlier samskar's, if you are destined to be born in the house of a blacksmith ... It is natural you become a blacksmith. You become a blacksmith not of your Atman's sweet will. You enter the "Chakravayuha of Life" bound by the samskar's of your earlier births. You need strong will power to plan and methodically come out of this "Chakravayuha" ... Enter a profession of your choice. You become the master of your destiny based on your will power. You who continue to live in the prison of "Chakravayuha" are wasting valuable time on the alter of ignorance. Life is not a burden unjustly imposed. You have power within you to come out of the "Chakravayuha". Life is a gift, a boon from God, to enjoy the beautiful World created by it.

The animal or plant Life is never able to get out of the "Chakravayuha of Life". They get reprieve after manifesting as a Human Being. "God" vested power to think and excel only with Human Beings. Break the bonds of "slavery from within" ... The "Chakravayuha of Life". Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King thought par excellence and never let "Chakravayuha of Life" bog them down.


Rise from slumber

"Dharma" ... Your right to do what is just and right and not what was destined. One is destined to be born in a particular family based on Karma of the past lives. You as a child are bound to adopt the family profession or a profession to the liking of the head of the family. No child can choose one's profession ... you do not know what suits best. Decision taken by your parents is binding ... You start on a journey of Life framed by them. You start working with little interest, the "Atman" within prompting changeover at the first opportunity. You realize the "Eternal Truth" ... Human form is only a "clothing for the "Atman" within. You take a wise decision and become a leader in a profession of your calling.

Live a Life of content full of joys and happiness ... Happiness which comes from within. Happiness gained from materialistic achievements is alluring. Keep away from it. Live as a closed knit family. Love all living beings. The subtle truth hidden in the sacred scriptures of every Religion is same. All Religions are different paths for obtaining a common goal.

Understand the "Eternal truth" i.e. "who am I", for "I" is not the manifested form i.e. a "jiva" but is the "Atman" within, the true inner self. More on reincarnation here- http://www.godrealized.org/reincarnation_chakravayuha_of_life.html