First let's look at what reincarnation isn't ...
Personally i wince when reincarnation is referred to as a belief because it's not ...
moreover reincarnation is of a global phenomenon,
unrooted and unfettered by either geography or culture.
It is as varied as human experience
because the phenomenon of reincarnation is in the remembering itself.
The only commonality from person to person is
the soul's recognition that life happens in more than one lifetime.
That's why words like dogma and discipline do not apply to reincarnation:
it's not a belief, or a practice or religion.
It is a phenomenon that touches the individual where he/she lives,
or not at all - It's that simple.
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Certain terms are thrown around casually in this forum.
Among
them...
These 3 words are interchangeable:
reincarnation - (L. incarnate, to make flesh) is
defined as “invested [again]
with a bodily nature and form; personification.”
transmigration - defined as “the passing of the soul into another
body after
death,”
metempsychosis - (Gr. metempsukhosis, from metempsukhousthai,
[of the soul] to
migrate + puski, soul), simply means, “transmigration of the soul.”
_________________________
ego – “1. the conscious subject, as designated by the first person
singular;
the self. Psychoanalysis: the personality component that is conscious, most
immediately controls behaviour, and is most in touch with external reality.”
With regards to past life work, ego’s prime directive is two-fold:
first, it is to survive,
and second, to act as a stop-gate mechanism
against past life memories flooding the present life.
This is the 'unknown' cause of insanity; the patient remembers previous lives
which causes problems because it is the ego that changes from lifetime to lifetime.
Ego's danger is that it can become quite the spoiled child in each lifetime –
stubborn, greedy, whiney, sulking, violent, self-absorbed, unremorseful, etc.
We choose the path we take; self-indulge and Ego grows strong.
the present life ego is separate from past life ego, and thus hidden are past memories from present, conscious recognition.
To ego, who recognizes no past lives, and lives the present in survival mode,
death is death to ego ...
it is this ego-fear of death that prohibits most folk from remembering past lives.
But for those who are ready, remembering can be accomplished -
by practicing meditation, and by appropriately applying discernment and detachment (see
below),
ego can learn to open and control the stop-gate of past life memories
without triggering its survival mode alarm.
___________________
spirit - ”That which is traditionally believed to be the vital
principal or
animating force within living beings.”
soul - “The animating and vital principle in man credited
with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion,
and conceived as forming an immaterial entity
distinguished from but temporally coexistent with his body.”
_____________________
Atman (capital A) – Hinduism - “The supreme and universal soul,
from
which all individual souls arise.”
atman (lower case a) –Hinduism - “the individual soul;
the principle of life.”
karma – Hinduism and Buddhism – “the sum and the consequences of a
person’s
actions during the successive phases of his existence,
regarded as determining his destiny.
dharma - Hinduism and Buddhism – “1. The ultimate law of all things
2. Individual right conduct in conformity to this law."
(please note: definitions in quotes are from The AmericanHeritage Dictionary of the English Language)
(this article was first published in 2007 on Beliefnet where for many years, NHT was moderator in their now defunct forums)
-NHT
related on-site readings
Reincarnation - part 1 of 3
Reincarnation FAQs - part 3 of 3