According to reincarnation beliefs, history tends to repeat itself until those who have participated in it learn their lessons and change for the better. This means that an individual may face identical situations from one life to the next until they are able to conquer whatever "cause and effect" chain-reaction they have caused from a previous life. As an example, a person who "lives by the sword" in one life and dies without having made amends for his mistakes, will in the next life be faced with identical situations which must be overcome. Ultimately, such a person will have to face themselves and have inflicted upon them everything they have inflicted upon others. Divine justice in many religions shows that those who "live by the sword" will "die by the sword", if not in their present life, but likely in a future life. Reincarnation theory states that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The lives of President Kennedy and President Abraham Lincoln had so many parallels that it cannot be dismissed as pure coincidence. To many, these parallels are evidence of history repeating itself and evidence of reincarnation. To me, these parallels may be circumstantial evidence that President Kennedy was the reincarnation of President Lincoln. Decide for yourself.

Both were elected to Congress in the 46th year in the 19th and 20th centuries. Both were elected President in the 60th year. Both had the legality of their elections contested. Both were directly involved with black civil rights. Both lost a son while serving as President. Both were assassinated while serving as President. Lincoln's staffer, whose name was Kennedy, advised him not to go to the theatre where he was assassinated. Kennedy's secretary, whose name was Lincoln, advised him not to go to Dallas where he was assiassinated. Abraham Lincoln was fond of Monroe, Maryland. A place he had visited a week before he was shot. Kennedy was fond of Marilyn Monroe.

Both were shot on a Friday. Both were shot in the head from behind. Both were shot in the presence of their wives. Both were shot while sitting with another couple. Both were shot with another member of their entourage being injured, but not fatally. Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theatre. Kennedy was shot in a Ford Lincoln.

Both assassins were born in the 39th year. Both were Southerners favouring extremist views. Both are known by their first, middle and last names. After assassinating Lincon, John William Booth ran from the theatre and was captured in a warehouse. After assassinating Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald ran from the warehouse and was captured in a theatre. Both were themselves assassinated before their trials.

Both President�s successors were Southern Democrats. Both successors had the last name of Johnson. Both successors were Vice-Presidents. Both successors were born in the 8th year of the century. Both successors were former senators. Both President�s caskets were carried in death on the same caisson.

It appears that history does indeed repeat itself.


Stumble It!

moksha that translates into liberation, is the fourth and final goal of the lives in the purushArtha sequence. What it is and why is this so important a concept ?

Hinduism puts forward the idea that the cycle of birth-death-rebirth again keeps going on, making the soul accumulate and at the same time undergo the fruits of such previously accumulated karma. It is both heaven and hell that come on the way giving the good and bad fruits. They are not permanent. They are only transient spots and the journey of the soul continues beyond.

Along with the karma there are two culprits - ego and illusion - that make the soul do more deeds and accumulate more and more karma. Put together these impurities are referred as pAsha or bondage, as they bind the soul in this never ending vicious circle.

Liberation is when the soul is no longer bound to these impurities and comes out of the cycle and the result is Eternal Bliss. Supreme or parabrahman is the One which stays beyond these cycles and that Supreme is invoked by the soul to come out of the cycle and stay in the Bliss without reincarnating. This is the ultimate state all the bonded souls need to get to !

While the concept of liberation and the soul freed from bondage and staying in Eternal Bliss is the core Hinduism concept shared by all philosophies of it, the philosophies describe the finer details differently like the relation between the soul and the God at the state of liberation etc. Those interested in the analysis of the philosophy and enjoy the wisdom they bring to the seeker can go through in detail about the philosophies like advaita, siddhantha, dvaita etc.

Without getting to the hells, heavens and the worlds, Oh God, you blessed the devotee to get to the Supreme State ! - thiruvAsakam.




Stumble It!

A husband and wife had a puppy named "Beibei." Beibei was very pretty
and cute, it had white hair all over its body, and the couple always
kept its hair neat and clean. Everyone in the family loved the puppy
and fed it with milk and ham. The couple would buy anything the puppy
liked to eat.



One should say the puppy was very fortunate. However, as a storm may
arise from a clear sky, the puppy Beibei suddenly died of illness. The
whole family wailed over its death. For months the husband and wife was
unable to get over it. Other people found it unbelievable, "Wasn't it
just a dog? Is it necessary to feel bad like this? I didn't even see
you cry much when your mother died!" Although the comments were
caustic, what they said was true. When the husband's mother died, the
whole family didn't really care much.



One night the wife had a dream. In the dream her mother-in-law told
her, "When I was about to die, you and my son were so into your
business that instead of looking after me, the two of you left me
unattended at home. As a result, when I died, nobody was beside me.
After I died, you didn't cry much for me either. That puppy was me. I
reincarnated into it to demand the debt from you. Do some math and see
how long you had raised the dog and how long you had kept me home
unattended before I died. In addition, I'll tell you where Beibei came
from, and you can do some investigation to verify my words. Doudou, the
couple's daughter, got Beibei from her college classmate, and the
classmate got it from her aunt. So Beibei came from the XX City. The
puppy's mom had five puppies at a time, and Beibei was the cutest one
of them. Go investigate." Then the old woman disappeared mistily from
the dream.



The wife woke up felling strange. She could hardly believe it, but
everything was so real and clear in memory. Everything that had
happened before came into view so clearly: how she and her husband had
left the old woman home by herself, how they only cared about making
money and forgot about fulfilling their filial piety as son and
daughter-in-law, and how the old woman had died wretchedly and
miserably.



To verify what was told in the dream, the wife told her daughter Doudou
to ask her classmate about how she had got Beibei. Surprisingly, with
just a telephone, everything Doudou was told exactly matched what the
mother-in-law had said in the dream. The wife couldn't help walking out
of her home and telling everyone about it, and she was surrounded by a
big crowd. Suddenly a voice said, "So one has to pay back what one owes
others. Then is there retribution for wrongdoings? No wonder other
people say ‘the good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil,' and I
even laughed at them for being superstitious. Alas, there was a Falun
Gong practitioner told me not to persecute Falun Dafa, he said that one
would suffer retribution for wrongdoings, and I thought he made it up!
Hearing your story, I now really believe him. Alas..."



That's right. As a human being, if one doesn't owe others or do
unconscionable things, and especially if treats one's aged parents and
grandparents well, one would at least get a sounder sleep. And these
are the basic requirement for conducting oneself!

Translated from:

http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2006/7/24/38679.html

Stumble It!

According to the Bhagavad-gita, whatever we think of at the time of death determines what sort of body we’ll take next. And of course what we think of at death depends largely on what we thought about and what we did during our life. The process is subtle, because the mind is subtle.

The Bhagavad-gita explains that the mind, at death, carries with it subtle conceptions, just as the air carries aromas. And these subtle thoughts are what shape the next body. They determine what sort of eyes one will have, what nose, ears, and tongue, what sort of hands and legs and other bodily features. These all assemble around the mind.

The Vedic writings tell us, also, that our karma—what we deserve for our past acts—proceeds not only from what we have done in the present life but from past lives as well. My present birth, then, is an outcome of what I have thought and what I have done in the past.

Are human beings always reborn as human beings? According to the Vedic literature, no. Some are, but others are promoted to still higher forms, forms beyond our present experience, and others are degraded to lower species.

Sometimes, for example, we see a person living just like a pig—dirty, sloppy, gluttonous. We may think he even looks like a pig. According to the Vedic teachings, such a person, already practically a pig in consciousness, may get the body of a pig in his next life.

The Vedic writings say that there are 8,400,000 species, most of them lower than human

. In the lower species, the living beings always act precisely as nature dictates. They have no choice. A horse always acts like a horse, a tree like a tree. You never see a tiger stealing oranges.

And so the living beings in lower species always advance to species higher. Slowly, one step at a time, they are promoted by nature from one species to the next.

But human life affords us greater choice. We can live in harmony with nature’s laws, or we can violate them. And accordingly we may be promoted or degraded. The human life is therefore meant for spiritual realization and for gaining freedom from the cycle of birth and death. No other species offers us this opportunity.

Stumble It!

Some believe that memories which surface during hypnotherapy sessions offer evidence of a person's past life. While hypnotized, adults have related details about past lives as Middle Eastern warriors, European peasants, and more.

Sample case: In one famous but oft-disputed case, a Colorado woman was hypnotized and subsequently remembered the life of Bridey Murphy, a 19th-century woman from Cork, Ireland. While under hypnosis, she talked in an Irish brogue, sang Irish songs, and remembered being held as she bent to kiss the Blarney Stone. Recordings of the hypnotic sessions were made and translated into more than a dozen languages
In a more recent case, previously skeptical psychiatrist Dr. Brian Weiss had been treating a young woman with traditional "talk therapy" for over a year. Failing to identify the source of her chronic fears, he decided to use hypnotherapy. While under hypnosis, his patient recalled her life in the year 1863 B.C.E., when she was a 25-year-old named Aronda.

Proponents say: Some psychiatrists have found the level of detail and plausibility in their patients' accounts very persuasive. In Dr. Weiss' case, his patient had visited him for eighteen months before recalling the past life. Weiss argues that if the patient had simply wanted to make the memories up, she would not have waited so long to do so.

Skeptics say: One skeptics' study states that a belief in reincarnation is the greatest predictor of whether a subject has a past-life memory while undergoing hypnotherapy, and that therefore a subject's memories are most likely self-fulfilling prophecies. Dr. Jim Tucker, who has continued Dr. Stevenson's work at the University of Virginia, says: "In general, past-life regression work has lacked the scientific rigor of Dr. Stevenson's work. A subject may describe a life in ancient times with great emotion, but since the statements cannot be verified as accurate for a particular individual who actually lived, the evidenciary value of such a case is very limited at best."

Stumble It!

The state of affairs found as actually existing is much more rational than most of the current theories. It is not found that any sudden change takes place in man at death, or that he is spirited away to some heaven beyond the stars. On the contrary, man remains after death exactly what he was before it—the same in intellect, the same in his qualities and powers; and the conditions in which he finds himself are those which his own thoughts and desires have already created for him. There is no reward or punishment from outside, but only the actual result of what the man himself has done and said and thought while here on earth. In fact, the man makes his bed during earth life and afterwards he has to lie on it.

This is the first and most prominent fact—that we have not here a strange new life, but a continuation of the present one.

We are not separated from the dead

, for they are here about us all the time. The only separation is the limitation of our consciousness, so that we have lost, not our loved ones, but the power to see them. It is quite possible for us to raise our consciousness, that we can see them and talk with them as before, and all of us constantly do that, though we only rarely remember it fully. A man may learn to focus his consciousness in his astral body while his physical body is still awake, but that needs special development, and in the case of the average man would take much time. But during the sleep of his physical body every man uses his astral vehicle to a greater or lesser extent, and in that way we are daily with our departed friends. Sometimes we have a partial remembrance of meeting them, and then we say we have dreamt of them; more frequently we have no recollection of such encounters and remain ignorant that they have taken place. Yet it is a definite fact that the ties of affection are still as strong as ever; and so the moment the man is freed from the chains of his physical encasement he naturally seeks the company of those whom he loves. So that in truth the only change is that he spends the night with them instead of the day, and he is conscious of them astrally instead of physically.

The bringing through of the memory from the astral plane to the physical is another and quite separate consideration, which in no way affects our consciousness on that other plane, nor our ability to function upon it with perfect ease and freedom. Whether you recollect them or not, they are still living their life close to you, and the only difference is that they have taken off this robe of flesh which we call the body. That makes no change in them, any more than it makes a change in your personality when you remove your overcoat: You are somewhat freer, indeed, because you have less weight to carry, and precisely the same is: the case with them. The man's passions, affections, emotions and intellect are not in the least affected when he dies, for none of these belong to the physical body which he has laid aside. He has dropped this vesture, and is living in another, but he is still able to think and to feel just as before....







Stumble It!


more mindblowing stuff coming soon!!!

Reincarnation and the Titanic

A different time trip on the Titanic was experienced by a man born two years after the Titanic sank. Though his name has not been identified, I will call him Frank Hays.

As an adult, Hays began to have a series of visions in which he saw himself as a young child involved in a tragedy on an ocean liner. By piecing together the details of his visions, he concluded that he had been aboard the Titanic with his family and had died when it sunk. At the time of his death, he was two years old.

Here are the details that he recalled:

He remembered his second birthday, which was celebrated at his wealthy aunt's home in Hampstead, near London.

At the party was a teenage girl, his cousin. After the party, his aunt drove him and his mother to a subway station, where they connected to a train. The next day they boarded a ship and were shown to their third-class cabin. He was the only child who spent the days with his mother; the other children spent their days in a nursery school. During the voyage, everyone was given a tour of the entire ship. There was an accident, and the ship sunk. He drowned along with his mother. Their bodies were recovered and buried in the United States. His father had gone to Canada or the United States on an earlier ship and escaped death.

Hays never saw the name of the ship in any of his memories, but he decided that it must have been the Titanic. He did recall that at his birthday party, his cousin had asked his name. Although he couldn't see the name clearly, he recalled that it looked like "A-ed." He interpreted this to mean "Alfred." By looking at the Titanic's passenger list, he came across the name of Alfred Peacock, a young boy traveling with his mother and sister in a third-class cabin.

Titus Rivas, a researcher at the Parapsychological Institute in Utrecht, the Netherlands, was contacted by Mr. Hays. He asked Rivas to investigate the possibility that he had been reincarnated. Rivas, in turn, called on seven colleagues to assist him. Together, they unraveled Hays's story and located the following information:

Alfred Peacock was only seven months old at the time of the trip, according to London's Public Record Office. He had been born in September 1911, not April 1910. He traveled with his mother and his four-year-old sister; they had spent their last few days in Southampton, not London. Although his father had gone to the United States a year earlier, Alfred did not have an aunt living in London, nor did either of his two aunts have a teenage daughter.

Historians who have studied the Titanic told Rivas that no nursery school existed on the ship and that passengers had not been given a tour of the ship during the voyage.

When Rivas told Hays about his findings, Hays argued with him.

"This is the truth," Hays said. He insisted that he wasn't lying and that he knew he had been reincarnated. Unfortunately, Rivas was unable to uncover any proof to substantiate any of his claims. In the end, Rivas concluded that Hays had constructed an elaborate fantasy that had no basis in reality. His was a sad case.

Stumble It!

or centuries, we have heard stories about the spirits of dead people appearing to the living. Often, we jokingly refer to them as "ghosts" and write off these accounts as superstition. Yet, this phenomenon has been the basis for some of the most famous works of literature and drama, two examples of which are Shakespeare's Hamlet and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

It is obvious to the serious investigator that these stories are based on one central fact. The "dead" continue to live and, in some instances, have the ability to contact those who are still in physical form.

Recently, this phenomenon has been investigated more thoroughly, and is referred to in the research literature as After Death Communication (ADC). Types of ADCs which have been reported include, according to Guggenheim: sensing a presence, hearing a voice, feeling a touch, smelling a fragrance, visual appearances, sleep-state ADCs, out-of-body ADCs, telephone ADCs, ADCs before the news, validated ADCs, and ADCs for protection and intervention.

A majority of these events prove to be not grief-induced hallucinations, as some want us to believe, but actual appearances. We know this is true because of the self-authenticating nature of many of these contacts. In these cases, the spirit gives previously unknown information to the living person which, upon investigation, proves to be true

It is reported that 40% of Americans have had ADCs. Some say that among widows the number rises to over 65%. There have been an estimated ten million people who have had a near-death experience. This means that ADC's may be five times as common. It is time to take this phenomenon more seriously.

There are a number of true stories in this section. I know personally all the people whose experiences are recounted here and can attest to their truthfulness. I believe that first-person stories of this type have even more power to convince than other such stories which may be read in books.

IIn February, 1997 I went to visit two psychic friends before going to England. They told me that I would meet a young woman with auburn hair and glasses. They described her as intuitive, often having spiritual dreams and possessing a passion for fashion. They also told me that she would find me attractive.

In April I arrived in England. On the morning of my second day there, I started to hunt for a job. I walked down High street and entered the first recruitment agency I came to. When I saw the receptionist, I was amazed. She had auburn hair and glasses and was wearing a stylish suit to which she brought warmth. Though we'd never met, I recognized her instantly.

She was beautiful and I saw some sort of positive reaction from her. She got up quickly and came out front to speak to me. I introduced myself and she told me her name was Catherine.* We talked for a few minutes about the job in the window. Then, out of the blue, I changed the subject. I asked her, "Why are you are working here, when you're really interested in fashion?" There was a long pause, and then she said, "Yes, I'm interested in fashion." Her look told me that she was wondering how I knew that. She went on, "I used to have a job displaying clothes in the window of a store when I first left school, but it didn't pay much." Later, after I had talked to a recruitment consultant, I left. I waved good-bye to Catherine, hopeful that I would see her again.

That night I had a lucid dream. I could hear the voice of Sarah, one of my spirit guides. She continued to speak as she showed me what she wanted me to see. In the dream I was a Roman cavalry officer, walking through the city of Rome with a fellow officer. I was about twenty-five years old, tall and lean, with dark brown hair, and dressed in military attire - chain mail armour over a tunic, sword strapped to the right side, and sandals [Context, Republican Rome].

My friend paused unexpectedly at a descending stairway. "We should go another way today," he said smiling. "We can drink at the fountain on the way." It was already very warm and I was a bit thirsty, so I agreed and followed him down the steps.

We came to a small enclosed place at the bottom, paved with stone. In the middle was a large circular fountain flowing with fresh water. We walked over to it to drink. I was cupping my hands in the water when I heard the laughter of youthful female voices from above.

I looked up to the right toward a stone balcony. There I saw a beautiful young noble woman, with long, black hair. I clearly recognized her as Catherine, whom I'd just met. She stood between two other women, chatting and laughing. The young women leant over the balcony, carefully spying on the two of us. My friend smiled to me, then waved to them. "Oh, look, my cousin's friends are here," he said. There was a knowing smile on his face, which told me that all of this wasn't just a coincidence. "I know her friend, the one on the left," he said. "I met her last week."

The women came down the stairs, and Catherine came over hesitantly and sat down beside me. I knew that this had all been arranged. She shuffled a little closer and said shyly, "I wanted to meet you." Looking into her eyes, I was completely won over. As we sat there talking, it was a moment of great happiness.

Andrew

For most people, reincarnation is a matter of faith. Millions of Hindus believe in it, and some polls show that over 20% of Americans who self-identify as Christians do too, despite Christian doctrine's repudiation of the idea.

What fewer people know is that reincarnation is actually being studied scientifically. The research falls into three categories:

1. Children's Claims of Past Life Memories
Some feel that persuasive evidence for reincarnation is found in the work of psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson, who recently retired from his post in the Division of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia. Stevenson spent four decades traveling the globe, following up on thousands of cases of very young children who reported intricate memories of past lives. According to Stevenson's documentation, these children spontaneously recalled names, locations, and intimate details of people they could not possibly know.

Sample case: A five-year-old Indian boy, Parmod Sharma, remembered specific details about a man named Parmanand, including street directions in Parmanand's city and the man's "special seat." The boy also visited the factory Parmanand owned and gave directions for repairing complicated machinery in it. Read his story.

Proponents say: Stevenson's work follows the scientific method; his controlled studies rule out connections between the child's family and the "past life" family. In 1975, in a review of Stevenson's "Cases of the Reincarnation Type" in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Lester S. King concluded that Stevenson had "painstakingly and unemotionally collected a detailed series of cases in India, cases in which the evidence for reincarnation is difficult to understand on any other grounds....[H]e has placed on record a large amount of data that cannot be ignored."

Skeptics say: Most of Stevenson's cases occurred in countries where a belief in reincarnation is a cultural given, such as Thailand or India. In such cultures, children might be predisposed to make up stories about past lives--stories that are then positively reinforced or conditioned by family members. Stevenson himself says his studies are merely "suggestive" of reincarnation and declines to state positively whether reincarnation is real.

Reincarnation is known by the 6th Sense.

There are two types of truth in the world. There is the expected, or taught, truth that people blindly accept and there is the inner truth that you tend to cover up.

The latter is that felt inside and known in our hearts as right. It is hidden truth and it is at odds with society. It addresses all the above and those protecting religious lies are your enemies.

It is what I know and the subject of this work.

This sixth sense is the power of the Spirit that manifests inside you when something is wrong and it ensures you stay on the 'straight path' and are aware of the danger of loosing connection with it. It might send shivers up your spine as a witness to the truth of something and feel dead inside when you go against it.

I have that experience if I go near a church or a movie theatre. For the same reason I cannot tell a lie or drink alcohol, take drugs or go against the Spirit in other ways. Anything that might hurt my body or corrupt my mind is taboo.

Going against the Spirit leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It may cause resentment or hatred to well up for the same reason. It is also something that passes between people so that you instantly like or dislike someone.

Once in a debate....

He told me a story about how he died. He stated that he was shot in the leg, pointing to a area on his leg where he has a birth mark.

I never believed in reincarnation until my son started telling me stories. At age three, he would tell me he used to be a soldier. He said that he died before he got to be a hero and that he came back to try to be a hero again. He told me a story about how he died. He stated that he was shot in the leg, pointing to a area on his leg where he has a birth mark. He said the wound was not that bad, but he died from the infection. This made me wonder how a three-year-old would know about infections and how "ugly fluid" came out of it. When he was about four, he was ill and had a high fever. He was in his bed taking a nap. All of a sudden, I heard him bouncing off his bed, banging his body off the walls. I ran to his room and he was screaming that he had died again. He was out of control with his emotions, yelling that he would never get to be that hero he wanted to be, that he had a lot of plans for his life and now they were gone. He just kept on crying and yelling that I did not understand what he had planned. It took me about two hours to calm him down and tell him he was alright, and all the while he was telling me his plans to be that hero. Now I believe there is something to reincarnation. - Linda Kronander

Transmigration of the soul (sometimes given simply as Transmigration) is a philosophy of reincarnation incorporating the specific belief that after death, the soul of a living being is then transferred (or transmigrates) into another living form and thus takes birth again.

The philosophy of transmigration is often connected with a belief that the karma (or, the actions) of the soul in one life (or, more generally, a series of past lives) determines the future existence.

It is a belief found within Hindu traditions (such as Yoga, Vaishnavism, and Jainism), Greek philosophy, animism, theosophy, anthroposophy, Wicca, and other theological systems, including Kabballa and a number of minority Christian groups.

Some psychic mediums of a variety of religious persuasions (from Wiccan all the way to Christian) and some Spiritualists believe in transmigration of the soul but hold that reincarnation is an anomaly if it occurs at all.

Transmigration in Hinduism and Buddhism

As the believed nature of the soul (jiva or atman) has a significant impact on any philosophy concerning transmigration, there are a number of significant differences between both Hindu and Buddhist versions as well as minor differences within the varied Hindu and Buddhist traditions themselves. In general, the Hindu sense is different from the Buddhist sense because, in Hinduism, a soul is both immutable and eternal, but in many schools of Buddhism the soul is believed to be susceptible to change, and thus the character of a soul from a previous life is imprinted on the new one.

"Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change". (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, texts 12-13)

Platonism, transmigration, and "innate knowledge"

The transmigration of souls, or metempsychosis, is a concept which underpins Plato's ideas concerning innate knowledge. Plato may have incorporated this concept from two Greek religious groups that preceded him: the Pythagoreans or the Orphics. Plato taught that "all learning is but recollection" because we have innate knowledge of universal ideas (e.g., everywhere, a triangle has 3 sides - hence its universality) from the past experiences of our immortal soul. This soul, according to Platonic thought, once separated from the body, spends an indeterminate amount of time in "formland" and then assumes another body. Therefore, according to Plato, we need only recall our buried memories to manifest innate knowledge.

Have you lived before? The concept of reincarnation - that our souls may experience many lifetimes over centuries, maybe even thousands of years - has been present in virtually every culture since ancient times. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Aztecs all believed in the "transmigration of souls" from one body to another after death. It's a fundamental precept of Hinduism.

Although reincarnation is not a part of official Christian doctrine, many Christians believe in it or at least accept its possibility. That's not at all surprising; the idea that after death we can live again as another person - maybe as the opposite sex or in a completely different station in life - is intriguing and, for many people, highly appealing.

Is there any truth to it, however? Is reincarnation just an idea, a fantasy? Or is there real evidence to support it? Here's some of the best evidence available, gathered by researchers who, in some cases, have devoted their lives to the subject. Examine it, then decide for yourself.

NEVER HEARD FACTS!!!

About Reincarnation

There are five ways to understand that we have lived before…

The Charavakas, the materialistic school of thought that flourished during the time of Buddha, argued that if something exists it can be perceived by the five senses. Not being able to see past and future lives with their senses, they concluded that reincarnation does not exist.

Although we cannot see our past and future lives, we can nevertheless infer them through logical reasoning.

There are many people nowadays who refuse to believe in hidden objects such as reincarnation, saying that they believe only in what they themselves can see. This view is extremely superficial. Most scientific and historical knowledge is based on logical inference from experiments rather than on unaided sense perception. We cannot directly see atoms, distant galaxies, or events in the past, but we can nevertheless know them through inference. In the same way, although we cannot see our past and future lives, we can nevertheless infer them through logical reasoning.

How Can We Understand The Existence Of Future Lives?

Once we understand the existence of past lives, it will not be difficult to understand the existence of future lives. There are five ways to understand that we have lived before: (1) understanding the , (2) considering the great variety of mental imprints children are born with, (3) reflecting on dreams, (4) contemplating examples of people with memories of previous lives, and lastly, (5) through scriptural authority.

By contemplating and meditating on these five lines of reasoning with an open mind and a good motivation it is not difficult to understand that we have had previous lives. However, if we have decided in advance that reincarnation does not exist, and consider these arguments only to refute them, not even a living Buddha could make us believe in it.

What is Reincarnation?

To understand reincarnation, we need to understand the nature of our mind, and how our body and mind are separate entities.

If we understand the nature of the mind, we can understand the existence of past and future lives. Many people believe that when the body disintegrates at death, the continuum of the mind ceases and the mind becomes non-existent, like a candle flame going out when all the wax has burned. In the Buddhist scriptures, our body is compared to a guesthouse and our mind to a guest dwelling within it. When we die, our mind leaves our body and goes to the next life, just like a guest leaving a guesthouse and going somewhere else.

Understanding how our body and mind are separate entities, we can understand how even though the body disintegrates at death, the continuum of the mind remains unbroken. Instead of ceasing, the mind simply leaves the present body and goes to the next life. For ordinary beings, therefore, rather than releasing us from suffering, death only brings new sufferings. Not understanding this, many people destroy their precious human life by committing suicide.

Is Reincarnation Possible?

One way to gain an understanding of past and future lives is to examine the process of sleeping, dreaming, and waking,

One way to gain an understanding of past and

mine the process of sleeping, dreaming, and waking, because this closely resembles the process of death, intermediate state, and rebirth. When we fall asleep, our gross inner winds gather and dissolve inwards, and our mind becomes progressively more and more subtle until it transforms into the very subtle mind of the clear light of sleep. While the clear light of sleep is manifest, we experience deep sleep, and to others we resemble a dead person. When the clear light of sleep ends, our mind becomes gradually more and more gross and we pass through the various levels of the dream state. Finally, our normal powers of memory and mental control are restored and we wake up. When this happens, our dream world disappears and we perceive the world of the waking state.

What happens when we die?

A very similar process occurs when we die. As we die, our winds dissolve inwards and our mind becomes progressively more and more subtle until the very subtle mind of the

clear light of death becomes manifest. The experience of the clear light of death is very similar to the experience of deep sleep. After the clear light of death has ceased, we experience the stages of the intermediate state, or bardo in Tibetan, which is a dream-like state that occurs between death and rebirth. After a few days or weeks, the intermediate state ends and we take rebirth. Just as when we wake from sleep, the dream world disappears and we perceive the world of the waking state, so when we take rebirth the appearances of the intermediate state cease and we perceive the world of our next life.

The only significant difference between the process of sleeping, dreaming, and waking and the process of death, intermediate state, and rebirth is that after the clear light of sleep has ceased, the relationship between our mind and our present body remains intact, whereas after the clear light of death this relationship is broken. By contemplating this, we will gain conviction in the existence of past and future lives.

Proof of Reincarnation

Although we are all human beings, we have a huge variety of mental imprints and tendencies. Some people have very positive tendencies, whereas other people are naturally inclined to non-virtue. Some of these differences can be accounted for by differences in upbringing and other experiences in this life, but by no means can all be explained in this way. Two children with the same parents can have totally different mental tendencies, which they can display at a very early age. One child, for example, may have a cruel and angry disposition and take delight in torturing animals and bullying other children, whereas the other child has a good heart and a gentle nature. This can be the case even if the children have been brought up in a very similar way, and even, sometimes, apply in the case of identical twins, who have exactly the same genetic make-up.

How can we explain these differences?

A mental tendency is a habit of mind, and habits are created by repeated actions over a long period of time. The fact that children are born with varying mental tendencies indicates that at some time prior to their birth – that is, in a previous life – they performed different actions, creating different mental habits. One child is naturally positive because in a previous life he or she repeatedly performed positive actions of body, speech, and mind, and thus created strong positive pathways in his mind; and the other child is naturally negative because through his repeated negative actions in a previous life he created negative pathways in his mind.

What Are The Effects Of Our Previous Actions?

Adults too clearly have varying mental tendencies. Some people for no apparent reason hate religion as if it were poison, whereas others are naturally attracted to spiritual teachings. What causes these different ways of thinking? The simplest explanation is that the person who instinctively dislikes religion in this life disliked religion in previous lives, whereas the person who naturally likes religion has the virtuous imprints of valuing religion in a previous life.

Since we cannot see the past directly, to understand it we need to infer past actions and events from present effects.

Some people are able to learn a particular foreign language very easily, even though they are no more intelligent than someone else who has far greater difficulty in learning that language. The reason for this may well be that the first person used to speak that language in a previous life.

Amongst those who enter the spiritual path, some gain spiritual realizations very easily, whereas others, no less sincere or skilful, need to apply great effort for many years before their mind changes and they develop realizations. This clearly indicates that spiritual realizations are the fruit not only of our effort in this life, but also of the effort we made and tendencies we created in previous lives.

Since we cannot see the past directly, to understand it we need to infer past actions and events from present effects. Geologists infer past geographical events from the present structure of land, and archaeologists build up a picture of previous cultures through making inferences from their remains. In a similar way, by observing present mental tendencies and predispositions we can infer their causes in previous lives.

Stories of Reincarnation

There are in fact numerous examples of people who can recall their previous lives.

[Thisstory and the one that follows are unusual because they begin with dreams by four-year-old children which involve events about which they would normally know nothing.]

When I was three or four, I started having a particular nightmare that would wake me up shaking with fear. It was a recurring dream in which the same things would happen
every time in exactly the same way.

The dream started with me walking to a table where a man dressed in a military uniform seemed to be doing a kit check. I would then walk on. Next, I would be on board what seemed to be a landing craft of some sort. Straight in front of me were other soldiers. I then have a brief memory of being with a woman at a table with flo in a vase and with two wine glasses. The woman appears to be dressed in a 1940's style dress.

The dream then continues with me on the craft. I look to my left and see two other landing craft. There are tyres hanging over the side with ropes passing through them. The craft I am looking at hits the beach and the ramp drops. I then look forward and a few moments later the ramp on our craft drops and I start running out into the water.

As I exit the craft, there is the distinctive sound of men shouting as they run. I get no further than a few steps from the landing craft when I look up at a pillbox as I'm running. Then a flash comes from the bunker. I fall to the ground and everything goes a yellow white colour and then cuts out.

I have not had this dream for a few years now. I'm sixteen. I joined an indoor target shooting club and the dreams seemed to become less frequent. Two years ago I joined a World War II re-enactment group which portrays the D-Day landings of 1944. Ever since I joined, I've not had the dream again.

I know some may think this dream sounds a lot like the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan," but I can promise you this is genuine. I recall the dreams when I was as young as three or four. I sometimes have an image of the bunker with the flash. Just thinking about it makes me shiver. I cannot explain what causes this dream, but it has been with me all my life.

What is the Mind?

The mind is a formless continuum that functions to perceive and understand objects.

It is a formless continuum that functions to perceive and understand objects. Some people think that the mind is the brain or some other part or function of the body, but this is incorrect. The brain is a physical object that can be seen with the eyes and that can be photographed or operated on in surgery. The mind, on the other hand, is not a physical object. It cannot be seen with the eyes, nor can it be photographed or repaired by surgery. The brain therefore is not the mind but simply part of the body.

Because the mind is formless, or non-physical, by nature, it is not obstructed by physical objects. Thus, it is impossible for our body to go to the moon without travelling in a spaceship, but our mind can reach the moon in an instant just by thinking about it. Knowing and perceiving objects is the uncommon function of the mind. Although we say, “I know such and such”, in reality it is our mind that knows. We know things only by using our mind.

Our Body and Mind Are Different Entities

There is nothing within the body that can be identified as being our mind because our body and mind are different entities. For example, sometimes when our body is relaxed and immobile, our mind can be very busy, darting from one object to another. This indicates that our body and mind are not the same entity.

The Levels Of Mind

It is the very subtle mind that will eventually transform into the omniscient mind of a Buddha.

There are three levels of mind: gross, subtle, and very subtle. Gross minds include sense awarenesses such as eye awareness and ear awareness, and all strong delusions such as anger, jealousy, attachment, and strong self-grasping ignorance. These gross minds are related to gross inner winds and are relatively easy to recognize. When we fall asleep or die, our gross minds dissolve inwards and our subtle minds become manifest. Subtle minds are related to subtle inner winds and are more difficult to recognize than gross minds. During deep sleep, and at the end of the death process, the inner winds dissolve into the center of the heart channel wheel inside the central channel, and then the very subtle mind, the mind of clear light, becomes manifest. The very subtle mind is related to the very subtle inner wind and is extremely difficult to recognize. The continuum of the very subtle mind has no beginning and no end. It is this mind that goes from one life to the next, and, if it is completely purified by training in meditation, it is this mind that will eventually transform into the omniscient mind of a Buddha.

Relationship between the body & mind!!

Like a bird leaving one nest and flying to another, at death the mind leaves this body and seeks another body.

The relationship between mind and body is explained in great detail in Buddha’s Tantric teachings. It is a relationship between two distinct entities, which for the duration of a life have become associated with each other but which can also exist separately. Buddha compared the mind to a bird and the body to a nest. Like a bird leaving one nest and flying to another, at death the mind leaves this body and seeks another body. Alternatively, mind and body are like a driver and a car, which affect each other but are obviously not the same entity.

Inner Energy Winds

The way in which mind and body are related is explained in terms of inner energy winds. As mentioned before, every mind is said to be ‘mounted’ on an energy wind that gives the mind the power to move towards its object. The winds flow through a network of subtle energy channels in the body, which can be clearly experienced by meditators. These winds serve as an intermediary between formless mind and the gross physical body. Detailed explanations of the inner winds and how they help connect mind and body can be found in the books Clear Light of Bliss and Tantric Grounds and Paths.

Consciousness

Where does mind come from? The mind is an ever-changing stream of consciousness, one moment of awareness giving rise to the next moment. If we ask where one moment of mind comes from, the only answer we can give is the previous moment of mind. Suppose we are thinking of India. Where does this thought come from? It did not arise from nowhere, nor did it arise from our body or the outside world. It arose from a previous moment of mind, and if we try we can probably follow the train of thought back a long way. Even when thoughts seem to pop up out of the blue, in reality they arise out of a deeper and subtler level of consciousness.

What Are The Causes Of Mind?

Every thing is produced from two types of causes: a main, or substantial, cause and various contributory conditions. For example, a clay pot is produced from its substantial cause – the clay it is made of – and a number of contributory conditions, such as the potter, his wheel, and the kiln, which serve to mould the clay into the particular form of the pot. The substantial cause transforms into the effect, whereas the contributory conditions enable this transformation to occur. The substantial cause of a thing must be something of similar type or substance. Thus, the substantial cause of a clay pot must be clay and the substantial cause of a gold coin must be gold. Similarly, the main cause of barley is a barley seed and not a wheat seed, and the main cause of a human body is the sperm and egg of human parents and not the sperm and egg of two dogs.

Since mind is by nature formless and able to cognize objects, its main cause must also be formless and able to cognize objects.

Since mind is by nature formless and able to cognize objects, its main cause must also be formless and able to cognize objects. Physical phenomena like the brain possess form and lack the power to cognize objects, so they cannot be the main cause of mind. Our nervous system and the chemicals that make up our brain and body may be able to shape what kind of thoughts and feelings develop, but there is nothing within the brain or the body that can transform into mind. The only thing that can transform into one moment of mind is a previous moment of mind. If this is the case, then where does the first moment of mind of this life come from? The only possible answer is from a previous moment of mind.

This is the most important reason establishing the existence of reincarnation. When we understand through our own experience that mind is by nature non-material, this reason will be very powerful for us. A non-material phenomenon with the power to cognize objects cannot arise from insentient matter, nor can it arise from no cause; the only thing it can arise from is another non-material phenomenon with the power to cognize objects – i.e. a previous moment of mind.

In Buddhism, we meditate on death and impermanence so as to encourage ourselves to make the most of every moment of our precious human life. Rather than wasting our energies on meaningless things that we cannot take with us when we die, awareness of death and impermanence encourages us to use our life to practice spiritual teachings, so that we have a wealth of mental good qualities, such as wisdom and compassion, that we can draw upon both now and in the future. Buddhists also contemplate reincarnation in order to gain a deep understanding of how best we can use our present precious human life.

Whether an awareness of death actually does give our life, a spiritual orientation depends on our view of what happens after death. If we believe that death is simply the end and that, when our body stops functioning, our mind just ceases, it is uncertain what effect an awareness of our mortality will have. An awareness of death is only sure to turn our mind in a spiritual direction if we believe in some kind of afterlife.

Is There Life After Death?

The question, “Is there life after death?”, is too important to ignore. We cannot afford just to “wait and see what happens” any more than we can afford to just wait and see whether we have enough money to live on in our old age. Our view of what happens after death strongly influences the way we live our life now. If we believe we simply stop existing, or if we just ignore the question, it is likely that we will fail to make adequate preparations for our life beyond death. Even if we feel we cannot be sure what happens after death we still need to consider the matter seriously and make preparations, just as people prepare for their retirement even though they realize they cannot be sure to live to retirement age.

Meditation On Reincarnation

To gain a feeling for reincarnation, it will be helpful to do the following meditation to try to recognize our mind as a formless and unbroken stream of awareness:

Where did today’s mind come from?

Where did today’s mind come from? When we woke up this morning, the first moment of waking consciousness arose from the last moment of sleeping consciousness, which in turn arose from the last moment of waking consciousness of last night. Today’s mind therefore came from yesterday’s mind, which came from the mind of the previous day. In this way, it is possible to trace the continuum of our mind back through our life to the moment we were born. Where did this first moment of mind come from? It did not come from physical causes because its nature is mental, and it did not come from nowhere. It arose from the mind we had whilst in our mother’s womb.

The only answer is that it came from the mind of our previous life.

Since the substantial cause of mind is necessarily a previous moment of mind, our mind did not develop from the chemicals that formed our body. We can therefore trace our mind back to the moment of conception. Where did this mind come from? It too had to have a cause, just like every other moment of mind. The only answer is that it came from the mind of our previous life. Our body developed from the union of the sperm and ovum of our parents, but our mind came from our previous life and entered this union. The same applies to the life before that previous life, and so on, ad infinitum. Our mind is an unbroken, formless continuum, beginningless and endless, like an ever-flowing river, and the substantial cause of one moment of mind is necessarily a previous moment of mind.

By tracing back the continuum of the mind, we can understand that it existed before this life, and that we have therefore had previous lives. By contemplating mental tendencies, we can understand that when we entered this life our mind was not a clean slate but already contained the imprints of previous virtuous, non-virtuous, and neutral actions. Together these two reasons point very strongly to the existence of previous lives