Extremely Interesting Investigation on Reincarnation
The “In Search” series are one of my favourites… It is hosted by Leonard Nimoy and the series covers a wide range of topics like missing persons, UFOs, Sasquatch, Bermuda Triangle, etc. The series takes a long and hard look at many questions and mysteries.
In this documentary below, it explores the topic of reincarnation. As compared to other videos on reincarnation, this documentary goes into the scientific and research aspect of a subject many find mysterious… There are interviews with scientists who hold opposite views: those who accept reincarnation and those who don’t. Indeed very balanced and convincing. You must watch carefully.
The documentary also shows accounts of people who strongly believe in reincarnation, those who can detail their former identities through interviews, those who talk about their experiences from their past lives.. and it also discusses about how this phenomena is dealt with within religious organizations. Within Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Kabbala, some sects of Islam, Hassidic Judaism and Kabbala reincarnation has been accepted for thousands of years and it’s understood to be the truth.
Now there are more and more people who are not religious or born into faiths who do not have any ideas of reincarnation yet can recall their former lives perfectly. Yes recall their former lives clearly even under scientific scrutiny under qualified doctors. Please watch this and share with others. I found this very intriguing. I have no issues with reincarnation as I fully believe it, but modern science now is discovering the truth behind it. A licensed practice now is past life regression therapy which is becoming mainstream. Which means we have a past life.
Very interesting: The Greek Philosopher and Mathematician Pythagoras and his pupils were well versed in the mysteries of reincarnation, and were encouraged to value life. It was mainstream in ancient Greece to believe in reincarnation. Pythagoras taught his pupils to respect the soul of all beings, to refrain from killing any animal, and to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet. Philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle also believed and expounded on reincarnation as they were followers of teachings of Pythagoras.
Interesting… Click below to watch it! Do you believe in reincarnation? Why? Have you had memories of a past life. Share with me if you had or just your thoughts on this. I am interested to hear. More and more people are remembering their previous lives these days.
Tsem Rinpoche
Ancient Mysteries – Reincarnation
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/AncientMysteriesSE05EP07.mp4
Transcript
Is there life beyond the grave? If the soul exists, does it survive death? If so, when did the belief first arise that the soul may reincarnate, to be born anew in another physical body? Before we unlock the future we must find the keys to the past. I’m Leonard Nimoy. Join me and open the door to ancient mysteries beginning now, here on A&E.
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians believed that the soul continued to exist after death then journeyed to another world. Yet some Egyptians believe the soul returns to earth and reincarnates in a new, physical body. Is the current Dalai Lama evidence of the rebirth of someone who lived before? Why was he chosen to become spiritual head of one of the world’s great faiths?
Though it may have once been central to Judaism and Christianity, the idea of reincarnation was eventually stifled by church and synagogue. After centuries of suppression, the discovery of a skeleton buried in a basement in New York State ignited widespread belief in reincarnation. In more recent times, a Colorado housewife claims to have lived in a foreign land, hundreds of years earlier. What evidence exists to prove the theory of reincarnation? Step back in time with us as we follow those who long asked one of the most profound of all questions: is death the end? Or do we live again in a new physical body?
It has probably happened to many of us at some time or another, it is called deja vu. Suddenly, in an area never before visited, is an indefinable feeling of familiarity. In some mysterious way, there’s a sense that you’ve been here before. Could this be possible? What about the person whom you’ve chosen to share your life? Have you known one another before, perhaps as some believe, in a previous life? The human mind has grappled with the notion of reincarnation for millennia. In some cultures, the idea was often seen as a threat, warning of dire consequences for an unjust and dishonest life. Might evil deeds committed in a present life lead to reincarnation on a lower level such as an animal or an insect? On the other hand, will a life of merit promise rewards in the next incarnation? Is belief in reincarnation a conviction as old as humanity’s faith in the divine force that creates and judges the world? The overwhelming majority of the earth’s inhabitants believe in life after death. But a sizable proportion also clings to the notion that the soul is not simply destined for heaven or hell, but returns to life in another physical body. What evidence exist to endorse this view, especially as most people probably have no recollection, whatever of their previous lives?
Many people feel that reincarnation can’t exist because they don’t remember their past and my answer to the world is we do remember. We don’t have the details, but we have certain key hints as to who we are, the type of music we like, the people we’re most attracted to, the types of food we like, the clothing we wear, certain periods in history that we identify with, these are indications this is where we have been before and so our present incarnation or our present lifetime is a composite of all the foods of what we were before.
When did the concept of reincarnation first take root? To probe the mystery, we must embark on a quest deep into antiquity, for the ancient world holds alluring clues to the earliest stirrings of the idea that life may indeed transcend death. It is a belief that may date back to the stone age. Tens of thousands of years ago, many primitive societies bury their dead in a fetal position. Could this perhaps suggest a belief in reincarnation in which the deceased was being made ready for possible rebirth?
Today, India remains one of the most vital links with the ancient past. Here, Hinduism is a predominant pathway of faith. At least five to six thousand years old, much of its origins remain a mystery, but it is the oldest known religions still practiced anywhere in the world today. Acceptance of reincarnation is central to Hinduism. A person’s rebirth in a new physical body is believed to be a direct result of how one lived in a previous life. Escaping the endless cycle of birth and rebirth is fundamental to followers of the faith. The process is known as karma. The ultimate aim is to break the cycle, to allow the soul to return to its maker, thus avoiding further reincarnations.
You escape according to the theory, when you completely overcome your egotistical desires, when you become compassionate, when your heart opens up to the whole world and when you’re ready to join your maker, that’s when you escape the wheel of samsara as the Hindus say. But as long as we have desires, we’ll come back, time and again, to satisfy it or as long as we have karma to pay, the law of cause and effect will bring us down until our soul matures to that state where it has no longer any reason to come back to this world.
Among the Hindus, the cow has long been held sacred. Why? Is there a conviction that animals have souls too? If so, do they also conform to the laws of karma, the cycle of birth and rebirth?
In Hinduism you can be reborn from human to even lower forms, it all depends on the actions you perform in the life, you can go up or down, you could be reborn at a lower form, or you could be reborn as a god.
Of all the religions in the east, none adheres more strongly then Jainism to the belief that everything in the world undergoes a process of reincarnation.
In Jainism, we find that the notion of the soul appears not just in humans, but in literally everything that exists, in animals, in plants, in what they call organisms, microorganisms, even in rocks and stones. The soul can progress from form to form. However, the human body is the one body in which souls can become liberated.
So committed are the Jains to the belief of reincarnation, that to avoid destroying even the most insignificant creature, many of them wear face masks to avoid ingesting the tiniest of insects, insects in which to the Jains may once have been human. If they’re responsible for taking the life of another being, they believe they will reincarnate again to pay a debt for their sins. In neighboring Tibet, Buddhism, originally from India has been a national religion for some 1400 years.
Lord Tsongkhapa
One of the central texts of Tibetan Buddhism is the book of the dead. Once a person has died, a Lama or a priest will read passages from the book to help a deceased soul choose new parents and a suitable environment for his or her next incarnation. The prayers are intended as a guide to help the soul prepare for a new life in accordance with the deeds and accomplishments of the life that just ended. Nowhere does this belief carries such importance as with the selection of a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Ever since 1694, all Dalai Lamas have lived in the Potala Palace, overlooking the city of Lhasa. In 1959, when communist China invaded Tibet and imposed military rule, the current Dalai Lama fled his capital and settled in India. In exile, he continues to perform the function of religious head of millions of Asian Buddhists. But how did he come to occupy this revered and sacred role? When the 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933, religious leaders immediately began a search to find his successor. But he had to be a reincarnation of all his predecessors. How was he to be identified?
The usual procedure is that the old Dalai Lama before he gets near to dying, and usually they know when they’re gonna die, they sorta write some letters or they leave a testament or they give some clues to their people and say, “Gee, I really like that area, I like that town, I like that family”. If we take those clues into account, then after they die, all the local’s physics, you know the Jean Dicksons of Tibet, the professional physics and astrologers are all consulted, and then they say, “Well I think it is in the northeast and I think he lives in this kind of a house, and this kind of a family.”
Deep in the hills of Qinghai in China’s remote western province, a young boy by the name of Lhamo Dondrup was born to a poor peasant family in 1935. But this was no ordinary child. From his earliest years, he was different from other children, often even fantasizing that he would one day, travel to Lhasa in Tibet, a place neither he nor his family had ever visited.
“When I was very young, I think two, one and a half years, or two years, three years, during that period, I always telling my mother, I will go to Lhasa, that, and also whenever I play, and also I play, now I’m now moving to Lhasa.”
News of the young Lhamo Dondrup soon reached Lhasa. In 1937, a search party of disguised high lamas from the Tibetan government set out for the tiny village to investigate the two and a half year old boy that they had heard about. Could he possibly be the reincarnated Dalai Lama? From an array of similar items, the young boy was asked to pick out clothing and religious objects that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. He unhesitatingly chose every item correctly. At one point, he reached out for the Dalai Lama’s rosary and claimed that it was once his own. Lhamo Dondrup was then subjected to a physical examination; in which is body was inspected for certain marks traditionally associated with Dalai Lamas. These included large ears, upward curving eyebrows, moles in certain locations of the torso, and a palm print resembling the design of a conch shell. Without exception, each tell tale sign was there. The reincarnated 14th Dalai Lama had been found.
Today, the Dalai Lama is revered by Buddhists everywhere. He is not only the leader of one of the earth’s great religions, but he is accepted by all of his followers as the reincarnation of all 13 previous Dalai Lamas.
Western belief in the rebirth of the soul may already have been well established by the time of the ancient Egyptians. Pharaoh Amenhotep the first of the 12th dynasty ruled the country during the period known as the ‘Middle Kingdom’, some 4500 years ago. According to some scholars, he was popularly known as “He who repeats his births”, giving us tantalizing insight into the possible widespread acceptance that the Pharaoh lived on after death.
The Greeks and Romans attributed belief in reincarnation to an Egyptian mystic known as Thoth Hermes. “The soul passes from form to form, from level to level and the mentions of its pilgrimage are many. Thou mortals put a stop to thy bodies as rainments, yet thou art from old, o soul of man, thy soul art everlasting” – Thoth Hermes.
Thoth Hermes remains one of the most mysterious figures in all antiquity. Was he a human, a god, or a being of legend? He’s sometimes depicted as the ibis headed god of wisdom, justice and writing. Whoever he was, he was to leave an indelible mark on western culture. Some scholars believe that if Hermes were indeed human, he may have been the original author of what is known as the Egyptian book of the dead. Found in many tombs and crypts, the hieroglyphs and art that constitute this mysterious document often depict the soul as a human headed bird called the Ba. After 3000 years of reincarnating as plants or animals, some believed the soul would eventually earn its right to be reborn in human form.
“Let me have possession of my Ba soul, and of my spirit, wherever it may be, observe thee my soul O guardians of heaven, cause my Ba soul to find my body” – The chapter of making the soul join its body, the book of the dead.
During ancient times, it was in Greece that belief in reincarnation eventually become widespread, and at no time more so when the Greek civilization was at its classical zenith. The goddess Psyche was reputed to have been one of the loveliest beings in the entire Greek pantheon of deities. Her beauty was so remarkable, that the name “Psyche” was also used to describe one of nature’s most magnificent creations, the butterfly.
But because the butterfly was born of a lowlier form of life, the caterpillar, the Greeks have yet another meaning for the word. Psyche also meant soul, representing the ability of a creature’s spirit to migrate from a lower order of existence to a higher, more perfect one. The Greeks saw great symbolism in the transition. What may have given rise to it?
It is intuitively natural to the human being, to assume continuity in everything. In other words, if you look around the universe, there is nothing you can find in the universe that does not demonstrate continuity. When wood burns it becomes ashes and heat, when water flows it goes somewhere, when water boils it becomes steam, in other words in every natural process we observe continuity and therefore it is unnatural that our consciousness alone or our soul, our deepest level of consciousness would be the one thing in the universe that would not have continuity.
One of the most ardent Greek believers in reincarnation was the great philosopher, Pythagoras. As a mathematician, his name would forever be inscribed in the annals of history. The school that he established at Crouton on the mainland of Italy taught mathematics, astronomy, music and architecture. Pythagoras was not only a gifted and original thinker, but he was said to have had mystical insight into the nature and origin of life. He claimed to have lived many times. It was believed that Mercury, the god of wisdom had imbued him with the vision to see all of his previous incarnations. His pupils were well versed in the mysteries of reincarnation, and were encouraged to value life. They were taught to respect the soul of all beings, to refrain from killing any animal, and to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet. Though a teacher, Pythagoras himself left no writings. However, his belief in reincarnation was expounded by 3 of the greatest Greek philosophers who studied his teachings: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
“Must not all things that last be swallowed up in death? Ye, but I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again and that the living spring from the dead. The souls of the dead are once again in existence” – Socrates, 450 B.C.E.
The physical resurrection of a human soul was proclaimed by some of the most admired minds in western civilization. For centuries, belief in reincarnation was either suppressed or simply laid dormant.
The concept that the human soul experiences multiple births and rebirths may seem alien to western thinking, yet one of the most dramatic examples of a reference to reincarnation is found in a text in with which many of us are familiar – the Holy Bible. One of the oldest examples come from the Book of Exodus. Led by Moses, the people of Israel are at the foot of Mt Sinai. Here, following God’s orders, Moses delivers the 10 commandments to them. When he reads the 4th and 5th commandment from the tablets, supposedly written by the finger of God, the people hear these prophetic words:
“Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water, under the earth. Thou shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children onto the third and fourth generation of those who hate me” –Exodus 24
This has created a lot of questions for a lot of people – what can that possibly mean? Reincarnation is a belief that we translate generation to incarnation so the sins of the fathers would be vested upon the third and fourth incarnations. In other words, the soul will come back and the sins that that soul in the former life experienced or committed will then have to be dealt with a karmic sense later on in the third and the fourth generation.
Another example of a passage that may refer to reincarnation in the Old Testament comes from the book of psalms:
“Though turneth man to destruction, and sayest return ye children of men, for a thousand years in thy sight, are but as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the night” – Psalms 90-3
One interpretation of this passage comes from ancient Jewish mystics who believed that there were thousand year cycles between the physical incarnations of the human soul. One of the most mysterious traditions of Judaism is an ancient body of mystical beliefs known as the Kabbalah, a Hebrew word meaning, “to receive”. The basis of Kabbalah is believed to have originally been given by God to Moses on Mt Sinai then secretly passed down from generation to generation. The central book of Kabbalistic study is the Zohar, meaning splendor. It is a lengthy commentary on mankind’s relationship with the Supreme Being, on reincarnation and on the nature of the soul.
There are 3 aspects of the soul at least in the Kabbalah. There is the Nefesh, which is the vegetative soul. There is the Ruach, or otherwise translated as wind or spirit which is more of a vital, animalistic, some say emotional soul and then there is the Neshamah, the, a higher, godly, intellectual soul. At death, the Nefesh and all 3 of those aspects have to go through a period of purification, Gehenna, and then they begin to separate. At that point then the soul prepares itself for rebirth, after its gone through this process, and according to some there are spirit guides that help it make decisions as to where it goes next which into what body it reincarnates, what lessons it needs to fulfill in the next life.
The study of Kabbalah reaches the apex of popularity in 15th century Spain. It was here where Jewish acceptance of reincarnation became widespread. In 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus discovered the new world for Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issued one of the most devastating proclamations to befall the Jews. En masse, they were expelled from Spain. Many of the Jews would flee to other parts of Europe. There, they kept their religious traditions intact where they flourished for hundreds of years. But with the dawn of a modern era, mysticism and the belief in reincarnation would largely be suppressed.
Reincarnation in Judaism did not go underground until the early 19th century and the movement to the west, the urge to be accepted by the more “scientific” establishment in the west, and then reincarnation went underground in some circles but not in the ultra orthodox or Hasidic and many, many rabbis have called reincarnation, Gilgor, the cornerstone of Judaism.
Christianity is enshrined in the books that make up the New Testament of the Bible. Do any passages within these texts hint at reincarnation?
“Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you” – John 14:1
Does the reference to many mansions refer to the many lives, or the many incarnations of the soul? There are those who believe so. Jesus himself may have been referring to his previous incarnation in this passage from the book of St John:
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” – John 8:56
Three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus, the Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, declaring it the official religion of the empire. In the year 325 he convened the world’s first ecumentacle conference, known as the Council of Nicaea. Though consolidating much of a doctrine of a newly established church, the gathering spelled a death knell of belief in transmigration or reincarnation among most Christians.
The Christian patriarchs decided that this multi future life idea was not very good because it was a little too loose. They would like people to feel that there was only one future life, and the quality of that was to determine how well they fit in with the churches’ orders. And so, they had banned therefore transmigration belief which was common in all of the Mediterranean cultures.
Though no longer embraced by mainstream Judaism or Christianity, reincarnation may once have been fundamental to both faiths. Ever since mainstream Judaism and Christianity has suppressed the concept of reincarnation centuries ago, little credence was given to it in the west but by the 19th century, all that was about to change. The place was upstate, New York, about 20 miles from Rochester, the year was 1848. A sleepy little hamlet of Hydesville was as quiet and uneventful a place as a small American town could be. However, in the home of John and Margaret Fox and their young daughters, Kate and Margaret, a series of strange events were about to unfold. Beginning around the middle of March, the family began to be disturbed by strange noises. Then, on March 31st, the youngest daughter, Kate, challenged the strange, unseen force. In response to the loud, thumping noises that she heard, she snapped her fingers in reply. Over the next few nights, she and the mysterious entity worked out a form of communication. Then, the elder daughter, Margaret began asking questions to the spirit force. “If your answer is yes, knock twice”, she said. “If no, knock once.”
And so, over a period of evenings, it was learnt that the spirit in the house once belonged to a man who had been murdered in one of the bedrooms and buried in the cellar. When the floor of the cellar was dug up, a human skeleton was found buried there, confirming the story. Though the murderer was never found, and the case remained unsolved, what the incident did was to ignite public interest in the survival of the soul after death, a fundamental tenant in the belief of reincarnation. Suddenly, spiritualism and the possibility of communicating with departed souls became popular.
Additional impetus behind the awakening of the belief of reincarnation came from the other side of the world, from the daughter of a Russian colonel. Born Helena Hahn in the Ukraine, in 1831, she more than any other was to challenge the conventional view that the soul does not reincarnate again after death.
She was born according to her relatives, with an air of mystery surrounding her. She would often talk about things that were for the most part, mysterious to the family. They didn’t quite know what she was talking about and she would talk about adventures that she had that everybody knew did not happen but with such a conviction that it was actually to her, the real thing.
In her late teens, Helena Hahn married a military man more than 20 years her senior. He was General Nikifor Blavatsky. As it was, that the simple Helena Hahn would become better known to the world as Madam Blavatsky, eventually to be one of the most influential forces behind a popular rekindling belief in reincarnation.
Desperately unhappy with her marriage, Madam Blavatsky deserted her husband and immediately began travelling the world in search of adventure. Her driving quest was to investigate the religious doctrines of the east.
She travelled throughout the world, including North America, Europe, Egypt, the Middle East, India, Tibet. The purpose of her traveling was try to find the wisdom, the ancient wisdom and what she did was to collect this wisdom that she studied from books and from elsewhere and she synthesized it to teach what she’d called the secret doctrine, or the wisdom of the ages. What she claimed was this was the primeval religion of humanity and the truth, that the wisdom somehow was corrupted or lost by other religions that retained at least part of it, and what she was trying to do was to rediscover what this truth was.
Madam Blavatsky
In 1873, Madam Blavatsky arrived in the United States, and found the country in the grip of a spiritualism craze following the strange experiences of the Fox family in upstate New York. Anxious to share the mystical experiences she had in Egypt, Tibet and India, and to offer insight into those cultures’ belief in reincarnation, Madam Blavatsky attended a spiritualist meeting at a remote farm near Chittenden, in Vermont. There, she met Colonel Henry Steel Olcott. The two struck up an immediate friendship. In September 1875, Blavatsky and Olcott formed the “Theosophical Society”, an organization dedicated to the study of occultism, ancient religion and the process of reincarnation. Madam Blavatsky was a prolific writer, expounding her beliefs in reincarnation in monumental works, such as the Secret Doctrine and Isis Unveiled.
Madam Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott eventually moved their Theosophical Society to India, where they could be nearer to the Hindu masters from whom they wished to learn more. In 1884 they relocated to Europe. Seven years later on May 8th, 1891, Madam Blavatsky died in Surrey, England. What is her legacy today as one of the first western exponents of reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul?
Every single writer who speaks on reincarnation probably owes a debt of gratitude towards Blavatsky. It’s Blavatsky who gives the definition of what reincarnation is.
It is one of the greatest of all mysteries and one of our oldest quests: have we lived before, and following death, do we come back and live again? One of the most compelling cases of a vivid remembrance of a past life took the world by storm in the early 50s. Colorado businessman and amateur hypnotist Morey Bernstein was popular amongst his friends and associates for his ability to lull people into a trance like sleep, and coax them into recalling incidents from their past, often as far back as their childhood. However, in 1952 he did not suspect that one of his subjects Virginia Tighe would graphically recall incidents from a previous lifetime. When news leaked out that the 29 year old mother of 3 was able to recall a past incarnation, Bernstein gave her the pseudonym of Ruth Simmons, to preserve her identity and protect her from an increasingly curious press. Under hypnosis, the young woman identified herself as Bridey Murphy, born in the City of Cork Island in 1798. These are actual recordings made during her hypnosis sessions:
Bernstein: What is your name?
Tighe: Bridey
Bernstein: And why did they name you that?”
Tighe: Uhh… named me after my grandmother, Bridget Bridey
Bernstein: You always live in Cork?
Tighe: No, I go to Belfast
Bernstein: Lived in Belfast?
Tighe: Uh huh.
Bernstein: What is the name of the priest? What is the name of the father?
Tighe: Father John… Father John
At times, while under hypnosis, Tighe’s voice developed an unmistakable Irish brogue. While never having travelled outside of the United States, she recalled details of her home in Ireland, her family, and the town in which she lived. When journalists investigated the area mentioned by Tighe, they found her descriptions to be uncannily accurate. Shops and streets were just as she recounted them. Because thousands of people share the name Murphy in Ireland, it was impossible for them to find exact records of her and her family. Was it all a hoax? Or as many believe, did Virginia Tighe genuinely recall a past life nearly 2 centuries earlier?
“I’m holding on to my brother, we can’t find our mom, we don’t know where our mom is…”
Today, in some scientific circles, techniques known as past life regression have become a legitimate recognized field of research. What have these sessions revealed?
I think the great lesson for me of all of my research and studies is that we do not die when our physical bodies die. A part of us goes on, whatever you want to call this part, consciousness, soul, spirit, it does go on and so that we are eternal, and I believe that a famous mystic, summed this up centuries ago by saying, “We are not human beings here having a spiritual experience, but we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
During medical death, many have described being able to view their own body from the outside, as though it were a separate entity. Some have even described what happened in the hospital room while their hearts have technically stopped beating, while they were all to intents and purposes, dead.
And they can tell you things that can happen in another part of the hospital, or another part of the city, or another part of the world, and in fact, it is verified. Like a woman, for example, at the, during the near death experience, she would tell them what they were talking about, when they were signing the death papers. So this is one example of a scientific kind of research that may suggest continuity of consciousness after death.
We may never know the answer to what happens to us after we die, until death itself claims us, if we are to heed the evidence and consider the documentation passed down through the centuries, perhaps the riddle of life after death may not be as obscure as many deem it to be. Perhaps death may not be the end, but merely the beginning of yet another cycle in the ongoing process of life itself.
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Reincarnation is the religious or philosophical belief that the soul after biological death, begins a new life in a new body that may be human, animal or spiritual depending on the moral quality of the previous life’s karma. Psychiatrist Ian Stevenson has investigated many reports of young children who claimed to remember a past life. Interesting findings. The belief in reincarnation is held by adherents of almost all major religions. Hence life after death and the possibility of reincarnation do happen. What happens to us when we die? Well this is an old question for which religions have provided answers with faith. One of the mysteries puzzling human mind since the origin of mankind is the concept of “reincarnation”. I do believe in reincarnation and have come across friends who remembered their past lives. Recently I met an Indian Sikh lady who’s past life was a Buddhist. Beautiful stories from her too.
Interesting read of this blog tells us more.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Every religious system in every culture and in every age have reported this to be the highest truth of recognition. Each and every faith in this recognized this. Our reincarnation is a necessary process of refining our soul, of liberating ourselves from fulfillment and of assisting us in our spiritual path and continue again again somewhere else not necessarily in earth. As Buddha Shakyamuni said There are many other Life exist in the universe..
Reincarnation is a fascinating phenomenon. Like karma, whether we believe in it or not, it exists and applies to everyone. One simple proof of there is life after death is the believe in ghosts and spirits. If there is no such thing as reincarnation, why are there spirits and ghosts?
Reincarnation is a law of nature, just like gravity. It does not exist because of Buddha. As we can see in this video, many culture or religion had their own interpretation of reincarnation or in a more simplistic manner, the continuation of the soul after death. This video showcases the different concepts adopted by different religions since the beginning of mankind civilization, while different, but essentially acknowledge that the soul will continue to exist, taking different forms even though our body is dead. Thank you, Rinpoche, for this interesting sharing.
Through scientific research it has proven that reincarnation do exist and true enough for us to believe even though we do not remember of what has happened in the past .More religions and other beliefs are beginning and excepting reincarnation .Its more of universal phenomena .After reading these interesting article and watching the video open up my mind to realise and see. Centuries ago they already believed through many incidents and stories reviewed.
Now with scientific circles and modern techniques past life regression have become a legitimate recognized field of research.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these interesting article which i do enjoyed .
Interesting video by Leonard Nimoy research through science expect of reincarnation lead people have better idea reincarnation exist.
We should always open our mind and aware our action daily not create further negative active becauce the end result will follow our subconscious mindsteam to our next reincarnation for few life time. Buddhism is always educate people be aware our action non hurting others. That include being existing in the 6 realm. It because our mindstream will incanated in the within in 6 realm . Important as buddhism to know and understand about reincarnation which help practitioner to seek for enligtenment.
Never say never! This 3 word are so real and powerful that we cannot avoid because it’s the truth of living. Human beings have yet to discover fully about the earth, hence there is no reason for us to be so firm and resistant when we face things that are unusual.
We should keep our mind open and explore more when we face things that are unusual, instead of just saying NO and ignore them.
As a Chinese I do believe in reincarnation. In the video, I’m agreed with the logical theory said by Kyriacos Markides that when our egoistic are completely defeated, we will be more compassionate, our mind and heart will open up to achieve enlightenment. Therefore if our attachments are still strong, we will be back life after life until our karma pays off from the law of cause and effect.
In my opinion, I think that reincarnation is a form of process rebirth of mind consciousness. It’s truly interesting to have more knowledge of reincarnation. As I know, breathing meditation is part of the practice for mind consciousness followed by Yoga Naropa/ Dharma Naropa. Thank you Rinpoche’s teaching and sharing this wonderful article.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article and the video. It is glad and can be said surprise to know that reincarnation is actually proven in other religion other than Buddhism long long time ago. But it is also sad to know that, the Christian patriarchs removed and banned the belief and the proof just because they want people to fit in with the churches’ orders. How can one simply removed and banned a culture or belief that has been proven long time ago? It that case, where is the genuineness of the teaching?
I always believe in reincarnation. Ever since I become a Buddhist, there are more to learn and read about reincarnation, karma, and realms. It is a very interesting topic to learn and discuss. _/\_
It is for sure a very interesting investigation on Reincarnation. We have so many proofs of people who can remember their past life and recognise places and people, remember what they did and much more. But here even Plato, Aristoteles spoke about reincarnation and how important it is to value life, also those of animals.
For me it made never sense that we should only have one life and then it is over. Where do we come from, where do we go? So the reincarnation explains it and we can give our life meaning and improve.
In Buddhism we learn about the 6 realms and how important it is to live our life to benefit others. Selfishness only brings short term happiness but in the long run we lose.
It is good to recommend this video / article to others so that they can better understand reincarnation through research and science.
Thank you,
Reincarnation is no longer happen as mystical or new in this era anymore. This subject no longer just about Buddhism or Hinduism but there are many evident shown from the west which are not from those religious mentioned.
Can check out some here:
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/film-tv-music/reincarnation-videos-you-must-watch.html
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/reincarnation-video-made-by-kechara.html
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/science-mysteries/another-proof-of-reincarnation.html
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/science-mysteries/kid-painter-is-mini-monet.html
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/science-mysteries/interesting-signs-of-reincarnation.html
This phenomena have been told since ancient time from different part of the world and from this article it even mentioned that Christianity believe in reincarnation. It is a universal law for all sentient beings as we are governed by cause and effect. Whatever we were good at or fears or traumas from previous lives are all stored in our memory or consciousness and brought forth in this life. Nothing we do goes away. Everything is stored in our consciousness and at the right time it ripen or open up to experience.
By saying so it’s important that for us at this lifetime to develop the positive action and value which we believe it will bring to another life. Thank you Rinpoche for this precious teaching and make us realise what we should do at this time for the betterment of our future life.
Very interesting article, in fact, reincarnation has been recognised since ancient times from various religion including, but since young, I do not have much good experience with Christian, not about Christian not good, but it is the church member who come approach and introduce about Christian, the way they talk is like when you do not believe in Jesus, you will surely go to the hell, but when question were asked, they could not answer but just keep saying the same point.
I remember many years ago, there were 1 Christian old lady came approach me preaching Christianity and said that Buddha didn’t went to Nirvana, Buddhism is a cult, she wanted to pull me into Christian.
I asked her a question.
Me: If I believe in Jesus today, I go on my baptise ceremony today, does that mean all the sins I had done will be forgiven and I can go to heaven when I died?
She replied: yes, when we follow Jesus and regret sincerely of our past actions, we will go to heaven after death.
Then I ask again: if someone has committed sins in their whole life, and before death, they believe Jesus and regret sincerely of their past actions, they will go to Heaven also right?
She replied: Yes.
I said: Ok then, when I’m about to die, I will come to Jesus.
She was quiet after that….
Today, I was surprise to what I read in this article mentioning the earlier Christian has already recognized reincarnation where after the body died, the soul will come back and even the sins committed by that soul later in the new lives, how this matches exactly as what Buddhism has been saying, but due to the human factor, the later Christian community has erased all reincarnation analysis / teachings, where they only believe in this life, after you passed away, you either go to hell or go to heaven if you believe in Jesus, this is exactly what most of the people saying nowadays, I mean that if something so important like this has been changed so easily, then how much teaching from Christian bible we can still trust?
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article about reincarnation. After reading this article, I am surprised to learn that during the ancient times the people already believe in reincarnation. I am also surprise that not only Buddhist believe in reincarnation but many other religion and beliefs also believe it too. Other religion and beliefs will name reincarnation in other name or way. It has been proven reincarnation does exist.
With folded palms,
Vivian
Reincarnation is a pretty interesting and intriguing subject that has fascinated countless people, believers and non believers. As a Buddhist I subscribe to the belief of reincarnation, a rebirth in one of the six realms of existence, as it is one of the principle teachings taught by Lord Buddha. There are so many other documentaries, videos and books written on reincarnation, and scientists are researching and studying if reincarnation does exist. One good book I have read that I would recommend is titled ‘Many Lives, Many Masters’ by Brian L Weiss, M.D.
Nice video, well narrated by Leonard Nimoy, that leaves viewers to form their own conclusion.
Reincarnation? You can choose to believe or not to believe, is up you.
At my point of view ( Reincarnation ) : Let’s talk about scientific view, many scientists from Western Countries are proofed that Reincarnation is existed, here’s the links for everyone to read :
1) https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/film-tv-music/reincarnation-videos-you-must-watch.html
2) https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/reincarnation-video-made-by-kechara.html
3) https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/science-mysteries/another-proof-of-reincarnation.html
What makes this video interesting is the part where it is neutral and non bias. It presents points about reincarnation in different beliefs or religions and you make your own judgement on whether reincarnation is real or not.
As a Chinese, I have heard of reincarnation since young but never really got more information as to how or why. Rinpoche’s teachings and reincarnation posts really opened my mind to learning and understanding more of it in Buddhism. This is why until today, I still find it very fascinating to read about reincarnation stories. Especially those who can recall many information of their past. The mind is such an incredible ‘thing’. The capability to learn, unlearn, relearn, store, transform in every reincarnation is just amazing! So, if we believe in it, then this is the reason why we should learn and change to do more good in every way we can because we will be carrying these traits into our future reincarnation.
Reincarnation was something of a concept to me by virtue of being a Chinese. Chinese believe that the dead is somehow still with us for 49 days from day of death and then kind of forgotten. After intensive prayers for the soul of the dead to go to a good place during the 49 days, the next time prayers and offerings are made to our dead relatives would be during “Ching Ming” where we visit and clean their graves. In my family, on the anniversary of the date of death, we also made offerings and prayers at the altar in our home.
So as far as I am concerned, reincarnation was not really something I think of. Until I heard a teaching from Rinpoche.
He explained that the mind/soul of being until enlightened will return in any of the 6 realms of life depending how virtuous you have lived your current life. As an example Rinpoche taught that when a man and woman copulate and a child is created, it is only the physical form, where then did the mind enter that physical form. Therefore logically the mind was already existing to wait to enter the new physical form. In this example, a human form. Thinking deeper then where did the mind come from? Obviously existing somewhere to take on a new form after having left the old form in death.
As always Rinpoche gives the most impactful teaching by using clear logic and that impacted me greatly and from that day, I contemplated and believe in reincarnation.
The video is extremely interesting and has a lot of details to support the theory of reincarnation. The most profound way of practicing the evidence of reincarnation is the Tibetan Buddhist tradition though considered mysterious is logical. If observed without bias, is a prove of reincarnation. In Tibetan Buddhism, reincarnation is not suppressed but expounded to teach human beings to live our lives better for the reward of a rebirth in human form to continue our learning of the Dharma towards enlightenment.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the interesting article analyzing about the belief of reincarnation from the ancient times. The fact is not only Buddhists acknowledge the reincarnation exist but even back to the ancient Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and the earlier Christianity during the time of Moses. Another fact is when the young boy Lhamo Dondrup able to choose the clothes and ritual items which belong to the previous 13th Dalai Lama, this were not some of the coincidences but Lhamo Dondrup is the current 14th Dalai Lama which supports the reincarnation exists.
Facts after facts of the existence and proof of reincarnation has suggested that we should not ignore or take lightly with our daily actions, speech and way of thinking as virtuous deeds will lead us to better rebirth and non-virtuous deeds will send us to lower rebirth during our next reincarnation according to the law of karma.
Furthermore, death can come to us at anytime with or without alert ahead and once we are gone, no one even our closest family members or spouse can help us during the time of our death but only our karma and past deeds will determine our next rebirth. It will be too late for us to think about what we should do next with the remaining months, days, hours or seconds ticking nearer to our last breath in order to purify all of the non-virtuous deeds committed for the past decades (if there are).
May all people and living beings realize the importance of remembering death and reincarnation as well as practicing Dharma as the key to guide us to better rebirth in our next reincarnation.
Thank you with folded hands,
kin hoe
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. I always believe in reincarnation. And I am always interested in reading real life story about reincarnation. Like the boy who solved his own murder, the boy who brought his parents to his previous life house, the singer (Teresa Teng) who reincarnated in Thailand, etc. Before reading this article, I didn’t know they are so many religions believe in reincarnation too. And I am surprise that Christianity was once believe in reincarnation. There is always an unanswerable question, “where does our mind and energy go after death?” even science can’t give an exact answer about that. Now, there’s scientific proven that there is reincarnation. That’s one thing I love about Buddhism too, it is, Buddha had already realized and proof reincarnation over thousand years ago. I hope to learn more and read about reincarnation. _/\_
The Buddha’s remembrance of thousands of past lives during the first watch of the night he became enlightenment gave rise to a vast body of Buddhist literature, in many versions, called the Jatakas or Tales of the Buddha’s Past Lives. The Pali Jatakas record 357 past lives as a human, 66 as a god, and 123 as an animal. For Buddhists, the biography of the Buddha consists of not one but many lives.
However, some may said that reincarnation is a concept of Buddhism. I’m glad to learn that reincarnation is a concept that exist in many other religious traditions as well. It was central to Judaism and Christianity. The Hindus and Jains also believe in reincarnation. The Greeks and Romans attributed belief in reincarnation to an Egyptian mystic known as Thoth Hermes.
What I find most interesting is that one of the most ardent Greek believers in reincarnation was the great philosopher, Pythagoras and that his belief in reincarnation was expounded by 3 of the greatest Greek philosophers who studied his teachings: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. If we believe in, and up till today, teaches what these philosophers and thinkers spoke about, then why not also include the possibility of reincarnation?
As past life regression techniques becomes a legitimate recognized field of research, backed up by a huge collection of literature/researches about past lives, hopefully this will bring us closer to acknowledge that past lives and reincarnation do exist.
The Christians believe that there is no life after death , it is either heaven or hell nothing else not even spirit. But there is prove that that theory is not true. around the year 1900 a christian monk took a picture with a camera , after the photo was developed he saw in the picture a ghost like figure which looked like a ghostly monk. Thus that proves there is not just heaven and hell. There has been lots of prove that there really is life after death. And life does not end until we attain enlightenment. arround 800 AD there was a person who lived in Rome. And the rule in Rome was that anyone who did not believe strongly in jesus , would have to drink a deadly poison and die. So this man did not believe strongly and was forced to drink the poison. But surprisingly the man drank the poison without hesitating. Some say that he believed in life after death as no one would drink poison without heitating.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this post.
Fascinating. I have recently read the book “20 cases suggestive of Reincarnation” by the late Prof. Ian Stevenson. Very interesting book and Ian Stevenson approached the cases from a scientist’s point of view.
Newly there is this new documentary series:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1373em_the-ghost-inside-my-child-s01e01_shortfilms
3 episodes total, about children recalling past live meories. These are all children in the US, not exposed to cultural influence of believing in reincarnation.
Unaccomplished activities of past lives are also one of the causes for reincarnation. Some of us reincarnate to complete the unfinished tasks of previous birth. This is evident from my own story of reincarnation:
“My most Revered Guru of my previous life His Holiness Maharaj Sahab, 3rd Spiritual Head of Radhasoami Faith had revealed this secret to me during trance like state of mine. This was sort of REVELATION.
HE told me, “Tum Sarkar Sahab Ho” (You are Sarkar Sahab). Sarkar Sahab was one of the most beloved disciple of His Holiness Maharj Sahab. Sarkar Sahab later on became Fourth Spiritual Head of Radhasoami Faith.
Since I don’t have any direct realization of it so I can not claim the extent of its correctness. But it seems to be correct. During my previous birth I wanted to sing the song of ‘Infinite’ (Agam Geet yeh gawan chahoon tumhri mauj nihara, mauj hoi to satguru soami karoon supanth vichara) but I could not do so then since I had to leave the mortal frame at a very early age. But through the unbounded Grace and Mercy of my most Revered Guru that desire of my past birth is being fulfilled now.”
I am one the chief expounder and supporter of Gravitation Force Theory of God. This is most scientific and secular theory of God. This is the Theory of Universal Religion. I have given Higher Theory of Everything. Sometimes back I posted this as comments to a blog on:
‘Fighting of the Cause of Allah by Governing a Smart Mathematics Based on Islamic Teology’
By Rohedi of Rohedi Laboratories, Indonesia. Rohedi termed my higher theory of everything more wonderful than which has been developed by Stephen Hawking. Some details are quoted below:
rohedi
@anirudh kumar satsangi
Congratulation you have develop the higher theory of everything more wonderful than which has been developed by Stephen Hawking. Hopefully your some views for being considered for Unified Field Theory are recognized by International Science Community, hence I soon read the fundamental aspect proposed by you.
I have posted my comments to the Blog of Syed K. Mirza on Evolutionary Science vs. Creation Theory, and Intellectual Hypocrisy. Syed Mirza seems to be a very liberal muslim. He responded to my comments as mentioned below.
“Many thanks for your very high thought explanations of God.
You said:
“Hence it can be assumed that the Current of Chaitanya (Consciousness) and Gravitational Wave are the two names of the same Supreme Essence (Seed) which has brought forth the entire creation. Hence it can be assumed that the source of current of consciousness and gravitational wave is the same i.e. God or ultimate creator.
(i) Gravitation Force is the Ultimate Creator, Source of Gravitational Wave is God”
Whatever you call it, God is no living God of any religion. Yes, when I call it “Mother Nature” is the God generated from all Natural forces and Gravitational force is the nucleus of all forces or we can presume that Gravitation is the ultimate guiding principle of this Mother Nature we call it non-living God unlike living personal God of religions. I can not believe any personal God would do so much misery created for its creation. Hence, only non-living natural God can explain everything in the Universe. When we think of any living personal God, things do not ad up!”
I have also discovered the mathematical expression for emotional quotient (E.Q.) and for spiritual quotient (S.Q.).
Austrian Scientist Rudolf Steiner says,
“Just as an age was once ready to receive the Copernican theory of the universe, so is our age ready for the idea of reincarnation to be brought into the general consciousness of humanity”.
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Thank you for sharing this video, and for the excellent effort in transcribing it. Great comments!! I thought it very comprehensive, and compelling. Reincarnation is finally coming out the murky backwaters, and into the sun! I felt a great compassion for the girl in Sri Lanka, …not an easy task to integrate families across lifetimes. I was especially intrigued by the boys after death experience…that he was given a card, and instructed to return by another being. There was in both cases such a strong imperative to communicate their past lives, and for those around them to accept and understand unconditionally.
Yes, I do believe in Reincarnation. Throughout my life, I have periodically had unusual dreams,and experiences…envisioned fragments of living in other times, and places. There is an innate knowing, a very clear awareness that accompanies these experiences…it is this that we carry with us. The personality we so strongly identify with is like a thin crust, a snakeskin we discard over and over. Beyond lies a primordial wealth of knowledge of everything that has ever existed. There is so much emphasis on providing empirical proof of past lives…I think perhaps there is wisdom in not remembering as well, as each life is an opportunity for renewal.
As from supporting views and arguments, it is said that the existence of past and present lives do exist. This logic has also been substantiated by evidences of many people who can remember their immediate and past lives, some are capable of even recognising places and relatives from those past lives. As mentioned by H.H. The Dalai Lama, living beings are nothing other than the self, imputed on the basis of continuity of consciousness. The nature of consciousness is luminosity and clarity. If we are not convinced of the continuity of consciousness, at least we know there is no evidence that we can disprove the theory of life after death. We cannot prove it, but we cannot disprove it either, but Dr. Stevenson who has devoted the last 40 years to the scientific documentation of past life memories of children from all over the world, with over 3,000 cases in his files,agreed that these cases offer the best evidences yet for reincarnation. Dr. Stevenson’s credentials are impeccable. He is a medical doctor and had many scholarly papers to his credit before he began Paranormal Research.
Reincarnation is a subject that always baffled me. Prior to learning and researching more on this topic, and listening to teachings from Rinpoche, I have never ever pondered further about life after death. Why, you may ask? Simple.. because what concerned me most wasn’t something that I could not perceive in the future, but I indulged and enjoyed what I have been and will be feeling, now…in my present life. So for me, it was why think of the next life, when all I can feel, think and worry about, was about getting by in my present life. A common thought, amongst many.
So, as I learn, watch and understand more, I begin to understand that Reincarnation is not merely just a concept that you just sweep under the carpet, but it should be something to drive you to ensure that you make the best use of your current life. To ensure that after you pass on, you have created the best you can for yourself. Afterall, as stated in the documentary, “as we have desires, we’ll come back, time and again, to satisfy it or as long as we have karma to pay, the law of cause and effect will bring us down until our soul matures to that state where it has no longer any reason to come back to this world.”
Think about it. What makes us, us? If there were no such thing as reincarnation, why then are we so different to one another, even within our own family? If God, the creator of all things, was fair, then shouldn’t everyone start from the same blank page, where you and I would be no different? So why then are we so different? A logical thinking would be that it is attributed to the fact that we have created our own destiny for ourselves. But since we were that developing foetus, how could we have already created our destiny from when we were in the womb? How did we choose our parents, the country, the place and situation we were to be born in? Unless we existed before our present life, and in that past life have already determined what we were going to be in our future lives. As said in the documentary: “A person’s rebirth in a new physical body is believed to be a direct result of how one lived in a previous life. Escaping the endless cycle of birth and rebirth is fundamental to followers of the faith. The process is known as karma. The ultimate aim is to break the cycle, to allow the soul to return to its maker, thus avoiding further reincarnations. ”
As a Buddhist, the theory of achieving enlightenment matches up undeniably with the facts and thoughts shared in the video. A video not biased towards religion. In the video, it is said that “the human body is the one body in which souls can become liberated”, which matches what is said in the Lamrim, that being bestowed with a precious human body is something so rare and precious, because we are given the opportunity towards the door of enlightenment. Yes, it is difficult to fathom how lucky we are to be born as functional humans, as opposed to the millions of other animals and beings around that we could’ve been in this life. And until we reach that state, we will always be grounded by the rules of karma which will continue to bring us from life to life, until we finally break the cycle, and reach the goal – liberation/enlightenment. And in that alone, reincarnation is highly valid. There is a continuity in everything, the same for our minds.
In addition, reincarnation has been recognized across most religions. How can practitioners of these religions believe in one thing if it wasn’t the truth, and especially when these religions were at their apex during different centuries and practitioners being geographically separated. How could Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, believe so strongly in reincarnation, if it was a made up theory. And by the way, the theory has lasted until today, and is still being proven with things like past life regression therapies and the incarnation of high lamas in the Tibetan tradition. Not all things require science to prove, even if mankind has played a role in debunking the theory of reincarnation because in today’s society, we are still experiencing signs of our own and other’s pasts.
That is so interesting watched this video with a group of peoples who can share, discuss and ask question. I fall in love in this video because the video talked about reincarnation make me think more about KARMA. In Buddhism, we always talked about your thought can reflect your further action to some one or some thing. The consequence of the action will produce the result that we called KARMA. Through many scientist and scholar found out that our karma can effect our reincarnation.
Normally if someone believed on karma then she or he must be believed on reincarnation. In the video itself, got many different view of reincarnation. They discussed from the point of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and so on…each of the religion have their own perspective of reincarnation. Some is deny, some is believe, some is just hanging their point in the air…not yes or no!!!
Although, some of the group not believed on reincarnation but the thing happened around them always make them cannot stand very firm in their view. No matter, who you are, karma is karma, reincarnation exist of or not…?We cannot see or listen, but that not means the reincarnation not exist. From my point of view, I believed on reincarnation. The reason if not reincarnation, then why I am here? How can I come here, by what? from where?
If reincarnation not exist then karma theory doesn’t work. The reason is every thing will be not more exist after be destroy or die naturally.
However, the earth we lived now, everyday someone born and also someone passed away…my question is if reincarnation not exist then where the baby come from? And the people passed away, where are go?
I not tried to play smart. But from my own logic thought, reincarnation must be exist then the earth exist too. If not, the earth will be disappeared from this planet.
One of the view stated that a person who come back, most lightly they will be attract by food, place, clothe, music and so on, something they feel familiar and close…I really believed that is the sign of showed reincarnation can be exist.
I would like to watch this video second time, I like the video. That is the nice and full of info video, everyone who want to improve yourself, MUST WATCH!!!
This is one of the most comprehensive Reincarnation videos I’ve ever watched and how it is presented is most unbiased but just stating facts which have been found relevant.
I agree very much that nothing is left unsolved and dissipate into nothing. the parable that when wood catches fire it transforms into heat and energy is a very good example that when we die, we do not just disappear into thin air. Our essence(soul, consciousness, spirit) must have traveled out from our bodies and gone somewhere.
What shocking about the video is that because of political interests, the truth of reincarnation has been buried for centuries in one of the most influential faiths in the world. Talk about giving people the truth, and finding it very uncertain of reincarnation and where it takes you, wouldn’t keeping the truth away from people be more detrimental?
So what if reincarnation happens? What does it do for us? How does it help us? What do we do now to help ourselves and the people we love matters most.
Having understood reincarnation, we should find purpose in life which helps us sustain ourselves now and future lives. We are blessed to have a noble Lama so close to us whom can impart Dharma to us in many ways possible. We should be grateful as to take up these teachings and put them to practice so that we can guarantee ourselves a good future.
I cannot recall my past but I strongly belief in Reincarnation. Like author of Brian L. Weiss said in the interview :
“We do not die when our physical bodies die. A part of us goes on, whatever you want to call this part, consciousness, soul, spirit, it does go on and so that we are eternal, and I believe that a famous mystic, summed this up centuries ago by saying, “We are not human beings here having a spiritual experience, but we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
I have learned a valuable lesson through this reincarnation documentary, this life, whoever I encounter ,I think I may have known them in my former lifetime too. Reincarnation exists, so does karma. Cause and effect. This video lead me to ponder and aware whatever actions in this life time, all counts and bring forward to our future life, I have to be highly aware and alert what I going to create in this life, hence very important. Mind our Body, speech and mind become extremely important.
The law of energy conservation states that all energy is neither created nor destroyed. If life force, or whatever it is, is a form of energy, then this physical law apply to that energy as well.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this documentary.
This documentary is rare because it explores the scientific and research aspect of a subject- Reincarnation- that people often describe as mystical and mysterious.It also gives evidence of past live experiences, and encounters that substantiate the existence of past lives, coming from people who are not religious nor were they born into faiths; people who had no idea what reincarnation meant….until their experiences threw them into the reincarnation process!
There are many surprising revelations here that show that reincarnation was a widespread belief from ancient times, even in the West. If ancient Greek philosopher and father of Mathematics had believed in reincarnation(he even claimed that he had lived many times before and it was also widely believed that he had visions of his previous incarnations, through the power of Mercury, the god of wisdom)and other great Greek philosophers after him – like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle – had expounded reincarnation, how can we now doubt that reincarnation exists?
It is for us to find out why, reincarnation , which was once a mainstream belief of the West,is no longer believed in.Investigation of historical records have unearthed the following reasons for reincarnation going underground as a belief in the West. First, it was in the 15th Century that Spanish King Ferdinand and wife, Isabella, expelled all Jews from Spain for reasons of power and for ‘economic’ reasons. When the Jews fled Spain for other European countries and America,they at first kept their traditional believes intact. But with the dawn of a new era, where science became prominent and influential,they decided to discard these beliefs along with their belief in reincarnation so as to conform to the ‘new society’.
Three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus, the Roman Emperor Constantin, again for economic reasons and reasons of power, officially banned the belief in reincarnation from the Christian faith.
The existence of reincarnation had always been there waiting to be discovered and rediscovered. Over 2500 years ago, Lord Buddha discovered the existence of reincarnation and the Law of Karma after a six year quest to search for answers to why we come into existence and why we suffer. He discovered these truths on the night when He attained full Enlightenment. He discovered these truths in deep contemplation and meditation,after He had cleared His mind of all obscurations. During that night, His mind when back in time until it broke the barrier between this life and the previous one and the previous one and so on.All his previous lives since beginingless time and other beings’ past lives unfolded before him.
In this form of ‘retrogression’ meditation lies the answer to the discovery of past lives and the existence of reincarnation. Today, famed psychotherapist, Dr Brian Weiss,has also stumbled on the past lives of his patients through hypnosis, and retrogression therapy.
It is vital that reincarnation becomes a mainstream belief again, for all faiths. Only with a belief in reincarnation, can the Law of Karma make sense as it is ‘played out’ over lifetimes. As long as we have no conviction about past and future lives and about karma,we will continue to live deluded lives and not make optimum use of this our precious human life to get out of suffering and the cyclic existence of samsara, which the Dharma has shown us to be in the nature of suffering.
This is a truly informative documentary with detail explanation on reincarnation. I believe in reincarnation and after watching the video, it is confirmed that my belief is correct.
People’s belief of reincarnation had been dated back thousands of years ago. It has been well accepted by the major religions then. But it is sad to note that at certain period of time it has been suppressed because of greed and personal gain.
I am glad that the existence of reincarnation is proven now through incidents that many people have experienced and recalled, scientific approaches, regression therapy and hypnosis conducted on people of different religion in different part of the world and at different period of time, past and present.
In the East, the reincarnations of high lamas have been confirmed. How could a young boy of age 2 to 3 be possible to pick every item correctly from an array of similar items? In the west, it was also proven the existence of reincarnation. A person under hypnosis, was able to recall a past incarnation of almost 150 years ago. These are just 2 cases out of so many mentioned in the video. All these incidents have been investigated, examined and confirmed to be true.
So as a Buddhist and believer of reincarnation, I have to ensure to engage in Dharma activities that bring positive karma and a better future lives.
Thank you
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing the video.
I agree very much to the point of “continuity”. Energy continues, it can’t be destroyed. Everything in the earth, even the universe made up of energy; so how could lives end there after death? This is very good point to contemplate.
The interesting about this video is, it mentions about rocks, plants, mountains all has live. This is something I didn’t know. I only thought beings in the 6 realms in the Wheel of Life have life, this make me think what kind of karma will make you become a plants or rocks??
Hope when we have more knowledge about Reincarnation, it reflects a more positive and virtue way of living for the present life.
It is very interesting to know more about reincarnation from another point of view. Before I met Buddhism, I used to attach religion to reincarnation as though reincarnation cannot exist without religion. After watching this video I understood further that reincarnation exist even without religion. Religion acts as a pathway for us to have a ‘better’ reincarnation, so to speak.
What amazes me is that at one point of time most religions believe in reincarnation. This is especially interesting because it means that all religions were actually a gateway for us to have a better rebirth and from there, further on to having the opportunity to be liberated by having a good rebirth to practice the religions. Could the fundamental basis of all religions at one point of time be reincarnation?
In the video, it was also said that a prove to reincarnation is how we live our lives in this life. If there was no such thing as reincarnation, then from age zero we would all be the same. But this clearly isn’t the case as we know everyone is different in their own ways. So how to explain this? The choices of clothes we wear, the interest me have, certain points of time in the history we favour, our interest in different religions..this shows very well that there is a possibility whatever we LIKE in this life we did the same in our past lives. Also how we have strong feelings for certain places and people as though we have been there and seen them before. Well, this certainly has nothing to do with religion!
What is devastating is that because of greed, the fundamental basis of our lives is buried deep down hence many people and religions at this point of time no longer believe in reincarnation. This clearly show how greed and all other negative values can pull us down so deep that we could even forgo something so important. Take for example, people who do not believe in reincarnation. Because they think there is only one life, they go all out this life to live the best they can indulging in vice, desires, their attachments and all the wrong livelihoods. As the saying goes YOLO (You only live once). A very popular saying which the youth of today live by. All these because of greed.
Lucky for us, there are still religions that uphold the believe in reincarnation like Buddhism and Hinduism. If not for Buddhism, I would be living by YOLO today as well. Thank you Rinpoche for bringing the real Dharma to us.
This refreshing and enriching presentation cuts across time, across culture, across space, only to surface the one essence of belief held by them ALL… that our actions is directly linked to the different existence of life, becoming the cause of us flowing within the cycle of life, establishing that death is not the end but is a continuity from life, and so the cycle continues.
The one common belief of reincarnation as shown in this video by the great philosophical minds of the Greek empire, the makers of the mysterious Egyptian pyramids whom till today we are not able to decipher their technology, to the oldest of religion Hinduism to Jainism, Kabbalah to orthodox Judaism and Christianity as well as Buddhism must account for something more than just a fairy tale.
What is the main reason people today chose to not belief in reincarnation? It is obviously not lack of knowledge as knowledge has been made available for hundreds of years.
My mind brows away after watching this documentary. Get know more information about reincarnation subject is not just accepted in Buddhism,in fact actually accepted in different religion Judaism, Hinduism, Islamic and old testament Christianity.
Greek philosophers like Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristote has shared this Reincarnation subject to many of their disciples. They not just believe the reincarnation existing.Pythagoras also taught people to respect the soul of all being.Not killing animal and advice to be a stick vegetarian diet. This is quite similar what Buddhism has taught about.
It is quite sad to see how Christianity has twice around the ancient wisdom teaching about Reincarnation, telling people only have one life,so priests in the church control over them and suppress reincarnation is not existing. In the Bible what gods has said about creating the images, they will be punish for 3 to 4 generation.All this just as the excuses reason.
In the 19 century, How interesting Margeret fox and her daughter Kate develop way to communicated with spirit to find out the murdered case buried in the cellar. it show clearly, human after dead, our soul is still existing and continue to incarnate.
I certainly believe Reincarnation. Whatever we do at this life, the result will come out from the future. How lucky we are still learning and know more many aspect of information from different religions without bias.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the video with us and thank you for the most enlightening teaching on Reincarnation.
Yes i do believe in Reincarnation and have all the while been fascinated with this particular subject.I’ve read countless books on this subject but none of the books gave such a detailed history of Reincarnation as the video and the teachings by Rinpoche.
The general opinion on Reincarnation is that it is a doctrine , usually based on Eastern philosophies or religions , or even on superstitions but with this documentary (which i am sure is based on a lot of research by the producers) it opens the minds and views of the non believers that Reincarnation is part and parcel of life!
The history of Reincarnation is just totally mind blowing !! How due to greed , desire of control and power over man and due to the economy of that time, this powerful doctrine had been suppressed. How a handful of men , changed the lives of billions over centuries of time.
Ancient and wise philosophers like Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep, to name a few, all expounded the doctrine of Reincarnation . All the main religions (not just the Eastern religions ) all incorporated Reincarnation into their teachings. There are also many references to Reincarnation in the Bible – in the New Testament for example Chapter 16 of St. Matthew, Chapter 8 of St. Mark , Chapter 9 of St. Luke where the disciples asked Jesus who Jesus was ” Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets”. These referred to persons ‘who had been anticipated by rebirth ‘or ‘reborn prophets’.There are many many similar references to Reincarnation by Jesus himself , yet this extremely profound doctrine is ‘removed ‘ and not accepted by many churches , by people in authority then to disregard it , due to their own conveniences.
As a result, when Reincarnation is not taught, or expounded to the followers, when Karma – the Law of Cause and Effect is not explained , people make their own conclusions that it is alright to commit negative actions, have negative thoughts and speech , to cause harm to others. With this attitude in mind, there is just utter disrespect to ‘ the Nature of the Soul’. With this lack of consciousness, billions have suffered and died!
Without the recognition, acceptance and incorporation of Reincarnation and Karma into our lives, we are no longer mindful of our Body, Speech and Mind. We no longer live by the code and conduct of being a human being.
The doctrine of Transmigration of the Soul is so Universally accepted , by scientists, academics , Revered religious leaders and teachers, professionals, intellectuals – so there must be Truth in this doctrine.
This video on the topic of Reincarnation is one of the very best reincarnation videos out there. This is because the video is neither completely against reincarnation nor completely biased towards reincarnation. Another thing that I like about this video is that the video is not just filled with mediums, psychics and spiritual people like most reincarnation videos, instead, this video is filled with scientists and authors, people who do not have much of a spiritual background.
The first thing that stood out for me in the video is the fact that idea of reincarnation has been a belief for most cultures in history. Evidence of this is that even cavemen buried their dead in a fetal position to signify rebirth into the womb of their new mother. The Egyptians were very popular with reincarnation as all egyptians understand that there is an afterlife. Also, I find it very interesting that the Egyptians and the Tibetans have similar funerary texts, The Book of the Dead. Since Thoth Hermes (A combination of names of the Egyptian god of knowledge and the Greek god of knowledge) authored the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Is it possible that Manjushri was the author of the Tibetan Book of the Dead? If anyone knows the author, please tell me 😀 Another interesting thing to note is that these two cultures are quite far apart and in those days the only means of information transportation is either letters that are carried by foot or smoke signals.
The second thing that piqued my interest is the reason for reincarnation not being in modern Christian texts. This is because of Constantine (who converted into Christianity so that he can assume power) and a bunch of scholars decided to remove it from the books. Why? This is because they thought that people would be able to think that since they had many lives, they needn’t worry about the next. With the one life theory, people will feel fear. So, if the church says, give me your money or go to hell. The people of that time will do as follows.
Many people would say that Christians do not believe in reincarnation but if you were to properly see the Book of Exodus as mentioned in the video, god is referring to the the karma being able to go down many lifetimes. This is, of course, distorted by the fact that the sin is propitiating another god but the message is the same.
Also, when God gave Moses the 10 commandments, God calls Himself a jealous god. This is very contradictory as God should be the perfect being and yet, he is like us. Why would we pray to a God that is so insecure to the fact that he calls himself jealous? It is like praying to another human being.
I also wonder why the Christians persecuted the Jews when Jesus Christ was one of the most prominent Jews in history. Judaism is the root of Christianity and Islam. Why would the Jews be persecuted? It is like the fruits poisoning the roots. This is all because of the governments wanting more economic control. This is proof that greed and desire is the cause for suffering to occur.
If one were to meditate and visualize a world where all these suppressions of religions did not happen, they would really see a glimpse of world peace. In fact, most of the early wars were due to religion. The other wars would be for land or wealth. This taints the name of religion.
Also, Brian Weisse is a very interesting character in this video. He is an author with no spiritual background and yet when doing regression therapy into people’s childhood, people often go back even further.
This is actually proof that we can remember our past lives and knowing our past lives is nothing special. In fact, our habituations, our tastes, the people we like are all due to our past lives. We never do forget.
I like this documentary because its presentation was not bias, presenting the information without preaching or just merely regurgitating the doctrine of any religion. I never knew that reincarnation was accepted (and proof were explained in the documentary) by the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Perhaps the intention of the Council of Nicaea continues to this day.
It is a shame that when greed, power or the wish to control others come about, such an important phenomenon and existence was eliminated or “hidden away”, in order to preserve someone or a group’s selfish pursuit of wealth and control. For us who wish to condemn them, we then should use this as a reminder to ask ourselves, aren’t we the same, always choosing our own benefit at the sake of others, hence we are back again (reincarnated, without control!)
It is also great to know that great thinkers and historic figures like Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and Socrates believed, studied and propogated reincarnation. Why is it then this was not preserved and being taught in schools despite the popularity of past life regression?
It is a relief to learn that at the end of our lives, it doesn’t matter what religion one believes in, as long as one does good, let one’s conscience be our guide, and perhaps, connect with the real God within us that is benevolent, no matter where we go – on planet earth or in the afterlife, we will have a safe journey. And of course, at the end of this life, all of us can confirm by personal experience, this process of reincarnation. But again, do they have past life regression where we are born next? 🙂 Or are we “condemned” to another lifetime of being ignorant of the phenomena?
It is a pity that some religions have suppressed the belief in reincarnation. This is a loss of spiritual knowledge that could have helped many people deal with the problems of existence. Not believing in reincarnation doesn’t mean it does not exist. And it is linked to one’s karma. Good deeds generally lead to a good rebirth while bad deeds will result in an undesired rebirth. Knowledge about the process of reincarnation and providing proof that it exists will bring about acceptance among those who are sceptical. More research is needed to come up with convincing evidence that can be diffused widely so that more and more people will believe in reincarnation.
When I was a child, about 5 or 6 maybe, I remember, one night, looking at the wall of my bedroom and having a vision of a many-leveled temple. I kept looking up higher and higher and seeing more and more levels. It was quite clear at the time, even though I had never seen such a place then, as a child growing up in Europe.
Many years later, looking at photos, I thought it looked like a Hindu Temple or the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodhgaya. Perhaps it was a memory of either of those?
There were a few other memories, too, but I have since forgotten them.
Finally! It’s nice to come across a video about reincarnation that isn’t steeped in mysticism, nor is it a skeptic’s mouthpiece. Leonard Nimoy’s voice also goes some way in lending credibility to the video…
Seriously though, what I REALLY like about this video is the fact it uses actual historical events to support the points it is making. They don’t use disputed facts either, but refers to events that EVERYONE accepts to be true. For example, we KNOW that the Jews were persecuted in Spain – I saw former synagogues in Toledo that had forcibly converted into churches but if you looked very closely, you could see a tiny Star of David carved in some of the pillars…
What struck me about this video was:
(1) that Abrahamic religions once believed in reincarnation is not a pervasively known fact, and that in those religions reincarnation has come to be seen as representing something more animalistic and barbaric, and less civilised is testatement to the level and sophistication of manipulation that has been taking place for people to deny the very origins and central teachings of their own faith
(2) the evidence FOR reincarnation is much clearer than the evidence AGAINST it which is tainted by religious manipulation carried out to fulfil economic aims. I’d much rather believe in something that is a description of the way things are, than believe in something that not only denies the truth but has to manipulate information in order to carry out such a denial. In the latter scenario, it would mean that fundamentally, my faith is built on a lie.
(3) the difference and hypocrisy between the actual religion and its teachings, and its implementation and manipulation by man stunned me. If man controls religion in order to benefit himself economically and politically, how does he become closer to the kingdom of God?
Abrahamic religions teach that ALL man was created in the image of God. If one man suppresses another man, how does he come closer to the kingdom of God if he is suppressing something made in God’s image? What gives one man the right to say that another man is bad, since all were created equal and in the image of God? If the other man really is bad, how come God allowed for bad men to be made in his image?
And if you go into the Old Testament, you will see references to a jealous God. For example, in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 20:4) you will see references to a jealous God. Why would I want to be made in the image of a jealous God? I’ve got enough problems of my own, to not want to take on God’s anger management issues!
That points me to another thing about this video which amuses me. The producers didn’t rely on events and facts that cannot be verified, or have not been widely accepted by the world at large – open any copy of the Old Testament, and that reference IS there in Exodus 20:4. So since the producers only use widely-accepted events as evidence, I find that very funny because people who are anti-reincarnation now see how their own information works against themselves.
Anyway true religion, that God created ALL man in his image, is peaceful and teaches you to love your neighbour because he is as much God’s child as you are. Therefore suppressing someone cannot be religious in any way and to use a faith to justify suppression means that the doctrine you uphold is no longer religion, but propaganda.
(4) the karma of persecuting Jews in Spain has come back to them, like it has for Germany. I recently read an article which stated that 1 in 4 Spaniards of working age are currently unemployed (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/27/spanish-unemployment-record-high). Meanwhile the German economy, which is Europe’s largest, shrank in the 4th quarter of 2012 (http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope/2013/01/15/italian-elections-may-yet-shake-euro-zone/).
Then you have the Greeks and Italians who, in the ancient world, were considered the seats of civilisation and culture. These days, things are rather different – the Greeks suffer THE highest unemployment rates in the EU (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20968845), and are constantly rioting whilst the Italians suffer from a relatively unstable government which in turn has a destablising effect for Europe.
So a few thousand years ago, these Mediterranean societies ruled and suppressed the world. These days, they struggle to keep up with the rest of the world.
(5) this perfectly matches the Buddhist teachings, that samsara is totally cylical and existing on a cycle. The rise and fall of these once great civilisations, and the ascent of those that have long been held out of power, points to a cycle of global changes that everyone undergoes. This cycle is defined by a cause having an effect; in this case, Spain persecuted the Jews for financial reasons, so now their economy is suffering financially.
(6) so the rise and fall of economies, and socio-cultural and political institutions is one evidence that karma definitely exists. Something else that provides evidence for this is that everything in this world exists in a continuum – wood burns into heat and ashes, which nourishes the ground, which supports vegetation, which feeds humans, which turns into faeces, which nourishes the ground, and so on.
Water is heated, which evaporates into steam, which rises into the air, which condenses to form clouds, which rain down on the mountains, which form rivers, which run into the seas and lakes, which evaporates into steam again…and so the story goes.
So if everything in this world exists in a continuum, why is it that only our mind doesn’t? That line in the video made a lightbulb go off in my head! For the mind to exist in a continuum, and for it to go then come back, there must be a driving force for that. There must be a driving force also that determines what kind of rebirth the mind has when it returns. The only teaching in any religion that can explain that driving force is karma.
I wouldn’t even say God was the driving force because there are just too many questions. How can I explain that God is making me suffer? Why am I suffering for the sins of my father? For example, if my father had been born in a vegetative state, why am I suffering for sins he could not possibly have committed? And why did God, who supposedly created my father in his image, create my father to be in a vegetative state?
(7) I say this as a bonafide banana (yellow on the outside; white on the inside) – we Chinese are so stupid to subconsciously assume that Western culture is superior to our own, when at one point in time we were arrogantly discriminated against in our own nation (I refer to the signs in Shanghainese parks that read “No Chinese and no dogs”).
As Chinese, our culture developed over thousands of years. We had painting, poetry, music, medicine, politics, philosophy, religion, etc. Why would anyone abandon that for something that was previously used to suppress our forefathers? DOH.
I’m sorry this comment has been so long Rinpoche but I really enjoyed the video, and it gave me food for thought! Thank you for posting it Rinpoche, and for taking so many hours to go through it with us!
This is a very empowering video which led me into thinking more about the faith i believed in as well as understanding the faith of others. It all summed up to one word – Belief. Religion comes from belief but there must be a basis for the belief, hence reincarnation has proven to have existed long ago even before the days of Hinduism which is considered the oldest religion of today.
What interesting is that the east and west don’t mix back in the older days but how come two parts of the world come to conclusion on the same subject? Which means reincarnation don’t only happen to religious individuals but it also happens to people of different backgrounds and beliefs.
This can only means that it is not like what people think, only “certain” religion “owns” reincarnation. In fact religion comes in to “recognize” the nature of the human cycle, nothing mystical. In fact, logical.
Recollections of the past we have heard many, watched on TV, read stories. But personally most of us can’t recall our pasts, let alone our past lives but it doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. After watching this video the so called “dejavu”, it made much more sense why are we in particular attracted to certain things, habits, food, people… even our talents! Why are so people more musical incline than others? Why are some people can pick up things so easily and master it but some take longer? It has to be a continuation.. which means, we have been there done that before…
Tibetan high lamas have proven that fact. If not how can a 5 years kid able to identify his items not to mention that school don’t teach you what a mala is or a vajra and bell yet!!! But it doesn’t just happen to high lams, in fact it happen to us it is just a high lama through study and practices and meditation, they have ways to control better than us.
It is kind of sad that such profound philosophy boils down to the core of our desire – desire for power, fame and material gains. How could people twist the facts of holy studies in favour of their own power and gaining? If they would have hold the teachings pure, the world today would be a better place no doubt.
As a Buddhist, I do believe that karma do exist. And the truth will always be the truth. They will be question again and again, karma does return in full force. The wise will question and the truth will always be the truth.
I would say this video is totally mind blowing. All this while I thought reincarnation is something to do with only Buddhism or so called the Chinese belief. I never knew Judaism and Islam do believe in this too. The fact that you do not need to be in any religions to believe the existence of reincarnation, as there is solid scientific research has proved that reincarnation does exist. The regression therapy is an evidence.
If there’s continuity in things wood turn into ashes and it goes back to earth, the ashes nourish plants and it grows, after a while it dies and turn into wood again..then why there’s no continuity in living beings which is reincarnation? In the ancient Egypt, the decease is buried in a fetal positions as they believe that after the death is the spring of life, and it goes in a cycle.
In this video, we can see how the greed and desire affected the whole society and eventually sacrificed their own believes. The economics and politics have a great impact in changing people’s believes. Look at how the ancient Spain was corrupted and in order to make a living, the ancient Jews were forced to go underground and migrated to the America.
If you believe there is reincarnation, then you will believe in karma as they come in a package. Karma is the consequences of your actions. Imprints or dejavu is the connection in your every life times and it affects your behavior/thoughts/actions.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for the teaching on reincarnation. I was so fortunate today to be able to receive the teaching direcly from RInpoche. If I were to watch the video by myself, I won’t have done such a detailed analysis on this documentary. What I have learned:
1. Reincarnation is not something belongs to religions, it is a law of nature. Whether you are a spiritual person or not, your life continues even after death. You can come back as a human again.
2. If there is continuity in all phenomena, for example water disappears and becomes steam, wood disappears and becomes ashes. If there is continuity in other forms, there must be continuity in human life too.
3. Reincarnation was actually the cornerstone of Judaism which is the root of other major religions in the west. That means other religions must have been established with reincarnation as their philosophy also.
4. Concept of reincarnation was destroyed because of human’s greed for the control of the economy. The one life concept makes it easier for the ruler to control the people, thus making the people do whatever is told so that they will go to a better place.
5. Religion itself is not a bad thing. It is the people who make it bad in order to satisfy their desires.
Lastly, if all major religions, scientists, medical doctors believe in reincarnation, it must be because it is a law of nature. No one can escape and it is our own karma that punishes us.
When I first watched this documentary, I watched it like how I watch every other documentary – nod at every interesting point and murmur, “Yeah, yeah – that’s so true.”
However, Rinpoche kindly sat with the Ladrang staff to watch the video, further explain and further question us to think more. I must say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for pushing us to think more, to expand our mind and to encourage us to gain more knowledge.
1. Do I believe in reincarnation? Yes. Rinpoche had previously explained it to all Kecharians very logically. If we exist now, we existed 10 minutes ago. If we existed 10 minutes ago, we existed yesterday. If we existed yesterday, we existed when we were 5. If we existed when we were 5, we existed when we were in our mother’s womb. If we existed when in our mother’s womb, we existed during the time of conception. If we existed during the time of conception, we must have existed prior to the time of conception.
Something cannot come from nothing.
This somewhat matches up to Dr Robert Thurman’s input in the documentary, which was that everything in life has continuum. The wood that we burn turns to ash, the ash turns to soil nutrients, the nutrients turn to plants, plants die, which leads us again to the wood, then the wood decomposes etc etc. The water cycle is also another example.
Why is there a continuum in everything, except for ourselves? How can we die, and everything just cease. If it ceases, where does it start?
Is the soul the ONE thing in the universe that doesn’t have continuity? Doesn’t sound logical.
2. Before I joined Kechara, I was volunteering in the Ladrang. One day, past midnight, everyone was asked to congregate in the conference room. Through Thierry’s request, Rinpoche was on the phone with a young boy from Belgium. Rinpoche asked the child a few things, and it turned out that the boy had been having constant dreams of himself being inside a cave.
Rinpoche would ask, “Is there anyone else inside the cave?” – the boy would have an answer. “What are they talking about?” – and the boy would have an answer. The conversation went back and forth, with Thierry translating, as the boy only spoke French.
Rinpoche would ask if he saw himself doing meditation with other people, the boy said yes and that they were with people in robes. He asked if the boy (in his dreams) saw himself travelling or moving on the mountains, he said yes. The boy then went on to describe the colour and shape of the hat the people around him wore. He also mentioned of an elder person and that he felt comfortable with him. The boy would see snow around him and that there were no buildings, just himself in a cave.
It turned out that the boy had strong Dharmic imprints from his previous life.
As per family tradition, the boy’s grandmother would take her grandchildren on a trip to anywhere in the world for their 12th birthday present. Compared to all of his cousin who chose to go somewhere “fun” for their holidays, this boy had been talking incessantly about visiting the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala ever since he was 9 years old. Turning 12 (then), he wrote a letter to His Holiness’s office requesting for an audience – but was disappointed when he found out that His Holiness wasn’t going to be around. He was apparently so depressed that he did not want to go anywhere anymore.
His family found it strange that he really wanted to go, and couldn’t understand why.
Of all of the places in the world that this boy could visit, he had chosen to visit His Holiness in Dharamsala. Where did that come from? Why does a child from Belgium, who had no Buddhist exposure want to go to Dharamsala as his wish? Why not Disneyland, or a ski trip in Aspen?
3. This sort of recollection from past history, as with the boy above, goes past the wide-spread belief that only certain religions believe in reincarnation. Even the Buddha himself said that he didn’t CREATE reincarnation. It exists. Buddha merely recognized it and taught on how to stop reincarnating back again and again into samsara, i.e. become enlightened.
Saying that Buddha created reincarnation, is like saying Sir Isaac Newton created gravity. Gravity exists, and Sir Isaac merely recognized it!
As in the documentary, people like Dr Brian Weiss discovered the existence of reincarnation based on science – not because of religious beliefs. A graduate of Yale and Columbia, Dr Brian Weiss was helping his patient through regression therapy. He wanted to pinpoint a traumatic experience to help his patient let go of a fear she had of men. The lady regressed till her early days, but nothing was found. He then asked for her to go straight to the point where she had an unpleasant experience with men – and she went wayyy back into a time where she was living a different life, in a different body speaking a different language. This then got Dr Brian Weiss thinking.
People of science are now finding more reason and evidence to belief that there is life after death. That we existed before, just as how we will continue to exist when we die.
In the documentary, it explained how the Father of Mathematics, Pythagoras, was a firm believer of reincarnation. At the height of the Greek’s civilisation, when they were rich and conquered all of Europe, Pythagoras was the head principal of a school that taught art, music and architecture. His pupils were well-versed to reincarnation, and were taught to respect all beings and to adhere to a vegetarian diet.
His 3 students Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were themselves great philosophers. Their teachings were widely sought after throughout Europe, and even now many of us quote from these 4 greats! This means that Europe generally believed in reincarnation.
5. In the documentary, they also mention how in both Tibet and Egypt there existed a book called “The Book of the Dead”. The Eqyptians buried their dead in a foetal position. It is believed that they did so to prepare them for their next rebirth. The Book of the Dead is also read out when a person has died to guide them to the next life.
How is it that 2 divergent cultures, with no connections (pre-global trading times), have the same belief?
There is still much to ponder!
I enjoyed this video because it is not a religious documentary. For many including myself the view is that reincarnation is a religious thing. Therefore many have the deluded view that since I am not religious, reincarnation does not affect me. Then we can totally enjoy our this lives and not be accountable for our next life… how irresponsible is that? When one understands and accepts reincarnation it makes living this life more purposeful which is why I think that this video has a good impact because the presentation of the facts are scientific and based on actual history.
If the Greek philosophy which believes in reincarnation was upheld and not wiped out by the dynamics of economics in religion (in this instance Christianity) it would perhaps have changed the course of history. Many wars would have been avoided and many lives not wasted in the name of fake honor of some world leaders who obviously do not believe reincarnation. I strongly believe that accepting reincarnation as a fact would give the human race a deeper sense of conscience. I do not mean only with regards to wars but even all the way to living peacefully with thy neighbors and even to constructing safe buildings which will not endanger people.
Life is short and if we deny reincarnation we would live a short meaningless life. Then I ask what is the point? Live a hedonistic life only to know after you die that you will be back…how funny is that? It would be too late then when we come back as a formless being…then what?
This is mind blowing video.
1. Two most important origins of our existing religions today actually believe in reincarnation. From the west, Judaism, Christianity and Islamism who believe in monotheism and from the east, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism who believe in reincarnation, both believed in reincarnation during the ancient time. There must be certain truth in this theory in order for these religions that are so far apart geographically with almost no communication to come to the same conclusion.
2. The Great ancient Greek Philosopher, Pythagorus and his main students Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were also believers of reincarnation theory. They are the fathers of modern science and mathematics. In fact, the whole western philosophy were greatly influenced by them. If we choose to believe and adopt their findings in science and mathematics which are so crucial to the development of modern world, how can we simply ignore their believe in reincarnation without a strong proven fact that against it?
3. Religions are not equal to universal truth. Religions can be controlled by people and human beings are greed in nature. Look at the case of the suppression of believe in reincarnation that happened to the Judaism and ancient Christianity, the changes of believe are actually being forced by churches not base on fact itself.
4. A truth can never be changed nor denied. With the modern regression therapy, more and more people start to remember their past lives, some even with strong evidence that hard to explain with another theory. Hopefully with the development of modern scientific technique, we will be able to prove the reincarnation theory.
Dear Rinpoche,
With all this proof i do really believe in Reincarnation, there is just so much proof that it is impossible for someone to even try and fake it. So it has to be real.
Sadly, The Christian Priest’s of every Church wanted full control of the people by saying that you only have one future life and you must follow what God says or else you will not live in that future life, but what we see here saying that Reincarnation is real because we have proof that Reincarnation is real, take The High Lamas as an example do you think they are so easily found?
It is also amazing to know that all 6 of the most famous 6 Religions in the whole world have been Established from just 2 root religions, one from the East which is Hindu and the one from the West is Jewish this is surely not an coincident as the East and the West are so far away and they don’t even call or talk to each other so it must have been something known to the world globally and not just between one religion.
The fact that you don’t have to respect any Religion to actually believe in Reincarnation, you could just be a free thinker and still you can Believe in Reincarnation, it is just science and has nothing to do with Religion at all! Take the author of the book Many Masters, many life if i am not mistaken, he is just a free thinker and yet he believes in Reincarnation.
I really love the idea of that Fox Sisters communicating with the spirit that was believed to have been killed in one of those rooms in that house and how they communicate with each other just through knocks and snapping your fingers. Truly Amazing!!!
On my level i do not remember anything from my past life’s but like what Carey William said:
“the type of music we like, the people we’re most attracted to, the types of food we like, the clothing we wear, certain periods in history that we identify with, these are indications this is where we have been before and so our present incarnation or our present lifetime is a composite of all the foods of what we were before.”
Thank You Rinpoche for sharing this wonderful article and video
Love
Jutika
My dear Jutika,
I am very impressed with what you have shared. You are so young and yet understood so much. I rejoice!!! Love, Li Kim
Well said Jutika… it is amazing that you’re only 12 years old yet you can grasp this comprehension from Rinpoche’s teachings! Keep it up!
Dejavu – familiarity – feel like we’ve been there, done that and met with a certain person before, all this are signs that our minds was not just suddenly created and that this is the only life we know of.
There are so many evidence today that proves to us that life after death does exist… just because we don’t remember the past does not mean it does not. If we really wanted to know we can just observed ourselves, the types of food we like, clothes we like, ppl we like etc etc. Our present now is the composite of what we were of had experienced before. In Buddhism Rinpoche has taught us, this is called imprints.
This is really a very mind blowing post because I never knew that even Christianity and Islam did believe in reincarnation because their origin coming from Judaism believed in reincarnation and that that was the corner stone of their teachings. This actually tells us that throughout history reincarnation has been an all pervasive belief and hence the laws of karma exist. As Buddhist we definitely believe in karma and reincarnation… it is our core teachings and has been so but Christianity and Islam?… now that is something new. How did two different culture and traditions, one from the east and the other from the west both believed in this one theory? So it must mean it is something true and was accepted by all at one time in the past. From Hinduism, the oldest religion, to the Greeks at their zenith believed in reincarnation, that means it was a widespread accepted belief. They even explained to us how the great Greek philosopher, mathematician, Pythagoras, founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism, believed in reincarnation as he was blessed by the God of wisdom Mercury to be able to have visions of his past life and hence he taught in his school to respect and value life and so adhere to strict vegetarianism. Wow… Mercury sound like Manjushri who blessed and spoke to Lama Tsongkhapa and hence Lama Tsongkhapa gain realizations and visions – how similar. Could it be that Mercury is Manjushri, manifesting himself in that form for that time?
I also find the ancient Jews, especially the Kabala religion such a beautiful one and they too believed in reincarnation. Their 3 principle teachings which they abide by is their relationship with God, Reincarnation and the nature of the soul which had three aspect which is vegetate, ruhak – wind/animalistic and shamar – the intellectuals and spirituals.
It is man as usual through his own greed in wanting to control people who changed and twisted ancient teachings and wisdom to suit their desires to control others for economic purposes. This is how the Jews who were Spanish had to go underground in the early 19th century with their beliefs as they created a façade to show that they were Christians to avoid being persecuted by the Spanish King Ferdinand. From there slowly the theory of reincarnation was removed from the Churchs. Imagined if the preservation of ancient wisdom was never wiped away or altered, the world’s most influential religions today, like Christianity and Islam would probably never waged any war against one another and would never use the “God” fearing theory to convert people and keep them in check. There would be no need because if there is reincarnation, then there would be acceptance in the laws of karma, cause and effect, which will automatically keep us in check as we would have to face our karmic lessons or consequences in our next life wouldn’t we?!
Thank you for sharing this video and for spending so much time elucidating the various points. It was certainly an enlightening evening! What I liked about this video is that it shows many different facets to reincarnation, from historic to religious to scientific. The documentary presents evidence and opinions from those who have done extensive research into this interesting topic, like authors and doctors who have conducted regression therapy. Logically it presents that everything has a continuum – water changes to steam etc therefore it makes sense that our minds cannot be contrary to this law and end at death. Also, even though we cannot remember our past lives (actually many of us cannot even remember much of our early lives – does that mean our childhood did not exist? Of course not), all of us have experienced a sense of familiarity with certain things in our lives. We automatically gravitate towards types of food, places, activities, even clothes or a particular era – which Buddhism explains is habituations from past lives. Here, the documentary talks about déjà vu, which is a concept many people have experienced.
The documentary also showed how the belief in reincarnation is pervasive in not only the various religions but even in ancient Greek philosophies of Pythagoras and his students, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato. Pythagoras’ respect for all living creatures which is embodied in his vegetarian credo shows his belief in reincarnation is real and not just theory.
Prior to watching this video, I had thought that reincarnation is a concept accepted by Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. What I found new and fascinating was that reincarnation was a cornerstone of Judaism, in fact the Hebrew word for reincarnation, “gilgul”, comes from a verb meaning “turning in a circle”. As Judaism is the root of the Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Islam, I would expect reincarnation to be as extensively propagated in those religions also. However, the documentary explains that reincarnation was suppressed in Europe at the Council of Nicaea so that the Church could control their flock better by telling them to focus on one life only, which should be lived in accordance with their rules as set by themselves. Not only that, in the 15th century, King Ferdinand of Spain colluded with the Church to persecute Jews for economic gain. This led to the Jews playing down the differences between their beliefs and Christianity so that they could better blend into society at that time, which included reducing the focus on reincarnation. It is sad that throughout history, religious persecution is often created due to the need for economic and political control by the reigning power at the time.
All in all, I think that everyone should watch this documentary because if you do not believe in reincarnation, the facts presented will definitely give you something to think about. If you do believe in reincarnation, then it will make you understand more from the perspective of other religions and history.
Thank you again Rinpoche for always giving us knowledge.
Honestly, at first I thought that this video is going to be a ‘ordinary’ video that shows to people: you see, people can remember their past lives, they can tell what they remember. But in fact this video is an eye-opener for me! It talks about reincarnation from different religion’s view, their origin, their fundamental teachings and their history as well! If we seriously contemplate about these few points, we will see how religions can be twisted or manipulated by the people until we see how the religions are today.
It is really interesting to know the fact that Judaism is actually believe in reincarnation. They teach about reincarnation and the Kabbala even has the 3 principal thoughts (which I think is quite complete) which talk about our relationship with the supreme being, reincarnation and the nature of soul. They are logical and they are like a set of teachings of how to get free and they are not practice to please the God or anyone. To me, any religion that tells us the ways to get out from problems and to free ourselves, religion that gives us more knowledge and space to think and contemplate, is the religion that encourage true spirituality. Religion shouldn’t be something that push us to believe out of fear that arises from no where.
But from the history we understand that religion at the most of the time is being used by the people that who owned power out of economic factors or political factors. We see how the teachings of a religion being twisted and the good thing is, we can learn to know more about it, and we are able to see/examine religion from many angles. History is always the basis for us to check. Some people will take it as a challenge to what they believe, but I think it is a good challenge to train our mind to see the truth and understand better what we believe.
And I’m happy to know that Pythagoras is a vegetarian too! Because most of the people think that vegetarianism is something to do with Buddhism, and some people think that if you are a vegetarian, they think that you are fanatic. In fact by knowing that reincarnation is exist, then compassion and kindness are easier to develop. Now I can happily tell the people that vegetarianism exist since a very long long time ago. Thank you Rinpoche for this wonderful sharing!
This video is very refreshing, all this while I thought only Buddhism, Hinduism and other Eastern religions have reincarnation as their basis, never knew that monotheistic religions like Christianity etc also have the notion of reincarnation, if those religions still have reincarnation as one of their core beliefs, it will greatly revolutionalize the dynamics of world religion today.
Looking back, it seems that the current situation of the world religion today was shaped by only a few people having a meeting in a room thousands of years back, and their arbitrary decision had changed forever the dynamic of world religion. It is like a chaos theory where a little flap of a butterfly’s wings many years ago was enough to create a whirlwind that swept across world religion hundreds and thousands of years later.
Is it possible that those religions which abandoned the notion of reincarnation adopt it back as one of their core teachings? It is possible but then again it may take hundreds it not thousands of years again. But with increasing number of people forsaking their beliefs in those religion in recent times, hopefully it will prompt and accelerate those religions to reintroduce ideas like reincarnation into their belief system, because people now are very exposed and have the liberty to question religion, unlike before. Gone were the days where religion is used as a tool to instil fear and control, religion nowadays has to maintain its devotees via sense, reasonings, and not fear, and the idea of reincarnation seems more and more convincing, especially with the advancement of science, which seems to corroborate the theory of reincarnation.
This video explores the subject of Reincarnation very thoroughly. Before, I thought of reincarnation as a belief that arose out of Hinduism and extended into Buddhism, a belief that is predominantly Eastern in character. And I was surprised to learn that Judaism (from whence we get Christianity and Islam) also strongly believed in it. In fact reincarnation was the cornerstone of the religion. Therefore both the roots of Eastern and Western religions originally believed in reincarnation. Also the Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all subscribed to reincarnation and they gained that insight from observing all phenomena. To them, it was logical.
It is strange that reincarnation went from something that was so widely and universally accepted to being perceived as merely a feature of Hinduism and Buddhism. The acceptance and believe in reincarnation changes the dynamics of how we think and act in correspondence to our thoughts and this has nothing to do with the label of our religion. The logic is simple – if we know we must face the consequences of our actions, then we will all behave more responsibly.
Looking at the world today and how moral values have been severely eroded, I cannot help but wonder if it is due to the fact that the most popular religions today (and therefore the biggest influence on society today) seem to have dropped the belief in reincarnation sometime back and therefore the onus of responsibility shifted away from ourselves to a “god”. Believing in a “saviour god” made it less necessary for us to be responsible because we are not coming back here again. Looking at the degenerated state of social ethics and morals, could it be that we all reincarnated to inherits the sins of our past? If we do not find that the world is a better place to live in, then could it be that we didn’t leave it in a better shape in the past?
The most logical point in the video is not even religious in nature. The point is that everything in life follows an endless cycle of formation-destruction-formation and so on. We see this in everything and so, why not our souls? It cannot be that we are the exception to the rule and if we are, then what is the basis of that exception.
Reincarnation is very logical and to deny it, one would have to distort logic to a point where there are too many holes to explain. And this is where a lot of religious apologist say things like “it’s God’s will” but why would any god want any of his children to experience something less than perfect? Reincarnation answers more questions that raise new ones. Accepting it fills in all the holes in explaining the world’s religions and replaces explanations that can no longer stand up in the face of advancing science that is also proving that we do have an endless cycle of lives.
Now that we know that the cornerstone of Judaism and hence Christianity and Islam were removed in the past, the question is, what else have been removed for political and economic expediency and how do we know what to trust?
To be honest, I was a package believer. I found many of what the Buddha taught made sense and since he made sense with these other teachings, he must be right about reincarnation as well. For me, it was initially hard to envision a previous life (and future lives) no matter how fanciful my imagination was, it just seemed far away.
However, after Rinpoche’s excellent and crystal clear explanation coupled with watching this video, I would say that I have learnt a lot more on reincarnation. This is not to mention that I am just in awe of the discoveries of a few things within this documentary. I found it amazing that the ancient Greeks believed in reincarnation. I am actually in awe the classical Greek Mathematician and philosopher, Pythagoras along with his luminary disciples, Aristotle, Plato and Socrates also shared in his beliefs. This is not to mention that he would imbue his students with the appreciation of all life because of his belief in reincarnation. I particularly loved the fact that he was also vegetarian – a testament to his beliefs.
The other point that stuck out for me was the fact that the Jews originally were firm believers of reincarnation. This is earth-shattering news to me because I come from a Christian background and we all know that Christianity and Islam were offshoots of this old religion. I love how the documentary traces through history to discover how Judaism began to hide its more ‘esoteric’ belief in reincarnation to avoid persecution in Spain and almost discarded it in 19th Century to gain acceptance by the scientific community. Fortunately, the Orthodox Hassidic Jews and the Kabbalist preserved this aspect of their faith so we know today that the Jews along with the Christians did believe. I found it interesting that the Christians discarded this belief during the Council of Nicaea in favor of a tighter and stricter belief in just this life so the Church could wield more power over its believers. This is groundbreaking and if only more Christians would be open to realize the truth of this matter. They would not be so fanatical about sidelining other faiths.
Modern development of reincarnation took a scientific turn with the introduction of the hypnosis and no one can deny the evidence provided by thousands today who are able to recall obscure details of previous lives during hypno-therapy. I think that this is the best evidence and that’s why it has become a legitimate field of scientific study. The Buddha was right all along and it wasn’t that the Buddha invented reincarnation. It was what the Buddha observed along with the earlier holy men of all faiths but was suppressed and nearly wiped out.
There are plenty of reincarnation videos out there but this one has been the most compelling one, if only for the diversity it covers and the many angles it explores – from several of the major religions of the world, from scientist / therapists, authors and academics. I think what I found most compelling is how reincarnation was a fundamental belief across so many very disparate cultures that would never have met or influenced each other historically. And that despite the differences in the way they expressed their belief and understanding of reincarnation, the bottom line is that THEY BELIEVED and it was very much widely accepted and understood.
I like that the documentary explores not just the spiritual / religious points of view, which is what is most commonly covered in such studies, but also a scientific and experiential point of view. It’s easy for people to dismiss religious thought as mere “belief” or “superstition” (though this is not a necessarily correct way of thinking either), but clearly documented experiences such as the examples of past-life regression and the communication between the Fox sisters and spirits open far more avenues for consideration. The fact that people fall upon such experiences when they’re not even looking for them, not religious and are in no way believers of reincarnation is a strong enough point that these after-life experiences must be considered as a reality.
I liked what is said in the beginning of the documentary that actually, we all have experiences of a past life – just because we don’t have memories of it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened but actually, there are clear indications every day of our lives: our likes, dislikes, the people we’re attracted to, even down to the food we like to it and the periods of time in history that we find ourselves naturally interested in. If this wasn’t the case, and if we all came into life as blank, new sheets of paper, then we would all be the same, with the same kind of interests, aptitudes, likes and dislikes; this isn’t the case of course. Each of us has such contrasting, disparate tendencies – so where does this come from?
Following this, and in answer to Rinpoche’s question if we believe in reincarnation – I would like to say I do but I think that if we were to have true 100% conviction in reincarnation (and therefore karma), our entire mode of behavior would change completely and we would immediately stop the negative habits we have and increase positive virtuous activity. The fact that we (I) don’t do this immediately is probably reflection enough that I haven’t fully gained conviction in this – or why would I continue to willingly engage in activities that can only lead to a negative place in a future time? I personally have no recollection of any past lives, although I do really subscribe to the idea mentioned above that past lives can be proved by us having inexplicable behaviors, attitudes, tendencies that seemingly arise out of nowhere or appear very irrational, like there was no way they could have been fostered within this lifetime – my irrational fear of frogs for example (as a very base example), or a natural dislike from a young age of commercial work and wanting instead to make a difference in what I do (which Rinpoche had kindly pointed out to me as something perhaps from a previous life – not something I personally “saw”!).
A last point, though an important one: I very much liked that this documentary also explored the political and social influences that surrounded and determined the course of progression in such major world religions like Judaism and Christianity. It is fascinating but very saddening at the same time to see how such a fundamental part of these religions – reincarnation – can be simply stamped out for political reasons, for the want of power and economic control by just a few. And most sad of all, to realise how different the world would be if only they had allowed the belief in reincarnation to be upheld and truly propagated among their people. Objectively speaking, if we compare the major religions of the world, we see that that defining difference in the way each religion responds or contributes to the world is in this very belief of reincarnation. While religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism (with such a predominantly strong belief in reincarnation) seek to protect and preserve life, others such as Christianity (which wiped out the teachings on reincarnation) have frequently engaged in wars across history or sought to suppress and destroy other fellow humans – the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, and Holocaust are just a few examples.
Thank you Rinpoche for not only making this available to us, but also to have spent so many hours with us to expound the points and explain the depth and multiple implications of what seemed to be just a simple point. This has strengthened not only my understanding of reincarnation and other world religions / methods but more importantly of my own Buddhist learning. Thank you.
Wow… such a new angle for us to understand the idea of reincarnation, it’s especially interesting when we know other religion than Buddhism also practice or believe in reincarnation. Well, this video told us clearly it’s not Buddha created reincarnation but from ancient believe such as Judaism teaching are based on reincarnation too…
The other thing that stuck out my mind is human is really great on erase the history and change the tradition (even on religion) for the sake of power, control, or economy.
A lot of info that we got from this documentary are from non Buddhist sources, most of the interviewer are Dr. or PHD, they are learned and have done serious research before the provide all the information.
Another idea I have after I watched this documentary is how much do we really understand about our religion? Are these teaching we received from our temple, church, school are still authentic just like few thousand ago or it have been changed by people who are power hunger.
Since young I don’t believe the idea of one god control the world (or us), because if we are all created by the GOD, why are we still suffering? Why are we still not happy about life ? Why do we don’t even believe in him ? If the God created all of us, why should he created all of us that don’t believe in him ?
All my comments above doesn’t mean to hurt anyone but it’s just my personally feeling that I would like to express here.
Do I believe in reincarnation? Yes, certainly I do. It is not only because I am Buddhist that I believe in reincarnation but because of what I have seen happening around me. It is difficult to doubt something just because we want to believe it is not true, when evidence shows so plainly true.
Take for example, in Buddhism, the reincarnation Lamas, having able to recognize their previous lives’ items. It is even so detailed to the extent that the present reincarnations have the same attitude or characteristics of the previous incarnations. Now we also know that these records is not only recorded for Buddhists… people from all around the world and from different faiths experience the same thing. Not to mention that with the growing understanding on how past life regression helps a person in this life overcome their difficulties by looking into the source of their pain in the past or past lives. Lets not forget that people undergoing past life regression can even speak in different languages that they used to speak in the past… that is indeed proof enough.
On a more personal level, I do not have any recollections of my past lives. However, there are instances of when I feel particularly familiar with a person I just met… I like something more than another, I have preference that could not have arise just from this life time. How can you explain that you like something you ‘just discovered’ in this life and not like another thing? It must be we have familiarized ourselves with it in a previous life that created the draw. Besides that, there are instances where I feel like… I have done something like this before… These all, after watching this video bring me to know that dejavu… I’ve been in the exact same position some where in my previous life.
What shocked or amazed me the most is to discover that the believe in reincarnation initially was predominant in all cultures across the world back in the past… obviously at that time and age, there is no possible way that these two cultures would have met and exchanged their philosophies of life. So why is it that two separate civilizations have the same belief? There must be some hint of truth that the ancestors of our people believe in reincarnation although some of us in this world do not believe in it anymore.
Take for example, Phythagoras whom is from the western world of civilization teaches reincarnation to his students… among them are the famous Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. I highly doubt that Phythagoras had any connection with any eastern scholars at that time for him to develop the idea of reincarnation. Instead, he mentioned that Mercury, also known as the God of Wisdom, blessed him with insights into his previous lives. This is like how Manjushri blessed Lama Tsongkhapa whom can then look into his previous lives too. Sounds similar? But what I do wonder is if Phythagoras is a Boddhisattva or an Enlightened being… hehe.
It is sad though that while some religions started out to believe in reincarnation, they eventually phased that believe out solely for their own political or economical importance… but what’s worst is so that they have a fist hold on their people by misleading their people that liberation can only be obtained in one life time and it is only through believing in their god that it can be done. However, the truth cannot be hidden for long, and after just a few years of centuries, the people start to question again on the eternal soul which started in the 19th century.
I like this documentary very much. It makes us all think further about the current situation on world religions today. Whether this documentary can help those who do not believe in reincarnation to turn to a believer is totally up to the receptiveness of the person. People who wishes to learn and not just proof their point right due to their insecurity and fear that they have been embracing the wrong concepts in life, will be able to open up and see the truth behind all that is said in this article.
I never knew the idea of reincarnation was so widely accepted in the past. The people who lived in the past especially the Greek philosophers were not only advanced in their knowledge of the physical law but also the belief in reincarnation was part of their thought. Unfortunately reincarnation which is a natural law like all other universal laws are dropped and soon forgotten by the masses. People began to adopt the idea of living is for this life alone. One life is soon accepted as the norm. People go somewhere else after they die, return to be with the god. We are told to live and be content with your life, don’t need to think so much into the future which is unknown and cannot be controlled.
This reincarnation video is the most compelling that I have come across thus far. This is because it has interwoven historical facts, accounts and an unbiased analysis with the topic at hand.
What stuck out for me most is how, humankind/mankind has managed to suppress such an important fundamental point in our understanding of our existence (reincarnation), just for the sake of greed, power and ultimately the manipulation of the economy of the times.
Imagine a world whereby that very suppression was negated or non existent? The very wars we fight because of our “differences” would be for nought! The very grief, hurt, anger and sadness in the past few centuries would be eradicated!
What collective negative Karma we must have all had to suffer such… certainly makes me wonder!!!
I have gotten the habit to love watching Reincarnation videos I dunno why but it is so exciting to watch them. it kind of reinforces something that I have always believed in all this while.