Reincarnation ? What do you make of this ?

[moogradod]

A title like this and then on asean now. Hope this will not lead to confusion.

 

In fact this short thread is unfortunately already full of misuderstandings and arguable assumptions. Let me clarify just a few to be hopefully of benefit to some readers:

 

1. Reincarnation is not the same as Rebirth. Consequence: you may not hope to be reincarnated in human form only but there are a multitude of other possibilities.

2. What that "you" entails which is subject of the process is another matter and requires very careful examination whose scope is far beyond this thread but important for the understanding

3. Reincarnation is a consequence of former actions. What makes it complicated though is that this is not confined to this current life alone.

4. "Proof" of Reincarnation is actually supported with various hard facts over a broad range - be it the form of remembrance of living people of their previous lives (there are many examples) until the concept of "Tulku" which postulates that extraordinary learned individuals may carry their awareness in conscious form over during the death process to the next live and may actually influence their reincarnation this way.

 

In any case the subject is worth more than considering and not done justice by just make superficial connections to "Religion" whatever the poster in question believes what this actually is. I would politely like to suggest you educate yourself maybe a bit more about the subject and then delve down into other subtle connected subjects of benefit ?

 

One possible place to start is the platform *studybuddhism.com  (pls. omit the asterix) which is a multilingual (even Thai and other exotic languages supported ) site gradually composed by Dr. Alexander Berzin and his team who has been studying with the Dalai Lama and his teachers in Tibet for decades and served for some time as his interpreter. But there are many others and while you are in Thailand why not take advantage of the prevailing Theravada tradition first with actual teachers sitting just around the corner ?

[fusion58]

The whole idea is predicted on the notion that there’s some kind of permanent self or soul which exists independent of the body and which transmigrates to a new “host” after death. Needless to say, there’s no empirical evidence - or even sound reasoning - to support this.

[Kwasaki]

24 minutes ago, fusion58 said:

The whole idea is predicted on the notion that there’s some kind of permanent self or soul which exists independent of the body and which transmigrates to a new “host” after death. Needless to say, there’s no empirical evidence - or even sound reasoning - to support this.

That's not to say it's not possible though.

[swissie]

Why would I want to come back? Doing the same thing over again or being reborn as a snail? Or end up in an extremely boring "heavenly-environement"? I had my life with all is's up's and downs. Sufficient for me. Eternal sleep will be perfectly fine with me.

Before my birth, I was in a state of eternal sleep or in a state of "non existance". During all this time, I felt no discomfort at all. Even better, I felt nothing at all. "Non-existance" can't be topped by anything else. Extremely desirable, I find.

[fusion58]

On 4/20/2022 at 7:39 PM, Kwasaki said:

That's not to say it's not possible though.

You could just as easily argue that it's not impossible for unicorns or leprechauns to exist. Bottom line: there's no evidence for the existence of either of these things, and no compelling reason to assume they do exist.

[fusion58]

On 4/20/2022 at 10:22 PM, swissie said:

Why would I want to come back? Doing the same thing over again or being reborn as a snail? Or end up in an extremely boring "heavenly-environement"? I had my life with all is's up's and downs. Sufficient for me. Eternal sleep will be perfectly fine with me.

Before my birth, I was in a state of eternal sleep or in a state of "non existance". During all this time, I felt no discomfort at all. Even better, I felt nothing at all. "Non-existance" can't be topped by anything else. Extremely desirable, I find.

My take (based on the Buddhist concept of anatta) is that there's no reincarnation in the popular sense, i.e., transmigration of the "soul" - only liberation from the illusion of the separate "self."