Karma and Reincarnation: are we reborn?

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Taking responsibility for this life and the next

Karma and reincarnation are linked. Karma is the idea that what we do and have done influences our circumstances, talents and options. Reincarnation means that what we do and think will not just influence our present life, but also our future existences.

Why do people believe in karma? 

Some religious views

Many people believe in karma because it explains aspects of life that are otherwise hard to explain. For instance: karma gives an explanation as to why different people get such very different deals in life. Some have a hard life, while being very kind. Others get born wealthy and make a fool of themselves in front of millions of people... One could of course say this is all chance...

But if it isn't, karma is the only explanation that makes sense. If the cause of most of our misery is karma, wealth and poverty, sickness and health, wisdom and stupidity are all ultimately the responsibility of each person themselves. What's more, if we help others, that will come back to us. Helping others becomes the ultimate blessing: not only are we helping someone else become a better person, the person helping will get their reward... I'm not talking money here, I'm talking happiness, wisdom, chances to grow, meeting the right people ... Good karma is ultimately not about being wealthy and getting the chance to dress up in the fanciest cloths. From a spiritual perspective good karma means the chance to grow in wisdom and get more and more chances to help and bless humanity.

Where 'the secret' is supposedly that we each need to just visualize happiness in order to get it - the doctrine of karma means that happiness can only come to all of us, when we all make the effort to try and make others happy.

Reincarnation video's 

Movies in which the theme of rebirth or reincarnation plays a part. Most of these are more comedy than serious though.
Heart and Souls
Heart and Souls
Little Buddha
Little Buddha
Mannequin
Mannequin
Star Trek III - The Search for Spock (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
Star Trek III - The Searc...
Brother Bear (2-Disc Special Edition)
Brother Bear (2-Disc Spec...

Our past and future lives 

A religious debate

When people think of reincarnation, they usually think of reincarnating (in the future) in an animal. This is hard to imagine: how can this personality reincarnate into an animal?

The misconception, from a philosophical point of view, is this: it IS NOT the personality that reincarnates. Our personality is formed by our circumstances, our body, our eating habits, the country we grew up in etc. Those are karmically caused, but change in each incarnation.

What we take along into our next incarnation is what we've learned on a spiritual level and our habits (bad and good).

Our past lives impact us in many ways. First of all our circumstances, talents and inclinations are to a large extent caused by our karmic inheritance. It's our starting point. What we do with that, what we choose to change or keep, is up to us.

Looking again at our future lives: if we are misusing our responsibilities as a human being, and instead live like pigs, chances are we will reincarnate as pigs. But most people do use their capacities as a human being. Many people just do the best they see how. In those circumstances, the human element, the conscious responsible element, is strong enough to stay alive into a next incarnation. This means a human birth.

So, can we choose our next life? 

The more spiritually advanced you are, the more likely you are to fully be able to choose your next life.

Choosing your next life depends on how much (negative) karma you have waiting to work out. Lots of karma that needs to be worked out means that you don't really have much choice on how your next life is going to look. If you have reached a point in your spiritual evolution where there isn't too much bad karma to work out any more, and you have consciously chosen to only work for good - a point will come where you can start to actually choose what to do with your life.

That said: I do believe that even with a lot of bad karma, you can still choose the lessons to learn from that karma.

Books on reincarnation 

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Your Immortal Reality: How to Break the Cycle of Birth and Death by Gary Renard

Your Immortal Reality: How to Break the Cycle of Birth and Death by Gary Renard

In this fascinating book, Gary Renard and his Asce more...0 points

Right action 

Avoid wrong, act right

What we do impacts our lives. This is pretty obvious: if I finish school, that will benefit the rest of my life. If I quarrel with my family, that too has its effects.

Right action means both not doing wrong and actively doing right. Avoiding harming other people and the world we live in can be difficult. Sometimes it's not even possible. The important thing is to just try.

Actively doing right is more difficult. It can mean doing volunteer work, or talking to that guy that's ignored by everybody. If you see some wrong - don't just complain, see about doing something about it. It's better for this world, and good karma for you.

Right thought 

Trying to stay fair.

Right thought is the hard part of understanding karma. It starts with the basic fact that what we think influences our lives. When we expect to be treated well, we will be treated better then when we expect to be offended.

Karmically it's more important what we think of others. Are you fair to them? Do you keep in mind that their lives are hard too? What are the challenges of the people you disagree with? What do they have to deal with? Always try to balance your negative thoughts about people with a fair perspective on how it must be from their perspective. This will help keep the relationship healthy and avoid trouble. After all: what we think will influence what we say and do.

Karma: the ethical law of cause and effect 

A theosophical view

We may see that this is so in every-day life. Law on the physical plane takes no account of intention. If you seize a red-hot bar it will burn you, whether you seized it in order to kill somebody, or in order to save a child from injury. On the physical plane the result will be precisely the same, but on the plane of intention it is very different. In the one case there could be nothing but shame and remorse, and the evil result of an outpouring of hatred and malice; in the other there would be the happy consciousness of a brave deed done, and the good which flows from a strong thought of heroic self-sacrifice.



C.W. Leadbeater: Karma, the law of cause and effect

Creating the right habits 

Skandhas - the result of right thought, words and actions

The reason bad karma is so hard to escape is that bad thoughts, words and actions create negative habits. Negative habits are, like all habits, hard to break. They are themselves bad karma and also create more bad karma - because we just keep acting on them.

So each time you break a negative habit, the negative karmic cycle is broken. Each time we act on love, the negative conditionings that keep us from changing our habits is softened.

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Salvation: out of the cycle of rebirth 

Nirvana, Moksha, Enlightenment

In all philosophies that accept reincarnation, there is also a vision of getting out of the cycle of rebirth. Each philosophical school has their own ideas on how to attain enlightenment: called Moksha in Hinduism and Nirvana in Buddhism.

Some of the ways people feel enlightenment can be reached are below. Please add your own favorite, or ones I forgot about below.
There are all kinds of discussions on which is important, so vote for the one that you feel is most likely to ultimately lead to Nirvana!

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Karma

Right living with the result that you get access t more...3 points

2

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Jnana

Contemplation on truth2 points

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Dhyana

Meditation. This path is usually thought to only w more...2 points

4

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Bhakti

Devotion to God, Ishvara, Shiva, Krishna (or some more...0 points

Reincarnation and Karma are facts! - What do YOU think? 

A religious debate

Is reincarnation a fact?

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Yes, I believe in reincarnation.

Suzie-Shine says:

I've been giving the subject a lot of thought recently and reincarnation and Karma is the only concept that makes sense to me. It sorts out the wrongs and rights of life and, as the Bible indicates, 'an eye for an eye' is justice - not by man but by God/Universal Energy or whatever.

Posted July 10, 2009

ArtisticMind says:

I do believe in reincarnation! I have memories of a past life and even know two friends in this life that I knew in a previous life..strange but true!

Posted April 16, 2009

andrasnm says:

Reincarnation and Karma work as laws of the Universe - hand in hand. There can be no one without the other. It amazes me that some people "buy into" one but for some reason, reject the other....

Posted March 22, 2009

ShopperGirl3 says:

I absolutely believe in reincarnation. We have many chances and choices to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. I also believe that life is a big classroom, and we are here to learn.

Posted January 02, 2009

getbackup says:

When I was 2 I told my Gramma I was her mother oncE! How weird? I've always had an extra close bond to me. Maybe I was her mother once???

Posted November 23, 2008

JoeR says:

I absolutely do! A few experiences from past lives will probably bleed through to this life. If you're lucky, you'll become aware of them.

Posted June 13, 2008

Reiki-Relax says:

We hold onto karma through our many visits to this world until we learn to let it go, then we return no more.

Posted April 13, 2008

No, I don't believe in reincarnation

RinchenChodron says:

I'm on the fence. I do know that I was led to Buddhism by something not explained - I was raised Christian - but indeed here I am Buddhist. Perhaps I did have a former life?

Posted August 23, 2008

Tiddledeewinks says:

I'm not sure I believe in reincarnation as such, but I believe in karma (we reap what we sow), and that there is an after life. Check out my Do Animals Go To Heaven lens.

Posted April 25, 2008

 
view all 11 comments

Books about karma and reincarnation 

My reviews of the best books on the subject

featured lens Best Books about karma and reincarnation

Learn about karma and reincarnation from the perspective of Buddhism, Theosophy and Hinduism. But also based on the science of past life memories of children and regression. I could not resist putting a video on VHS up as well. John Algeo explains t...

Show the world you believe in Karma and Reincarnation! 

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Links on karma and reincarnation 

More religious views on rebirth

Karma and rebirth in Buddhism
Karma is a central doctrine in Buddhism. The articles on this page explain how it works in relation to reincarnation - and why Buddhists often say they don't believe in a soul (atman). The weird thing is: they believe that karma itself reincarnates...
Karma & reincarnation in theosophy
Theosophists have thought about karma and reincarnation for over a century. Their explanations DO include a soul. The articles here include information on why we don't remember our past lives and whether poverty is bad karma (hint: no).
Near Death Experience and Karma
A variety of articles about karma and reincarnation and how those subjects relate to Near Death Experiences.
Karma & Reincarnation in Hinduism
Articles about karma and reincarnation in Hinduism. Included are articles on ritual, karma yoga and Jainism.
LIFE AFTER LIFE - or The Theory of Reincarnation FAQ
FAQ on reincarnation, rebirth, past and future lives and karma.
Reincarnation and Karma | All Considering
Pondering Karma and Reincarnation.

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