Reincarnation

Tibetan Mandala

A reference was made to reincarnation in the radio journal piece referred to in yesterday's post. The piece from the excellent radio show Living on Earth reported on a science education program between a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India and Emory University in the U.S.. 

Reincarnation is a part of Tibetan Buddhist dharma, or law. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a how-to on avoiding reincarnation for the spiritually liberated as they are dying. By following its instruction, one may avoid coming back into this world of suffering and progress to higher spiritual evolution. It's a scary book. There are no promises of friendly dead relations coming along after the white light to guide us to heaven. There are no promises of virgins for martyrs. It's just more hard work for the Buddhist practitioner. Individual responsibility and choice does not end with death in this scheme. I like it actually.

My view is skeptical on egocentric reincarnation. I dislike the idea. I would not want to be cognizant of past lives on and on into eternity. Annoying reminders. Distraction from the now. I take a very different, perhaps more scientific, view of reincarnation. It is fairly simple.

We all contain the developmental components of multiple domains, kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, families, genus, and species. The growth of each human being from one cell is a recapitulation of Earthly evolution. Perhaps our sense of living multiple existences comes from imprinted memory within the very building blocks of life itself. Those building blocks lie within us as long as we are alive. Accessing hints of that history with our frontal lobes through dream states, involuntary in sleep or induced by hypnosis, may simply be a natural process. 

Our Earth is materially a closed system, with minor intrusions by meteorites and other relatively small particles. It is an open system to energy, such as sunlight and electromagnetic forces. Materially our bodies are of the whole Earth. We inhale hydrocarbon emissions, for example. So our bodies contain atoms from dinosaurs and the first plant life, stewed by time and gravitational pressure into crude oil and natural gas. Crops grown here in Massachusetts in native soil may contain atoms from long-dead Native Americans and mammoths. There is past life in the lettuce. 

Flowery egocentric interpretations of reincarnation, like those of Shirley MacLaine some decades ago, are simply entertainment for those in a developed world where coming back from one life to drive a Cadillac in another sounds like a good time. It soothes the fearful mind which fears dying, being naturally recycled back into the ecosystem from which we and everything else come. As a meditative and reflective person, I enjoy focusing on the wonder of being so intrinsically part of this ecosystem which gave me conscious life. Compassion stems from these thoughts, since they remind me that we are all a part of the same system. None of us is an exception to this reality, no matter how wealthy or grand, impoverished or humble. In life, we are all equal.