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Reincarnation Qestion

Skwim

Veteran Member
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? I ask because if I had previous life I sure don't remember it.

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Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? I ask because if I had previous life I sure don't remember it.

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No real purpose that to give the soul more opportunities to evolve back to God. But it's not Skwim, the individual who reincarnates, but the soul that is temporarily inhabiting the body of Skwim the tempory personality attached to that body. One lifetime just isn't enough. A tree doesn't become a mature tree in one season, it takes many.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? I ask because if I had previous life I sure don't remember it.

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It's why I'm personally privy for rebirth instead of reincarnation.

When I think about it, I'm kind of glad I don't remember anything previously.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? I ask because if I had previous life I sure don't remember it.

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In some Greek mystery religions such as Orphism, they believed in reincarnation. The Greeks called it the transmigration of souls. They basically believed it happened as part of a process the soul goes through to learn but should eventually aim to break free of. They believed that most people don't remember their past lives because when they die, they are made to drink from the waters of the river Lathe (I think it is called, and its name means "forgetfulness") which makes them forget their previous life before being reborn. Orphism teaches the practitioner how to resist drinking the "water" and to end the cycle. It's very similar to the Dharmic religions and Orphism probably is a result of Hellenic and Dharmic syncretism.

Some practitioners of Germanic religion believe in reincarnation, too, typically along family lines. This might go along with the belief that the self or soul is made up of multiple parts, some of which are inherited along family lines. Rememberence of past lives could also be a person "remembering" an ancestor's life through some sort of "blood memory", as well. There's many possibilities.
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? I ask because if I had previous life I sure don't remember it.

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Not to derail, but couldn't that question be germane to any aspect of life as we know it?
 

shmogie

Well-Known Member
No real purpose that to give the soul more opportunities to evolve back to God. But it's not Skwim, the individual who reincarnates, but the soul that is temporarily inhabiting the body of Skwim the tempory personality attached to that body. One lifetime just isn't enough. A tree doesn't become a mature tree in one season, it takes many.
The soul, according to the Bible, in Genesis, requires two things to exist, the breath of life from God, and a physical body. Without both components, there is no living soul.

Humans, any and all parts that make them human are not immortal. The very first lie ever told was that humans would not die. Those who choose a different path from Christianity are very vulnerable to the second death, they will not be made immortal by God, they will not be hideously tortured forever, they will die forever, cease to exist, they will be no more.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
No real purpose that to give the soul more opportunities to evolve back to God. But it's not Skwim, the individual who reincarnates, but the soul that is temporarily inhabiting the body of Skwim the tempory personality attached to that body. One lifetime just isn't enough.
Curious as to where this information comes fro. Got a source?

A tree doesn't become a mature tree in one season, it takes many.
Note to be smart, but a dandelion only takes a few weeks to mature. :shrug:


Not to derail, but couldn't that question be germane to any aspect of life as we know it?
Not sure what kinds of aspects you're thinking of, but whatever they are I would think we'd have a pretty good idea what their purpose is.

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BSM1

What? Me worry?
Curious as to where this information comes fro. Got a source?


Note to be smart, but a dandelion only takes a few weeks to mature. :shrug:



Not sure what kinds of aspects would be relevant, but I suppose; however, I believe we have a pretty good idea what their purpose is.

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???
 

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? I ask because if I had previous life I sure don't remember it.

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In my version there is a conscious collective. On death your conscious joins the collective when new life is generated a portion of the collective is used to create the life, which could be a portion of your conscious. This conscious collective is used for all life so a part of you could be in a tree, an ant or another human. I doubt if your full conscious would ever go completely to another human from the collective.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
It's why I'm personally privy for rebirth instead of reincarnation.

When I think about it, I'm kind of glad I don't remember anything previously.

I remember a few bits and pieces of other lifes, they feel like a real memory but who knows. I don't remember 98% probably more of this life. It's really weird watching yourself on some old VCR doing stuff you have no memory of.

Earliest memory is maybe 30 seconds when I was 3. The rest of the day, the rest of that year, entirely blank. I remember a few more scenes when I was 4 but 99.9% of that year, totally gone.

Try to remember every hour of every day of every year. Most of that is consciously gone. If there are "Past Life Experiences" doesn't surprise me at all we have no memory of them. We just need to remember enough in this life to have a feeling of continuity.
 

The_Fisher_King

Trying to bring myself ever closer to Allah
Premium Member
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? I ask because if I had previous life I sure don't remember it.

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In my belief system, we (the spirits who are really who we are) are trapped here in the material world. As we live our lives, we should strive to free ourselves from attachment to that world, because it is only by freeing ourselves from attachment that we will be free upon the death of the physical body we currently inhabit to return to God. Those who do not succeed in freeing themselves from attachment to the material world before the death of the body they currently inhabit will still desire life in that world and will thus reincarnate again in another physical body in that world.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? I ask because if I had previous life I sure don't remember it.

And if you remember that your spouse was your child in a prior life, murdered you in one before, saved your life in one before, were gay lovers in one before, had been both male and female many times and so forth, how could you function in this life?

What good would it do you to know that? This one in particular I experienced. I was told once that I had been fired from a job because I had fired those people in a prior life and this was karmic balance. This did me zero good outside of a wee bit of intellectual satisfaction.

To your first question. In my belief system, the purpose of life is for God to experience himself as God through the human form which is a long, slow journey. Meher Baba's chart expresses this in a way I find satisfying. It's a teleology-based explanation rather than a strict evolutionary one but as you can see evolution is part of it:

4g-13.jpg
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
And if you remember that your spouse was your child in a prior life, murdered you in one before, saved your life in one before, were gay lovers in one before, had been both male and female many times and so forth, how could you function in this life?

What good would it do you to know that? This one in particular I experienced. I was told once that I had been fired from a job because I had fired those people in a prior life and this was karmic balance. This did me zero good outside of a wee bit of intellectual satisfaction.
Very interesting considerations. :thumbsup:

To your first question. In my belief system, the purpose of life is for God to experience himself as God through the human form which is a long, slow journey.
And he needs 105 billion lives to do so?* Boy! that's some kind of project he's got going for himself.


* The number is all the births since the dawn of the human race. (Source: Wikipedia)

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BSM1

What? Me worry?
I remember a few bits and pieces of other lifes, they feel like a real memory but who knows. I don't remember 98% probably more of this life. It's really weird watching yourself on some old VCR doing stuff you have no memory of.

Earliest memory is maybe 30 seconds when I was 3. The rest of the day, the rest of that year, entirely blank. I remember a few more scenes when I was 4 but 99.9% of that year, totally gone.

Try to remember every hour of every day of every year. Most of that is consciously gone. If there are "Past Life Experiences" doesn't surprise me at all we have no memory of them. We just need to remember enough in this life to have a feeling of continuity.

Funny you should say this. I neither believe nor disbelieve but I have had three of those less than thirty second "memories/not memories" of previous lives. The first was that I was a very young sailor on a British Man O' War and I was killed in a naval battle. The second was that I was a Plains Indian on a hunting party and I was killed in an attack by a rival tribe (this instance was vivid because the other Indian seemed to hit me in the chest with a store bought ax instead of a tomahawk; I remember being more surprised than hurt by his choice of weapon). The third occurrence had me in the Middle Ages and I was with some Goth type raiding/pillaging army. I was not a good person in this one, and I don't really like to think about it. So, I have determined that I have always been a warrior, just a not very good one, lol. Having said this, my spouse, who is more in tune with this sort of thing, claims that we have been together in other lives. I've asked her when she thinks I'll learn my lesson, but I definitely smile when I ask her....just sayin'.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
If reincarnation actually occurs what is its purpose? .

It's going to depend on which model of reincarnation one is talking about. Teachings on this differ.

In my case, it's not so much that it has a "purpose" as it is an intrinsic quality of our reality (without which our reality would simply not exist). As I see it, our reality operates in cycles: there is no death, there is no birth, there is only transformation. Put another way, all things in our universe are exchanges of matter and energy. When one thing passes, something else comes to be in its place. It is simply how things are and how they must be. It has no purpose beyond that, to my mind.
 
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