New Member Introductions - August 2011

[Tinkerman]

Hello Love (I like saying that!)


I'll weigh in here and tell you what I think... which has kinda been said by everyone, including yourself, here. I think we are each on a path... an individual spiritual journey. And in that walk there are answers that only we in the silence and solitude of our hearts can discern. We have the free will, intelligence and soulful ability to delve deep into the meaning of life. For us here, reincarnation is a reality worth exploring. To me it only makes sense! As a Christian that was a tough pill to swallow, but over time it has only expanded my soulful view of life and my own personal spiritual journey. It has certainly deepened my life. I, like you, turned to Buddhism as a philosophy to help me understand reincarnation. In simple terms: I love it! It has deepened my spiritual life through meditation and has guided my belief in reincarnation as an ancient tenet. I love the quote you posted:

The Buddha Says:
To understand your previous life,


Look at what you have in your present life.


To have a preview of your next life,


Examine your daily act in this life.

It so simple in meaning. Yet each of us in our spirits of free will must interpret that through personal eyes. The sutras are meant more to teach than to be literal... but aren't they wonderful in their simple meanings.


More later,


Tman

 

[Nightrain]

What free choice and will do you mean? Do you believe each of us has the power to override our kamma?

Not offensive at all, Love! All in the interest of learning from each other. The problem, if there really is one, probably lies with the core definition of Karma, and how Buddhism tries to deal with it. The fact that many of us, including myself, try to deal with Reincarnation without including religion does not preclude the importance of knowing the history of religion. Buddhism, though often practiced as a religion with its own dogma, is intrinsically a philosophy, which I think was originally developed as a very fine self-help guide that was based largely upon a great deal of esoteric knowledge and experience having to do with the "other side", reincarnation and the science of energy.


I have found that when we in Western Culture begin to study Buddhism, we try to interpret much of what is said through Western eyes, which is where we often encounter problems understanding how Karma works. And, thus, we often see Karma as a force outside ourselves, which forces us to suffer in ways that we would not have chosen for ourselves. We try to fit Karma into the Western tradition of authoritative God-like control where we have no choice.


Conversely, I believe that Karma is a process that is completely within our control. When one reads the many Dharmic texts of Buddhism and the ancient Vedic texts of the Hindu philosophy, the idea of choice is very much in evidence. It is true that we are often beset with problems that are the making of other entities both physical and spiritual, but we always have choices as to how to deal with them. I also believe we know deep in our hearts how the outcome of such dealings will affect us -- not only in this life, but in each lifetime to come. Therefore, Karma is something that we choose to apply to our own lives in order to accomplish whatever it is we desire while we are in our between lives state.

 

[Love]

Conversely, I believe that Karma is a process that is completely within our control....

But Nightrain, that defeats the purpose of reincarnation completely. Right?.


Hmm, I would explain more why I believe so, tomorrow or later.


Thanks for sharing your beliefs and thoughts.

 

[Nightrain]

Have you ever had an opportunity to choose a course in school, which was just a little bit tougher than some other easy choices? Have you ever bitten off more of something than you could chew, only to find out that your skills were not quite as developed as you thought? It is said that choosing your next lifetime is very much like that. It is commonly believed that the purpose of reincarnation is to test what you have learned.


However, I would be wrong to imply that there is any purpose to reincarnation, because doing so would be to give a stamp of approval to dogmatic belief, which is how I believe religion and politics will lead inevitably to war. I'm more a believer in science and observation than anything else.


But, I would strongly suggest from my own limited experience that the purpose of reincarnation is not about punishment, or slapping us silly because we burned the barn down in anger during a previous lifetime. That is a particularly Western idea born of our cultural dependence on a type of higher authority that can range from Gods and Kings on down to our own parents.


Abramic religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam built their cultures on an angry punishing God which controlled its people and provided only one life in which to blindly stumble around learning to be human. The only user guides provided were a series of strange and often contradictory pamphlets, which were badly translated and eventually sewn into what is commonly called the bible (among other things).


In striking contrast, however, we have Reincarnation, which has been understood to be driven more by our individual as well as collective choices. It has been accepted by many people in the East as well as among pockets of believers in Western Paganism as well as among members of the above-mentioned Abramic religions. The God of their beliefs, if they chose to worship, was one of forgiveness and unconditional love. In fact, many scholars believe that this philosophy was at the heart of the new Christianity during the first few hundred years, and was very likely a huge influence on Jesus Christ, himself.


So, you see, Reincarnation is more likely a system of positive reinforcement rather than punishment. It may be driven by a collective consciousness that is more compassionate than intolerant. Choice and free-will is the only logical mechanism in which we are all truly responsible for our own actions. Furthermore, such beliefs have been further reinforced by the experiences of people who have had After Death Experiences, memories of past lives, and other fairly credible psychic experiences.


I know that many people, who are under the influence of Western Culture, believe that Karma means punishment and that the purpose of Reincarnation is to somehow wash away the "original sin" of being part animal. However, we are not dogs being trained to sit and beg at the feet of a higher power. Though it may be hard to break away from this limited concept, it is extremely important to read as much as possible -- not just books about Reincarnation, but the history of Religion, Philosophy, Parapsychology, and even Quantum Mechanics.

 

[Tinkerman]

Love, here is another web page with a lot of information I thought you might enjoy: Karma and Reincarnation.