Reincarnation - I know the basics but....?

Question

so how does it work? I know the basic theory is you can have many lives in many different bodies/forms. So how did it start? Are there new souls/lives created that are 'new' in my circle of friends...Is there a total maximum number of times I can come back??? Seems like there would be too many souls and not enough bodies to go around. Do some souls 'combine' into one body and become a new 'soul'....just curious.

ok special....but why do you say I'm not ready???? just curious. And does one 'come back' always to learn something good such as humility, fidelity, patience or virtue. I thought you had to have dark to know light....good to know evil...death to know life. Do some souls come back to learn evil in order to experience goodness????

Answer 1

God is present in our heart. This can be realised in meditation. Further we are the creation of our own destiny. As per Hindu sacred religion, we carry all good and bad deeds life after life. There is no end unless we pray for unification of self with the divineliness.
Hence there is always a possible way to complete mergence with God in this life by a simple and wonderful meditation

Answer 2

It depends on the kind of reincarnation you follow. I personally follow that we were once part of the universal soul (as were any gods and goddesses, spirits, etc), and when the universe erupted (big bang), the original souls dispersed. "Twin Souls" (often incorrectly called 'soul mates') were two souls that were originally one, but I've never really read about souls coming together to make a new one. I think it's quite possible for new souls to be created, just as I think old souls, who've learned life's lessons can merge back to the universal soul.

I don't think there can be too many souls and not enough bodies. I think there's a hangover time between lives, kindof recollecting yourself before becoming something new.

Answer 3

How reincarmation works depends very much on if you follow the new-age or classical view of it.

Classically, mainly in Hinduism and then expounded on in Buddhism, reincarnation is the mechanism of cause and effect. All of our actions, good and bad, generate karma in the universe that must be balanced. Reincarnation isn't as much a punishment or reward as a cosmic balancing scale that brings you back to balance things. So if you are responsible for death, you must come back to account for that. Obviously, just by living, you build karma, so it's a vicious circle.

However, there is a way to break out of it, which is by attaining enlightenment as Buddha did. Basically, the belief is that the physical universe is an illusion, and karma is part of that universe. The moment you perceive this, you break free from the illusion and karma no longer applies to you.

From a new-age perspective, reincarnation is more purposeful in that you are sent back to learn from each lifetime. If you were a particularly selfish person this time round, you might come back as a bum next time to learn why charity and community is so important.

As to number of souls, where it all began, etc. That gets more into cosmology, because depending on how you think the universe began, if at all, you will think different things about how reincarnation relates. The number of souls is balanced, as I understand it, because reember: You can reincarnate as an animal, a higher being, a lower being (both on different planes of existence and thus invisible to us). There are of course other planets as well, so you can reincarnate on any of those... In short, just because our population is increasing doesn't mean new souls need to be created. Suns go supernova every day, wiping out every living thing in their solar system.

Incidentally, the idea of reality being nothing but an illusion in which we are trapped features prominently in many religions, even the gnostic sects of christianity. It is also starting to be a real possibility in science, as the stranger implications of quantum physics and string theory begin to unravel our understanding of what 'real' is. In particular, the holographic paradigm offers some striking similarities to this idea.

Answer 4

There are many problems with the salvation-by works doctrine of reincarnation. First, there are many practical problems. For example:
1. We must ask, why does one get punished for something he or she cannot remember having done in a previous life?
2. If the purpose of karma is to rid humanity of its selfish desires, then why hasn't there been a noticeable improvement in human nature after all the millennia of reincarnations?
3. If reincarnation and the law of karma are so beneficial on a practical level, then how do advocates of this doctrine explain the immense and ever-worsening social and economic problems - including widespread poverty, starvation, disease, and horrible suffering - in India, where reincarnation has been systematically taught through out its history?
There are also many biblical problems with believing in reincarnation. For example, in 2 Corinthians 5:8 the apostle Paul states, "We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." At death, the, the Christian immediately goes into the presence of the Lord, not into another body. In keeping with this. Luke 16:19-31 tells us that unbelievers at death go to a place of suffering, not into another body.
Further, Hebrews 9:27 assures us that "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." Each human being LIVES ONCE as a mortal on earth, DIES ONCE, and then FACES JUDGMENT. He does not have a second chance by reincarnating into another body.

Answer 5

Classic question, but I'm afraid you aren't really ready for all the answers yet. I can give you a few to get your brain working along:

Reincarnation basically stems from the idea in religion that we are here to learn something or accomplish some lesson. That lesson might be to become as holy as possible or to learn patience or humillity. But in concept, you will continue to incarnate(come back in another body) until you learn that lesson and any other lessons you needed to learn.

After that, you can stop.

Or, as is suggested, you might come back just to help other people along.
------------------------------
later:
some answers to philisophical or religious questions are just so strange sounding or wierd that to read them one would dismiss them out of hand. But later after understanding more of the intrinsic ideas of the philosophy seem not so strange after all.

As to your other question it depends what school of religion you are looking at. The eastern religions seem more forgiving of needing to learn all viewpoints while the western hold fast to viewpoints/lessons that we sould describe as "good". This isn't set in stone and there are groups in both cases that ascribe to the alternate model. Also depending on which system, karma gets thrown into the mix in the incarnation process sometimes. Has a sort of "level up" in your video game quality to it in this day and age...

Answer 6

"As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change." Bhagavad-gita (2.13)

Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both. Bhagavad-gita (2.16)

That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul.
Bhagavad-gita (2.17)

For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. Bhagavad-gita (2.20)

Explantion by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of ISKCON to Bhagavad-gita (2.17)
The influence of the atomic soul can be spread all over a particular body. According to the Mundaka Upanishad, this atomic soul is situated in the heart of every living entity, and because the measurement of the atomic soul is beyond the power of appreciation of the material scientists, some of them assert foolishly that there is no soul. The individual atomic soul is definitely there in the heart along with the Supersoul, and thus all the energies of bodily movement are emanating from this part of the body. The corpuscles which carry the oxygen from the lungs gather energy from the soul. When the soul passes away from this position, the activity of the blood, generating fusion, ceases. Medical science accepts the importance of the red corpuscles, but it cannot ascertain that the source of the energy is the soul. Medical science, however, does admit that the heart is the seat of all energies of the body.

Such atomic particles of the spirit whole are compared to the sunshine molecules. In the sunshine there are innumerable radiant molecules. Similarly, the fragmental parts of the Supreme Lord are atomic sparks of the rays of the Supreme Lord, called by the name prabha, or superior energy. So whether one follows Vedic knowledge or modern science, one cannot deny the existence of the spirit soul in the body, and the science of the soul is explicitly described in the Bhagavad-gita by the Personality of Godhead Himself.

Answer 7

Reincarnation really is stupid, because you have to only do good based on the standards of men, and you actually have to be a man to get off the wheel. But likely for the Bible if you believe in reincarnation and die believing it you'll just go to hell, and not have worry about reincarnation.

Answer 8

I am a classic example. I had abilities but used them for the wrong purpose. I have learned to balance myself this time around.