reincarnation

Originally Posted by ImManOnMoon

one was at any point in history on Earth there are a certain number of living things from which the populations grew. do the souls multiply?

As someone else noted, where you reincarnate doesn't have to be limited to here. But also, we need to dispel a common misunderstanding. That is that souls can only be the souls of physical animals that have lived. That simply makes no sense, as it would mean that it was the birth of these creatures that created soul, but that would require that the first in the family tree would have to have no soul.

Its not like that. Souls exist before body. And not all have to manifest as a body in this realm. Its like the age old idea that a ghost has to be the spirit of a dead person. Spirits (souls) can and do exist without ever having been manifest on earth, at least in the same layer as where we are now. So the number of animals on earth in this reality at any point can fluctuate.

I mentioned other layers of reality. When we're in the flesh, we are limited to the perception of just our current layer. When we dream or especially when we astral project, we are not bound by such limitations, so things can exist there that don't exist in this layer of reality. When we die and reincarnate, there is no guarantee that the layer of reality we reincarnate into will be this one. Likewise someone dying in another layer of reality could reincarnate here.

I also think that souls are not single distinct things, but more like the water that makes up a wave in the sea. When that wave crashes against something and ceases to be, sometimes the water that makes it up will bounce back into a new wave made out of the same water molecules, but sometimes the water will disperse, and sometimes most of the wave will rebound while some of it goes off in all directions and contributes to other waves etc. So for example, I believe I have memories of a previous life, but only fragmentary ones. Quite possibly my soul in my body is mostly the same soul as 'previous me', but some of that might have gone off elsewhere, while some of who I am now was added later. We can't deny that some of who are is made up of elements of who we've met.

All this adds up to mean that numbers are not important. With souls waiting to incarnate for the first time, souls reincarnating to and from other layers of reality or other locations, and souls fragmenting and spreading about and grouping etc, the numbers mean nothing.

but also it's the concept of if you live a noble good life you'll be reincarnated as something good and if you are bad you'll be reborn as something bad.

But if you keep being born as something bad, what what chance do you get to be good? or vice versa? Is it an endless cycle?

I remember learning this idea at school. It was quite a crazy notion. There was a fable of a lazy man that reincarnated as a tree so he could experience a whole life of just standing there doing nothing I don't think this view of reincarnation is very prevalent.

Thank you, Badger.

SpiritLife left a message saying "Take into account also, the possibilty that reincarnation could occur elsewhere other than the planet earth."

which I actually had, except not as you put it, which yours makes the discussion of reincarnation stronger, but I always enjoyed believing the death of a star would eventually lead to us. A star that has nova'd billions of years ago, it's energy found it's way here and is in all of us.

[Anthony Ayahuasca]

You see, I have a hard time believing in anything other than reincarnation.

If we come from previous moments of our own conciousness, then how could we not be reincarnated? If we come from beginingless time, then we have been reincarnated infinite amounts of times, and will be until we reach enlightenment.

Are these not Buddhas ideas? How can people be Buddhists, when Buddha stated we are trapped in Samsara until we awaken?

I dont understand how Buddhists can ignore this information?

If we do not come from a creator, we come from our own conciousness, a never beginning and ending entity, then how could we not be reincarnated? Given that we can possible exist in one of the 6 realms, hell, hungry spirit, animal, long life god etc....

[sunsoul]

Rebirth is the term used in Buddhism, not reincarnation (which is the term used in Hinduism). Rebirth means a continuation of mental substratum, and nothing divine as such, nothing substantial.

Questions like what is endless time and what does it mean were always explained by the Buddha to be non-essential questions, and to be avoided. Only a Buddha would be able to dive into the true depths of these type of questions, anyway. For the ordinary human, they just cause more mental friction and a busy mind.............

[Anthony Ayahuasca]

Originally Posted by sunsoul

Rebirth is the term used in Buddhism, not reincarnation (which is the term used in Hinduism). Rebirth means a continuation of mental substratum, and nothing divine as such, nothing substantial.

Questions like what is endless time and what does it mean were always explained by the Buddha to be non-essential questions, and to be avoided. Only a Buddha would be able to dive into the true depths of these type of questions, anyway. For the ordinary human, they just cause more mental friction and a busy mind.............

thankyou! brilliant insights

everyone! everyone has had wonderful insights.