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Originally Posted by Aquila King
So moving on to my main point, I guess I'm wondering if reincarnation means the me that exists today will essentially be completely gone and will only exist in memory. Will I basically be replaced with a completely unique personality? How much of me lives on in the next person? And how much of my past selves survive in me? I've heard some people say that essentially the only thing that makes us similar to our past lives is that we have the same consciousness, but that everything else is totally different. How is that different from just straight up atheism? I might as well be eternally annihilated when I die if that's the case. And what about past loved ones? Will they still be the people I loved or somebody completely different?
I'm sorry. There's just so much I don't understand about the whole thing... :(
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Do not confuse reincarnation, essentially transmigration of a soul, with the Buddhist idea of rebirth. Your description is closer to the latter.
Reincarnation is simple, your soul moves from one life/body to the next. What that includes is anyone's guess as we have never observed a soul.
In rebirth nothing moves on except your energies. These may be feelings, actions, physical legacies like trusts, inheritance, charitable contributions, thoughts and ideas which you may leave behind in e.g. this forum. Such things, mainly the energetic content in them, may be picked up by other people and if they become part of their make-up one could say that (part of) you was reborn.