Reincarnation

Everyone enjoys a second chance.

But how about three, four, probably even more?

That's the gist of reincarnation – another chance to live your life the right way. Several religions have reincarnation as a central belief, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others.

The concept of reincarnation goes against Christian religions where members believe that God will judge us when we die. But believers of reincarnation are growing in number, with some experts believing that the concept explains why some people are plagued by misfortunes in their lives, while others are not.

This goes back to one of the central ideas of reincarnation – that we will pay for wrongdoings in our next life and be rewarded for good deeds in the next.

At the Web site www.comparativereligion.com you can find easy to understand explanations of reincarnation teachings. Here is an excerpt:

"The most important argument for reincarnation is of a moral nature. It says that karma and reincarnation provide the perfect way to realize justice in our world, by rewarding all one's deeds and thoughts in further lives. They will manifest as good or bad happenings and circumstances, with mathematical exactitude, so that everything one does will be justly punished or rewarded, at both a quantitative and a qualitative level. This would explain all inequalities we see among people, comfort those who cannot understand their present bad situation and also give hope for a further better life. According to karma, there is no forgiveness for the 'sins' of the past, but only accumulation of karmic debt, followed by paying the consequences in further lives."

Karma first came into being as a concept in Hinduism, according to www.wikipedia.org, which also says the word "karma" literally means "deed or act" and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction which governs all life. Karma is not fate, for man acts with free will creating his own destiny. It is thought that if we sow goodness, we will reap goodness; if we sow evil, we will reap evil. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determines our future. Not all karmas rebound immediately. Some accumulate and return unexpectedly in this or other births.

Message Board for Reincarnation