Question regarding reincarnation...?

Question

If there is no self, what is it that reincarnates?
((This question is closely aligns with buddhism...))

Answer 1

I'll give it a shot, but not the easiest of subjects to render comprehensible here in the physical.

When we manifest physical bodies in order to experience the physical realm we have to take on various attributes of the 'animalistic' host that we derives our physical emanations from. As many have noted the structural DNA we use is nearly identical to most mammals, and not so very far different from all biologocal life.

With this comes a whole heritage of genetic memory. Even worse we need the same basic programming in order to function in these monkey suits. There are many vital ( literal semantic use ) functions like heart beat, breathing, sweating, digestive system and so on, that are conducted most efficiently under a sort of biological 'autopilot' system.

Who runs the 'autopilot', or possibly even, is the 'autopilot' ?

Our old, equally misunderstood friend ( and I mean that very literally ) 'Ego'. The 'self' that is basically responsible for keeping the animal organism, or rather, collection of organisms, going. Now I must ask the reader to take one step back. Much 'oriental wisdom', including most branches of Buddhism, place a great deal of emphasis on the suppression of the 'Ego', and rightly so, from the 'spiritual advancement' point of view. But, like anything, this can be overdone. I do not subscribe to the 'renunciate' point of view, although I accept that it has certain merits for accelerating the eventual attainment of what is, also mistakenly, called 'Enlightenment'. We come here to experience, and eventually progress to a state where the physical can be enjoyed without the well-known 'negative' effects that produce what we experience as 'suffering'.

Most of these 'negative' effects are a result of fear, and 'Ego's' response to it. The most extreme version of which is the well known and researched 'Fight or Fly' syndrome, the program that causes adrenaline to be injected into the blodd in massive quantities and allows animal organisms to escape or repel danger.

The position for us humans, when incarnate, is to realise that we, ourselves, are creating all of the experience that we encounter, and that there is no such thing as 'danger' to us. Remember the StarTrek imagery of the 'Holosuite', where, if the participant felt that things were getting just a tad too 'real' they could say "Computer, freeze program !", well we can, when sufficiently evolved, do the same. At the moment the pouncing tiger is about to engulf our heads in it's sabre-toothed jaws we can, indeed, freeze the action.

So, that 'self', the 'Ego' looks after us as physical beings, until we no longer need it to do so, at which point we have the option to thank it for all it's excellent work ( even if we may have some reservations about just how 'excellent' that work has been, remember even 'Ego' has an ego ! ), and let it go.

That is the point at which we are said to be 'free of self'.

The part of us that takes the decisions with regard to incarnation(s) is the 'over-soul' as many put it, I prefer the term 'Higher Consciousness', but who cares about a name ?

This 'higher' energy emanation, reviews the progress of the ruling entity, and determines what experiences, and in what circumstances, may be most beneficial to the 'Intent' of the individuated entity, and of the 'One'.

I believe that, from the realm that enfolds this one ( and many, many others ) we literall choose what life, which parents, and which conditions we take on new physical form. I further believe that we make 'agreements' in advance, with the other critical participants, parents, siblings, important figures in each life, to relate in certain ways in order to produce the desired effects.

This is done, again as I understand it, on a largely framework basis, leaving all of the important day to day decisions to the free will of the physical entity.

I suspect that the above is a little clumsy, but I hope that I produced a reasonably coherent picture of an answer to your question.

Answer 2

Buddhism teaches that when a person dies they are reborn and that this process of death and rebirth will continue until Nirvana is attained.

Most religions believe that the core of the person, the real person, is the soul, a non-material and eternal entity that survives in the afterlife. Buddhism on the other hand says that the person is made up of thoughts, feelings and perceptions interacting with the body in a dynamic and constantly changing way. At death this stream of mental energy is re-established in a new body. Thus Buddhism is able to explain the continuity of the individual without recourse to the belief in an "eternal soul", an idea which contradicts the universal truth of impermanence.


http://www.buddhanet.net/

Answer 3

Show me in the Bible where it says we are reincarnated. I find nothing in the King James Version. But then i bet shes Catholic huh? Good Luck! Oh yes! No i believe it foolishness. I have never met a reincarnated person ever. Have you? Say nothing about a deformed reincarnated person. I would say it takes a deformed mind to believe in such a thing. I believe Jesus was the Son of God and Man, and when we die we either go to Heaven or Hell, through Christ, In Christ, and with Christ as our Lord and Saviour .Christ was a man not a religion, and many people don't realize that fact.

Answer 4

God. Some people including some Buddhist say Buddhist don't believe in a God and this is true. Why "believe" when you can know. Buddhist refuse to name the unnameable, that you can know unless you are full of concepts. They will tell you if you see the Buddha kill the Buddha and this should be done, however when the real Buddha is seen it is "known" as the real Buddha and can not die because it was never born. The one called Gautama when Mara told him that he had a wife and son at home and he should be helping his father rule the kingdom, Gautama touched the ground to get a witness from Mother Earth, she said "there is not a inch of ground where this by sons bones have not been buried in his quest for the truth, he has the right to be here" There is not an inch of ground where your bones have not been buried One love. ~ : )

Answer 5

It's my belief that the release from the vehicle of perception at death is the dissolving of that aspect of Consciousness back into Consciousness, and so is the 'Awakening' to Oneness.

However, if we assume reincarnation is a reality, we can ask exactly what this is that might reincarnate, and what meaning that actually has to the individual who inquires now.

A child is born into an environment appropriate to whatever karmic energies are present. It is born without any previous memories, with a personality and talents and proclivities appropriate for that vehicle. It inhabits a body that has no relationship to the one that died.

So, the question can be asked, what exactly is it that remains of the individual who died and what possible significant could it be to the 'you' that you are now?

Phil

Answer 6

We human beside the six senses that we uses daily,there is the seventh sense which we use to differentiate between good and bad and the eighth sense which is like the computer which stores whatever we learn in our daily live,this is the consiousness that is being brought over to a new life,in Mahayana Buddhism,you have to purify your though for a though links to the three lives,that is the past ,present and the future.What we are now is brought over from our past lives and what we do and think will mould our furture.A question for you to find your no self,who are you really are,are you the one at your this age or are you the one when you are ten years old,two or will you be you in ten years' time?

Answer 7

In Buddhism, the point of reincarnation is to use one's lifetimes to learn to subsume the self in preparation for Nirvana. This is seen as a difficult and challenging process and Buddhists believe it takes many lifetimes before one can successfully surmount one's selfhood.

Answer 8

The no self concept is very complex. I feel it means basically, there is no CONSTANT self as all things change continually and so how can we even say we are THIS particular thing. As soon as we say that, this thing 'self' has changed into something else. In that way, we can never really know our-self either but we can have a vague idea.

Hope that helped.

Answer 9

I think it is the deep conscious that is reincarnated. That is why some people have vivid past life memories and others don't. Some have the ability to reach deep into their selves to find them, others don't.

Answer 10

self? you mean soul? the soul reincarnates