A Quick Thought: Interfaith and Interspiritual Perspectives on Reincarnation

I have over the years studied and compiled various perspectives on reincarnation (that is, the idea that after our bodily death our soul finds a new home in another existence). This is a form of the soul’s lifecycle from birth-to death-to life again – then death, etc., and so on. This cycle repeats itself until we achieve the highest level of existence and become re-united with – or one with - our ultimate Divine self. I provide some of these perspectives here for us all to discuss and consider. I highly recommend the works of Dr. Brian Weiss and Eckart Tolle for those who wish to begin to go deeper into this topic.  

Christianity

It is often debated whether the early Christians held the belief that the soul was immortal and returned to a new life on earth after death. Emperor Constantine and the Fifth Council is said to have quashed those beliefs, fearing Christians may not repent and lead moral lives if they knew that another chance at this life awaited them after death. This was not a life in heaven far away, but a new life on this earth to achieve what the soul had failed to achieve in the last life. Many Gnostic Gospels that were rejected from the Roman Church’s New Testament canon, like the Gospel of Thomas and the Acts of Peter, contain references to reincarnation. They tell of the soul’s rebirth, death, and attainment of successive levels of a heavenly existence between lives. Each soul learns from its earthly incarnation that the self, or ego, must be subsumed, or annihilated, and that only a life of koinonia, that is the Greek concept of selflessness as expressed through service to one’s neighbor, will result in attainment of the highest level of heaven, and finally bring an end to the cycle of rebirth by uniting us all in cosmic Christ-consciousness.

Buddhism

Buddhist thought contains various understandings of death, rebirth, and perfection of the soul (as part of the cycle of annihilation of the self or ego, and the attainment of enlightenment or nirvana). Tibetan Buddhism, in particular, developed an intricate set of beliefs about the stages of life, death, journey of the soul, rebirth, annihilation of self, attainment of enlightenment, and the continuation of consciousness, as laid out in The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In fact, a more precise translation of this Tibetan book title would be “The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States,” with the “intermediate states” being those moments between the soul’s existence in one embodiment of consciousness and its rebirth into another. The soul being the highest level of achievement of the conscious mind, it has an opportunity to “learn” from its previous incarnations, by listening to the Masters of Buddha-consciousness (those enlightened beings existing in an eternal state of bliss) before being born yet again.

Judaism

The Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah explicitly describes a system where the soul upon death gets broken into its 613 parts. Rabbi Isaac Luria in the seventeenth century described this as the “gilgul neshamot” or “the cycle of souls.” These parts, like sparks from a fire, may each undergo a series of re-incarnation. These involve a cycle of earthly births, heavenly visitations, and limbo-like waystations where periods of re-education of the soul-spark occurs. Ultimately, the unrepentant or slow-to-learn parts of the soul are then reborn as earthly beings to try again to attain perfection through good works (or mitzvahs) and righteous living.

Hinduism

Hindu teachings are very clear on the doctrine of reincarnation. According to Hindu thought, the soul is born again and again, each time seeking perfection, until it finally breaks free of the karmic wheel and human existence and returns to its Source. The Bhagavad-Gita says, “Just as a man discards old clothes and puts on new ones, so does the soul discard old bodies and wears new ones.”

Islam

Although the Muslim faith has been said to reject reincarnation, there are references to reincarnation among Islamic philosophers and mystics. The Druze, a movement within Islam, are said to believe in “the transmigration of souls,” meaning a rebirth to human life until a soul finally finds paradise. The Sufi mystic Rumi is said to have believed in and taught reincarnation. He wrote,

“Like grass I have grown over and over again. I passed out of mineral form and lived as a plant. From plant I was lifted up to be an animal. Then I put away the animal form and took on a human shape. Why should I fear that if I died I shall be lost? For passing human form I shall attain the flowing locks and shining wings of angels. And then I shall become what no mind has ever conceived. Oh, let me cease to exist! For non-existence only means that I shall return to Him, my Beloved.”

And in the Koran it is written, in Sura 2, Verse 28, “How can you make denial of Allah, who made you live again when you died, will make you dead again, and then alive again, until you finally return to Him?"

Sikhs

The Sikh faith teaches that all beings, including animals and humans, have a soul, known as the atma, and are part of the cycle of reincarnation. Sikhs believe that:

· The atma is given to a being by Waheguru (the Sikh term for the one true God). It is also recognized as the divine spark, which is a part of God within them.

· At death, the atmas of both humans and animals are reborn into a new body as part of the cycle of rebirth. The body that the atma is born into is determined by the karma gained in its previous life.

· The highest possible being on Earth is a human.

· This cycle of samsara repeats itself until the atma has been liberated from the pattern and is reunited with Waheguru in mukti (the freedom experienced by the soul when liberated from the cycle of rebirth).

Summary

The great Roman Catholic priest and scientist Teilhard de Chardin reminded us, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Fears that humankind would give up morality and pursue only the egoic mind, or somehow treat life as less than precious if we should all adopt a belief in reincarnation and immortality of the soul, seem to be extreme views. In his book The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle says, “Reincarnation doesn’t help you if in your next incarnation you still don’t know who you are.” That’s the key, isn’t it? As long as we pursue our most authentic, highest self, why would we be separated from those we love in the next life? The psychiatrist Brian Weiss, the founder of past-life regression therapy, has written a series of books on the subject, beginning with the title Many Lives, Many Masters. In these works, he documents that if we resolve the conflicts and traumas of our past lives, we free ourselves of the conflicts and traumas of this life. We find peace of heart and go on to find love, achieving ultimate consciousness and reuniting us all. My hope is that by sharing these perspectives, we will come to a better understanding of the mysteries of life and death and keep us seeking truth and love while we travel on our spiritual journey.

By Rev. Chris Portelli