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what can a soul reincarnate into?

incarnatable?

  • humans only

    Votes: 5 18.5%
  • humans and animals

    Votes: 6 22.2%
  • humans, animals and plants

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • humans, animals, plants and microorganisms

    Votes: 4 14.8%
  • humans, animals, plants, microorganisms, and "non-living" entities (rock, river, mountain)

    Votes: 12 44.4%

  • Total voters
    27

horntooth

Sextian
okay, what does your type of buddhism preach, in what kind of life-forms can your consciousness be reborn?
 

Smoke

Done here.
okay, what does your type of buddhism preach, in what kind of life-forms can your consciousness be reborn?

I don't claim to speak for Buddhism, but my view is that the point of Buddhism is to wake up, and speculation about rebirth is just a pointless distraction.

However, Buddhists who bother to have beliefs about those things, believe different things. As far as I can tell, more Buddhists than not believe rebirth can be in any living form. Buddhists who are strongly influenced by particular forms of Sanatana Dharma may believe that there's no such thing as a non-living form; that even rocks and rivers partake in some way in the life of the Divine, but I've never heard anybody speculate about anybody being reborn as a rock or a river.
 

Erebus

Well-Known Member
I believe we can become almost anything, including gods, demons and angels. Not sure why, I wasn't brought up to believe it, I just always have done.
 

Madhuri

RF Goddess
Staff member
Premium Member
I believe that the soul passes through many varieties of bodies in its journey and that includes any living thing including bacteria, all animal and plant life.
I do not believe that the soul takes the body of a non-living thing.
More to the point, it is the existence of the soul within a body that allows it to 'live' as the soul is life itself.
 

WayFarer

Rogue Scholar
I agree with Madhuri here. I will take it a step (or two) further and say that I believe that reincarnation is a progressive process. By that I don't think that a "bad" life means you are reincarnated as something perceived to be "lower", but one is reincarnated as what one was (human for example) before. This time into (or faced with) different circumstances whereby the lessons that were not learned in the last life can be viewed from a different perspective.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I believe that a new life can be in the form of any living entity, and life on other planets certainly isn't out of the question.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
I say, it's not up to us.

I am not my own handiwork. I did not put 'me' in this body.

Someone else is in control.
 

alizantil

Member
a human or something similar(on a different planet) - on the same spiritual level.
we can't go back and reincarnate in forms that are only suitable for (relativey) less evolved souls ( eg horses dogs etc )

progress is forwards and not backwards
:)
 

croak

Trickster
a human or something similar(on a different planet) - on the same spiritual level.
we can't go back and reincarnate in forms that are only suitable for (relativey) less evolved souls ( eg horses dogs etc )

progress is forwards and not backwards
:)
What makes you think that I, as a raven, am "less evolved"? Whenever I hear about progress, I get driven a little more crazy.

As for the question of reincarnation, I have no clue. I do know our physical bodies decompose and become a part of the circle of life, so physically, we can become anything (not me as in croak, but me as in the parts that make up the feathered being known as croak).
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
a human or something similar(on a different planet) - on the same spiritual level.
we can't go back and reincarnate in forms that are only suitable for (relativey) less evolved souls ( eg horses dogs etc )

progress is forwards and not backwards
A shaman once told me that to be reincarnated as a tree, to learn and experience the patience of living a still life for many years, even centuries, would be an honor. I would suppose that if we can reincarnate as trees, it would be possible that the souls of trees could likely be in a meditative state.
And animals experience many things that we don't. (Yes, I know we are animals, but for the sake of simplicity) There lives tend to be shorter, harder, but yet much simpler than ours. Some psychologist, I forget who, said something about how cursed our existence is because man is the only animal that knows he must die. Now I don't know if that is true, or if you could even test for it, but to only imagine for a moment of an existence that doesn't comprehend death would be a very different existence indeed.
 

Reptillian

Hamburgler Extraordinaire
I have a friend that believes in reincarnation and asked her if I could come back as a sentient robot, or an extinct animal in the past, or as my own uncle, or as a space alien...she wasn't sure. If I'm reincarnated, I hope its as something cool like a terminator robot or a tyrannosaurus or my grandma's cat.
 

alizantil

Member
What makes you think that I, as a raven, am "less evolved"? Whenever I hear about progress, I get driven a little more crazy.

As for the question of reincarnation, I have no clue. I do know our physical bodies decompose and become a part of the circle of life, so physically, we can become anything (not me as in croak, but me as in the parts that make up the feathered being known as croak).

i mean just as i said.

most animals are still functioning on the instinctive plane of consciousness.
- the seat of consciousness in humans is mostly on the intelect plane of consciousness. and even higher in more advanced souls who take on the human form.

some of the higher animals are merging onto the plane of intellect such as dogs , horses, crows etc. - some remote human tribes are almost as low as the higher animals , and function more on the instinctive level.

you who are now functioning in a human body can not loose what you have gained after aeons of evolution. the soul who is functioning in the body of a crow has yet to experience all that you already have done.

we, who have progressed further, already have within our being all the experiences of the lower animal forms we once functioned through. and it we are off our guard that instinctive part sometimes asserts itself and we become the fox, the parrot , the donkey etc ( but only temporarily)

i hope you can get the gist of what i'm saying there.


as for the part about the body desintigrating and being taken up by other organsims. you dont have to wait till you r body finally perishes for that to happen. it is going on continuouslly , we are currently absorbing and discarding cells. and its a medical fact that it is only a mater of months before every cell in our body has been replaced ( but that is not reincarnation)
:)
 

Adramelek

Setian
Premium Member
If there is such a thing as reincarnation, and if there is such a thing as an immortal soul; I personally would prefer to be reincarnated as either a human being or a wolf or even a cat. As I personally think that certain animals apart from humans who possess intelligence also have the potential for higher intellect, hence, possess a metaphysical spark, i.e. a soul or spiritual aspect such as dogs, cats, even some birds like the raven. However, I very much doubt that insects or plants, though they are living organisms, possess anything resembling spirituality in an objective sense. The idea that they do is simply hard for me to swallow.
 
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zippo9211989

New Member
In Buddhism the caste above human is god, then nirvana. They say the gods are tempted and haunted by the illusionary being, (Mara or maro I believe). And this illusionary being tempted one of Buddha's female followers to turn her into a god and she declined saying she'd rather reach nirvana.

Note: I read this in the book "The Noble Eightfold path" Im not sure how accurate it is though.
 

Herr Heinrich

Student of Mythology
Scientifically speaking we go on to become many different things. Are matter is used by everything. Spiritually I don't know. If it does happen I would want to be a tree.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
most animals are still functioning on the instinctive plane of consciousness.
After studying psychology for awhile, I'm not too convinced we are much higher than any other animal. We just happen to be very intelligent, have imposable thumbs, and walk upright. And because our daily lives usually aren't a struggle for survival and having to watch every nook and cranny lest a hungry predator lurk near, we have more leisure time than most other animals. But we are instinct driven from day one of our existence.
 

Midnight Pete

Well-Known Member
I think it's no surprise to anyone that Christianity does not recognize reincarnation as such. Although I don't dismiss the idea out of hand, I don't know how it could be compatible with the theology I was brought up with. Reincarnation is just one of many extra-bibliical doctrines which I find very interesting. The Bible does acknowledge karma though the word itseld does not appear in its pages.
 
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