- Also called:
- transmigration or metempsychosis
- Key People:
- Empedocles
- Pherecydes of Syros
reincarnation
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What is reincarnation?
Reincarnation is a religious and philosophical concept where an aspect of an individual, like consciousness, mind, or soul, persists after death and is reborn into one or more successive existences.
These existences can be human, animal, spiritual, or even vegetable, depending on the tradition. Reincarnation is most common in South and East Asian religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, which share a doctrine of karma. Karma is the law of cause and effect, where actions in one life influence the next.
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Which major religions believe in reincarnation?
Reincarnation, a belief that an aspect of an individual persists after death in one or more successive existences, is central to several major religions.
The major religions that believe in reincarnation:
* Hinduism holds that the soul's transmigration is endless until one achieves liberation from the cycle.
* Jainism views karma as a substance attaching to the soul, influencing future existences until the soul frees itself through religious practices.
* Buddhism believes in the transmigration of karma, where the consciousness of the deceased is reborn in a new individual. Achieving nirvana leads to liberation.
* Sikhism incorporates the Hindu concept of reincarnation, with souls ultimately being absorbed by God after the Last Judgment.Belief in reincarnation also appears in local religions, some ancient Middle Eastern religions, and gnosticism. Some ancient Greeks, including Socrates, Pythagoras, and Plato, also believed that the dead lived again.
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How do Hinduism and Buddhism describe the process of reincarnation?
Both Hinduism and Buddhism, originating in India, share a belief in reincarnation (samsara), a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Karma, the principle of cause and effect, influences this process, shaping future existences based on actions in past lives.
In Hinduism, the soul (atman) transmigrates until one achieves liberation (moksha), realizing the unity of the individual soul with the ultimate reality (Brahman).
Buddhism, while denying a permanent self or soul (anatman), believes that the karma accumulated by an individual persists and becomes a germ of consciousness (vijnana) that is reborn in a new individual. Achieving nirvana, a state of extinguished desires, leads to liberation from this cycle.
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What is karma and how does it relate to reincarnation?
Karma, derived from the Sanskrit word for "act," is a concept in Indian religions and philosophies that explains how good or bad actions influence future existences. It is a universal causal law where the consequences of one's deeds determine the nature of their next life.
Reincarnation is the rebirth of an aspect of an individual, such as consciousness or soul, in successive existences, which may be human, animal, or spiritual. Religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism share a belief in reincarnation and karma. These religions believe that karma influences the cycle of birth and rebirth until one achieves liberation.
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How do beliefs about reincarnation differ from the idea of heaven and hell?
Reincarnation and the concepts of heaven and hell represent distinct beliefs about the afterlife. Reincarnation, prominent in Asian religions like Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, posits a cycle of death and rebirth, where an aspect of an individual persists and is reborn into new existences, which may be human, animal, or spiritual. This cycle continues until the individual achieves liberation from it.
In contrast, the idea of heaven and hell, central to many Western religions, involves an eternal life after death in either a heaven or a hell, based on one's actions during life. Christianity and Islam include a Last Judgment, where God judges individuals' deeds, determining their eternal destination.
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Why do some people report memories of past lives, and how do different religions interpret these stories?
Reports of past life memories may stem from various cultural and religious beliefs, particularly reincarnation, where an aspect of an individual persists after death through successive existences.
Religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, originating in India, share a common belief in karma, where actions in one life influence the next. Hinduism views transmigration as endless until achieving liberation (moksha). Jainism sees karma as a substance attaching to the soul, which can be freed through religious practices like nonviolence. Buddhism, while denying a permanent soul, believes in the transmigration of karma, with consciousness reborn in a new individual. Sikhism incorporates the Hindu view of reincarnation, adding that souls eventually merge with God after the Last Judgment.
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reincarnation, in religion and philosophy, rebirth of the aspect of an individual that persists after bodily deathâwhether it be consciousness, mind, the soul, or some other entityâin one or more successive existences. Depending upon the tradition, these existences may be human, animal, spiritual, or, in some instances, vegetable. While belief in reincarnation is most characteristic of South Asian and East Asian traditions, it also appears in the religious and philosophical thought of local religions, in some ancient Middle Eastern religions (e.g., the Greek Orphic mystery, or salvation, religion), Manichaeism, and gnosticism, as well as in such modern religious movements as theosophy.
In many local religions, belief in multiple souls is common. The soul is frequently viewed as capable of leaving the body through the mouth or the nostrils and of being reborn, for example, as a bird, a butterfly, or an insect. The Venda of southern Africa believe that, when a person dies, the soul stays near the grave for a short time and then seeks a new resting place or another bodyâhuman, mammalian, or reptilian.
Among the ancient Greeks, the Orphic mystery religion held that a preexistent soul survives bodily death and is later reincarnated in a human or other mammalian body, eventually receiving release from the cycle of birth and death and regaining its former pure state. Plato, in the 5thâ4th century bce, believed in an immortal soul that participates in frequent incarnations.
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The major religions that hold a belief in reincarnation, however, are Asian religions, especially Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, all of which arose in India. They all hold in common a doctrine of karma (karman; âactâ), the law of cause and effect, which states that what one does in this present life will have its effect in the next life. In Hinduism the process of birth and rebirthâi.e., transmigration of soulsâis endless until one achieves moksha, or liberation (literally âreleaseâ) from that process. Moksha is achieved when one realizes that the eternal core of the individual (atman) and the Absolute reality (brahman) are one. Thus, one can escape from the process of death and rebirth (samsara).
Jainismâreflecting a belief in an eternal and transmigrating life principle (jiva) that is akin to an individual soulâholds that karma is a fine particulate substance that settles upon the jiva according to the deeds that a person does. Thus, the burden of the old karma is added to the new karma that is acquired during the next existence until the jiva frees itself by religious disciplines, especially by ahimsa (ânonviolenceâ), and rises to the place of liberated jivas at the top of the universe.
Although Buddhism denies the existence of an unchanging, substantial soul or selfâas against the notion of the atman it teaches the concept of anatman (Pali: anatta; ânon-selfâ)âit holds to a belief in the transmigration of the karma that is accumulated by an individual in life. The individual is a composition of five ever-changing psycho-physical elements and states, or skandhas (âbundlesâ)âi.e., form, sensations, perceptions, impulses, and consciousnessâand terminates with death. The karma of the deceased, however, persists and becomes a vijnana (âgerm of consciousnessâ) in the womb of a mother. The vijnana is that aspect of consciousness that is reborn in a new individual. By gaining a state of complete passiveness through discipline and meditation, one can achieve nirvana, the state of the extinction of desires and liberation (moksha) from bondage to samsara by karma.
Sikhism teaches a doctrine of reincarnation based on the Hindu view but in addition holds that, after the Last Judgment, soulsâwhich have been reincarnated in several existencesâwill be absorbed in God.
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