How does reincarnation work

The Buddha also generally discouraged speculation on questions such as whether there's life after death, comparing this with someone who'd refuse to have a poisoned arrow removed from their body until they knew who shot it, what kind of bow they used and what the feathers of the arrow-shaft were made of. A fair point, no? Instead, a focus of Buddhist practice is on deep, embodied realisation of the insubstantiality of incarnation in this moment, from the view that it's grasping to a nonexistent fixed self that heightens our stress and suffering, and stops us connecting compassionately with others.

All the rest is fiddling while Rome burns …. This article is more than 10 years old. Ed Halliwell. Applying a 'one-out-one-in' view of reincarnation like it's a metaphysical maths problem isn't in the spirit of Buddhism.

Once I determined that Athtun Re was a dependable resource, I asked him big picture questions, such as how many lives we have, and "When is incarnation on planet Earth over? On average, human beings have about lifetimes on Earth before they achieve these goals. Some of your writing involves the past lives of celebrities—I saw Halle Berry's in there.

Who was Halle Berry in a past life? In my work with trance medium Kevin Ryerson and [his spirit guide] Ahtun Re, Halle Berry was identified in a past lifetime as Dorothy Dandrige, an African American actress who was denied an Oscar in because she was African American. Halle reincarnated as an African American actress again and, in this incarnation, she did win an Oscar. This is typical of reincarnation cases, as we generally pursue similar professions from one lifetime to another.

This is because when we were created as souls, we were imbued with certain talents and abilities. We express these same talents from one lifetime to another. Does the progression into a new life follow a forwards, linear pattern, or can we be born again into a different period? What about geography; is there any relationship between reincarnation and physical place?

My understanding is that we reincarnate in linear time. Regarding geography, we tend to reincarnate with those we have been with before, so we incarnate in the geographic area our soul-group decides to reincarnate into.

In between lifetimes, we and our soul group partners plan a group incarnation on Earth, which does involve planning where we will incarnate. Not everyone has to incarnate in the very same place, but we incarnate in such a way that we can meet up with others of our soul group over time.

I think of it as planning an extended vacation in which we meet up with relatives and friends. The Hindu religion is vast and varied. Its adherents worship an array of gods and celebrate diverse traditions. Yet Hinduism, the world's oldest surviving religion, is unified by its acceptance of samsara , a chain of births and deaths linked by reincarnation. Controlling samsara is the law of karma. Hindus believe that all individuals accumulate karma over the course of a lifetime. Good actions create good karma and evil actions create negative karma.

Karma is not assigned or regulated by any god; it's simply earned by an individual and passed down through subsequent lives. But while good karma can eventually earn a person a higher place in the caste system in a future life, the ultimate goal of any Hindu adherent is moksha , or salvation from samsara.

Moksha is the final of four primary Hindu goals. The first three -- kama, artha and dharma -- concern earthly pursuits like pleasure, power or well-being and virtue.

Ironically, to achieve moksha, you must make a deliberate effort to not want it. Salvation comes only after a person has abandoned all pursuits and desires and accepts that the individual soul is the same as Brahman, the universal soul or god.

By exiting the cycle, an individual no longer endures the pain and suffering of earthly existence performed countless times over.

The belief in reincarnation is also predominant in two prevalent religions from India: Jainism and Sikhism. Jain adherents believe the soul accumulates karma as an actual physical substance, unlike the conceptual Hindu idea of karmic law.

As long as the soul is burdened by karmic particles, it must bind with a body, initiating a series of rebirths. Only when a soul is free from all karma can it exit the cycle of reincarnation and join other disembodied souls in a state of perfection. However, because Jain followers believe that deliverance is currently impossible, devoted adherents simply pursue purification. Sikhism also teaches reincarnation.

Like Hinduism, the law of karma influences the quality of Sikh life. For Sikhs to exit the cycle of birth and rebirth, they must achieve complete knowledge and become one with God. Jains compare time to a wheel with six spokes. The wheel's first three spokes represent Jainism 's golden age; the final three spokes represent the religion's decline and eventual extinction before rebirth.

Because we are currently in the period of decline -- between the fifth and sixth spokes -- Jain adherents believe that it is currently impossible to reach enlightenment. When Buddhism was established 2, years ago, it incorporated the Hindu belief in reincarnation.

Although Buddhism has two major subdivisions and countless variations in regional practices, most Buddhists believe in samsara or the cycle of rebirth.

Samsara is governed by the law of karma: Good conduct produces good karma and bad conduct produces evil karma. Buddhists believe that the soul's karma transmigrates between bodies and becomes a "germ of consciousness" in the womb [source: Encyclopaedia Britannica ]. Periods of afterlife, sometimes called "the between," punctuate samsara, coming after death and before rebirth [source: NPR].

Like Hindus, Buddhists see unenlightened samsara as a state of suffering. We suffer because we desire the transient. Only when we achieve a state of total passiveness and free ourselves from all desire can we escape samsara and achieve nirvana , or salvation.

Many Buddhists believe an individual can end the cycle of reincarnation by following the Eightfold Path , or middle way. An enlightened being embodies the directives of the Eightfold Path: correct view, correct intention, correct speech, correct action, correct livelihood, correct effort, correct mindfulness and correct concentration.

The Buddha Siddhartha Gautama taught the Eightfold Path in his first sermon after attaining enlightenment. Siddhartha, who was born around B.

As a young man, he began to question his spiritual state amid such luxury and reverted to the life of an extreme ascetic. When his hermitic life brought him no closer to enlightenment, Siddhartha decided to pursue the middle way -- a state of existence between excess and self-deprivation.

Shortly thereafter, Siddhartha reached enlightenment. It all depends on one's perspective. If you think we're nothing but chemicals with no soul, then yes, it is the end. If you believe in only one life and then it's heaven or hell, then no.

It's especially not the end if you happen to believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation suggests this is not our first life on Earth and it's most likely not our last. The Hindu perspective suggests we have been around for millions of lifetimes and that there may be millions ahead. In that sense, we are all "old souls. The Bhagavad Gita , the ancient text of India suggests that the soul leaves when the body dies. The type of body and psychological disposition -- likes, dislikes, phobias, etc.

By some inconceivable system, all of one's positive and negative deeds are recorded. This means, no one gets away with anything.