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Reincarnation question.

an anarchist

Your local anarchist.
If you believe in reincarnation, do you believe that you can only reincarnate forward in time? Like, let’s say I die, will I reincarnate into someone in the future? Or can I reincarnate into someone from the past?
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
If you believe in reincarnation, do you believe that you can only reincarnate forward in time? Like, let’s say I die, will I reincarnate into someone in the future? Or can I reincarnate into someone from the past?

You were someone in the past and you'll be someone else in the future. In this universe time only moves forward.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
You were someone in the past and you'll be someone else in the future. In this universe time only moves forward.
Eddington's one-way "arrow of time," was replaced by the relativity theories and quantum mechanics of the early 20th century. Past-to-future progression is an illusion. The past is as real as the present, and our present is just the future's past.

IMHO, our 'lives" are more like film loops, endlessly running and being experienced any number of times. Past, present and future are illusions.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
You were someone in the past and you'll be someone else in the future. In this universe time only moves forward.
IMHO, OP has a faulty understanding of reincarnation. What constitutes one is a unit while the person / being lives. After that, what constitutes looses its form and structure. It will sure be a part of millions of things in future, but not as a unit. It will be part of many such units. Now, future, present, past are things of this world and illusory. As Valjean says, it is not the ultimate reality where it looses that meaning. What constitutes us is perhaps eternal. Valjean is a realized person and my friend. That is the Advaita Hinduism's (non-duality) answer to the question. :)
 

Viker

Häxan
IMHO, OP has a faulty understanding of reincarnation. What constitutes one is a unit while the person / being lives. After that, what constitutes looses its form and structure. It will sure be a part of millions of things in future, but not as a unit. It will be part of many such units. Now, future, present, past are things of this world and illusory. As Valjean says, it is not the ultimate reality where it looses that meaning. What constitutes us is perhaps eternal. Valjean is a realized person and my friend. :)
You and @Valjean, accidentally, touched upon many points in my own beliefs.
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
IMHO, OP has a faulty understanding of reincarnation. What constitutes one is a unit while the person / being lives. After that, what constitutes looses its form and structure. It will sure be a part of millions of things in future, but not as a unit. It will be part of many such units. Now, future, present, past are things of this world and illusory. As Valjean says, it is not the ultimate reality where it looses that meaning. What constitutes us is perhaps eternal. Valjean is a realized person and my friend. That is the Advaita Hinduism's (non-duality) answer to the question. :)
I agree with this

It will sure be a part of millions of things in future, but not as a unit

It will be part of many such units

Now, future, present, past are things of this world and
Brilliant to use these words "as a unit" to explain this for most difficult to grasp concept

Did you read it or did you create this "as a unit" idea yourself. I never heard it nor read it, and it's the easiest to understand and explain to others I know of. A real mind blower

Congrats and thanks for sharing
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Yeah, in Advaita Hinduism, there is no dsitinctions between humans, animals, Vegetation and even non-living substances.
We are all constituted by the same entity (thing). No reason why anyone should be lonely. (Sarvam Khalu Idam Brahma - All these things are Brahman).
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
If you believe in reincarnation, do you believe that you can only reincarnate forward in time? Like, let’s say I die, will I reincarnate into someone in the future? Or can I reincarnate into someone from the past?
The past is past
The future is uncertain
The present is all there is

In dreams "you can go" to the past
In crystal balls "some go" to the future
Also movies "try" to make us believe such

Constant Integrated Awareness (CIA)
Liberates me from those believes
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I agree with this

Brilliant to use these words "as a unit" to explain this for most difficult to grasp concept

Did you read it or did you create this "as a unit" idea yourself. I never heard it nor read it, and it's the easiest to understand and explain to others I know of. A real mind blower
It's basic, philosophical Hinduism, thousands of years old; also grokked by non-Hindu mystics throughout history.

The multiplicity of 'things' and beings, in our subjective, material world, is also illusory.

Only a single, timeless, Unified Consciousness exists. All these lives-after-lives, of multifarious, individual consciousnesses, is no more than a subjective dream, emanating from a single source, like multiple pinpricks of light from a colander inverted over a light bulb.

We create/dream our own realities; our own lives, over and over -- till we wake up and merge with the light bulb.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Well, thanks. 'As a unit' is my idea in English language. All taken together, things are units, composed of 'Skandhas', so said Lord Buddha. When the 'skandhas' come together, the things acquires a name, an appearance (nama-roopa) and other attributes. I am not saying anything new. This has been known for more than 2,500 years.

Pratītyasamuppāda = Pratītya sam utpāda = A seemingly co-dependent origination
Edit: That is what the perceived universe is.
 
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stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
It's basic, philosophical Hinduism, thousands of years old; also grokked by non-Hindu mystics throughout history.

The multiplicity of 'things' and beings, in our subjective, material world, is also illusory.

Only a single, timeless, Unified Consciousness exists. All these lives-after-lives, of multifarious, individual consciousnesses, is no more than a subjective dream, emanating from a single source, like multiple pinpricks of light from a colander inverted over a light bulb.

We create/dream our own realities; our own lives, over and over -- till we wake up and merge with the light bulb.
This I know

I liked @Aupmanyav explanation

"as a unit"

Short, to the point and very clear
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Eddington's one-way "arrow of time," was replaced by the relativity theories and quantum mechanics of the early 20th century. Past-to-future progression is an illusion. The past is as real as the present, and our present is just the future's past.

IMHO, our 'lives" are more like film loops, endlessly running and being experienced any number of times. Past, present and future are illusions.

Well, as a pragmatic reality is an illusion, that none the less apparently works even as an illusion.
 

PearlSeeker

Well-Known Member
If you believe in reincarnation, do you believe that you can only reincarnate forward in time? Like, let’s say I die, will I reincarnate into someone in the future? Or can I reincarnate into someone from the past?
I don't know but I think it's like Heraclitus said:

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.​
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Yeah, in Advaita Hinduism, there is no dsitinctions between humans, animals, Vegetation and even non-living substances.
We are all constituted by the same entity (thing). No reason why anyone should be lonely. (Sarvam Khalu Idam Brahma - All these things are Brahman).
Those pesky atoms. *grin*
 
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