How Has Reincarnation Affected You?

sun rise said:

On a trip to India, a number of us felt immediately at home as we left the plane whereas others felt the opposite. I took that as a residue from past lives.

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There is an incident in Sri Sharda Devi's life which I can relate to the above. (Sharda devi was the wife of the enlightened sage Sri Ramakrishna , and was a saint in her own right having mystic visions and experiences, and who headed the Ramakrishna Mission after his death.)

Once while travelling to a pilgrimage site by car, Sharda Devi and her disciples came across an ancient town with dilapidated buildings.

She witnessed some foreign tourists studying the ancient buildings with great interest and taking photographs.

Sharda Devi remarked to her disciples that the same people who had build this ancient town and buildings in a past life and era, had reincarnated and were now visiting it as foreigners.

Similarly, in one of Dr. Brian Weiss's books, there is a case study of a western patient of his who had talked to him about her interest in egyptian culture , and being a regular visitor to museums having egyptian artifacts. Upon past life regression, it was found that she had been an egyptian healer in a past life.

Many years ago I met someone and felt an immediate bond. My wife met someone and felt an immediate bond. It turned out to be the same person we had met in two separate venues.

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So it could be past life associations that results in instant emotional bonding for some with respect to certain places and people, while it may not be the same for others who lack such associations.

JDMS said:

I find a lot of things westerners do strange too. Like I find it strange when they romanticize Japan.

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I've always thought Japan was sort of nightmarish. Where on the surface to the unobservant person things look great but if you dig even a little bit deeper it's a place where people are worked to death, where being too far outside the norm is often punished by being ostracized. People I have known from Japan really didn't like a lot of things about it. Reading Brad Warner's experience in Japan also made it seem like the vast majority of them weren't really so much religious as ritualistic. They just did things because it's what people had done for generations etc.

CharmingOwl said:

My past life was obviously in Asia or something because ever since young I thought something was extremely fishy about America. I was probably Chinese or Vietnamese, maybe even Japanese. The spirits of those countries seem so much more welcoming to me than the ones here in Florida now. It is distressing to feel like a foreigner in America now despite having been here my entire life, but mindfulness and other things help. I tried to leave and go back before but it's not in the cards for me. I have to die in this strange country.

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In my past life I was a lesbian, but now I am trapped in a man's body.

DharmaCatLamp said:

I've always thought Japan was sort of nightmarish. Where on the surface to the unobservant person things look great but if you dig even a little bit deeper it's a place where people are worked to death, where being too far outside the norm is often punished by being ostracized. People I have known from Japan really didn't like a lot of things about it. Reading Brad Warner's experience in Japan also made it seem like the vast majority of them weren't really so much religious as ritualistic. They just did things because it's what people had done for generations etc.

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To be honest even if I did a past-life regression and saw that I still would never want to go. I transited at the airport one time and being inside the actual country allowed me to sense the energies of that place but I didn't even want to leave the airport because I know Japan is not for someone like me.

DharmaCatLamp said:

I've always thought Japan was sort of nightmarish. Where on the surface to the unobservant person things look great but if you dig even a little bit deeper it's a place where people are worked to death, where being too far outside the norm is often punished by being ostracized. People I have known from Japan really didn't like a lot of things about it. Reading Brad Warner's experience in Japan also made it seem like the vast majority of them weren't really so much religious as ritualistic. They just did things because it's what people had done for generations etc.

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It's definitely an oppressive place for a lot of people. Any deviation from the norm will have some sort of negative result. The country is just fairly conservative. From my experiences, it's not as bad as some people have the impression of, but it certainly has faults. I may go back if the US takes a nosedive, as is it the easiest country for me to get into because of my background.

The idealization is far from realistic or healthy though. And the people who preen over it forget that Japan (in not too distant past) committed absolute atrocities against others. While its not the same place now, to ignore that history is a shame.

And yes, you're correct. The practice of Shinto is very ritualistic, rather than religious, and that ritualistic perspective of faith extends to the people's understanding of other religions too. Not in a bad way though. I quite like it.

Shadow Wolf said:

How can we know any improvement is being made?

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Yes, there would have to be a standard of comparison. Which begs the questions, what do we compare and how do we do that? Most adherents of reincarnation claim some form of "soul" enriching function of reincarnation yet no standard for how this enrichment takes place through reincarnation nor comparison of what has been enriched in the person and to what degree can be offered. If reincarnation is defined by such things some remnants of a link between these lives should exist beyond mere speculative data points such as I seem to know more about a particular culture than I should.

Spiderman said:

If God or supernatural entities created earth and creatures, they have no limitations with what they or it can do.

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This is a fundamental error in defining the nature of the Christian God. God cannot do whatever it wants. There are existential limitations. It can only do whatever is possible to do within its nature. For instance by definition it is within Gods nature to eternally exist. Therefore God can not will its own non-existence.

Spiderman said:

In the Bible God breaks his rules all the time.

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This is fundamentally impossible. You'd have to give me a specific example of what you mean.

Spiderman said:

God calls Cyrus his instrument and anointed one in Scripture

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In order to understand this I think we have to research what the word means in scripture. I suspect you'd probably be surprised to know that there were many messiahs in the bible. God often uses pagans to fulfill his will. His instruments. After all if God exists it is God of all creation not just a portion of it. Gods use of "sinners" to fulfill history is not the same as praising those sinners for their sins.

1. The word “Messiah” is an English rendering of the Hebrew word “Mashiach”, whose translation is “Anointed”. It usually refers to a person initiated into G-d’s service by being anointed with oil. (Having oil poured on his head. Cf. Exodus 29:7, I Kings 1:39, II Kings 9:3).
2. There are many Messiahs in the Bible. Since every King and High Priest was anointed with oil, each may be referred to as “an anointed one” (a Mashiach or a Messiah). For example: “G-d forbid that I [David] should stretch out my hand against the L-rd’s Messiah [Saul]...” I Samuel 26:11. Cf. II Samuel 23:1, Isaiah 45:1, Psalms 20:6. (JewsforJedaism)

Spiderman said:

and he was fine with Jews calling him their Messiah!

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Why would God not be? God himself anointed the man to fulfill his will. Cyrus was literally the Jews Messiah in that he was fundamental in liberating the Jews.

Aupmanyav said:

I have seen the link that you offered to another members. For me, more crap.

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Not sure what link your referring to? Seems pretty hostile and premature to simply dismiss someone else's arguments as crap.

Aupmanyav said:

What is annihilated? the personality, 'I'.

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And you know this how?

Aupmanyav said:

Personal identity is a creation of brain.

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No one has yet put forth a theory of how the brain creates the mind. Because manipulation of the brain influences the apparent expression of the mind doesn't equate into no brain no mind. The brain may simply be the instrument whereby the mind is tethered to physicality in order to function in the physical.

Aupmanyav said:

When brain stops working, personal identity stops existing.

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Again, your assuming where there is no evidence presented despite evidence existing which may suggest the contrary. So my question to you is, why choose to believe in nihilation of your mind when you can present no evidence? Since that is faith, is that your religion?

setarcos said:

- Not sure what link your referring to? Seems pretty hostile and premature to simply dismiss someone else's arguments as crap.
- And you know this how?
- No one has yet put forth a theory of how the brain creates the mind. Because manipulation of the brain influences the apparent expression of the mind doesn't equate into no brain no mind. The brain may simply be the instrument whereby the mind is tethered to physicality in order to function in the physical.
- Again, your assuming where there is no evidence presented despite evidence existing which may suggest the contrary. So my question to you is, why choose to believe in nihilation of your mind when you can present no evidence? Since that is faith, is that your religion?

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- I said 'For me, it is crap'. If some one else believes that, they are welcome to their views.
- Nothing else is lost. The dead body is there. Only it has stopped working. If you have any evidence of any other loss, please let me know.
- As I said elsewhere, if there is a brain, there always is mind, thinking. Mind is an emergent property of brain. In addition, brain also has an autonomous nervous system, which does not need thinking. For people who go by science, all things are physical only. Non-physical is woo.
- Where can I find this 'presented evidence', I have not come across anything verifiable. Why should I assume that something remains without evidence? As for my religion (Hinduism), we have many philosophies and people believe various things. There are people who believe in existence of soul (atma) and conscience (prajna) as distinct from the body. But my view (Advaita, non-duality) does not accept that.

Advaita Vedanta states that the Atman or soul is one's true Self and is identical with Brahman, which is pure consciousness.

Advaita Vedanta - Wikipedia

The Atman - its bondage & freedom

The Âtman is the only existence in the human body which is immaterial. Because it is immaterial, it cannot be a compound, and because it is not a compound, it does not obey the law of cause and effect, and so it is immortal. That which is immortal can have no beginning because everything with a beginning must have an end. It also follows that it must be formless; there cannot be any fond without matter. Everything that has form must have a beginning and an end.

The human soul has sojourned in lower and higher forms, migrating from one to another, according to the Samskaras or impressions, but it is only in the highest form as man that it attains to freedom. The man form is higher than even the angel form, and of all forms it is the highest; man is the highest being in creation, because he attains to freedom. ~ Swami Vivekananda

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The advaitan philosophy is helpful in explaining the distinction of the eternal soul or Self from the temporary bodies it may inhabit from time to time.

@CharmingOwl I hope you didn't think I was joking. I was not.

Brickjectivity said:

I was just mirror wandering about that. What happens if you squeeze in the experience of two people? Do your experiences merge? Do you lose memories in order to gain them? Is there space enough for two?

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I think the experience of reincarnation affects you on the soul level, and the soul remembers the past life and attempts to act it out even if it doesn't make any sense from the perspective of your current lifetime. Think of a player of a game trying to be similar to their last character in a different scenario so they imitate the actions and life they last had.

CharmingOwl said:

My past life was obviously in Asia or something because ever since young I thought something was extremely fishy about America. I was probably Chinese or Vietnamese, maybe even Japanese. The spirits of those countries seem so much more welcoming to me than the ones here in Florida now. It is distressing to feel like a foreigner in America now despite having been here my entire life, but mindfulness and other things help. I tried to leave and go back before but it's not in the cards for me. I have to die in this strange country.

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it gave me a whole new lease on earthly life.