All Discussions Tagged 'reincarnation' - Theosophy.Net2024-03-29T15:31:24Zhttps://theosophy.net/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=reincarnation&feed=yes&xn_auth=noCommunist Party owns Dalai Lama's Reincarnation (!?)tag:theosophy.net,2015-03-18:3055387:Topic:1419282015-03-18T08:43:39.012ZJohnhttps://theosophy.net/profile/JohnEMead
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<p>From the New York Times:<br/>Communist Party leaders are afraid that the Dalai Lama will not have an afterlife<br/><br/></p>
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<p>excerpt:<br/>“They finally ended up with the state deciding whether people could reincarnate,”</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/world/asia/chinas-tensions-with-dalai-lama-spill-into-the-afterlife.html?emc=edit_th_20150312&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45641522" target="_blank">Link</a></p>
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<p></p>
<p>From the New York Times:<br/>Communist Party leaders are afraid that the Dalai Lama will not have an afterlife<br/><br/></p>
<p></p>
<p>excerpt:<br/>“They finally ended up with the state deciding whether people could reincarnate,”</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/world/asia/chinas-tensions-with-dalai-lama-spill-into-the-afterlife.html?emc=edit_th_20150312&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45641522" target="_blank">Link</a></p>
<p></p> Cloud Atlas: A Movie Reviewtag:theosophy.net,2012-11-06:3055387:Topic:1179122012-11-06T04:42:28.510ZJoe Fultonhttps://theosophy.net/profile/JoeFulton
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: georgia, palatino; color: #333333;">Cloud Atlas was made by the same team who brought us the Matrix movies. That should be a suitable enough introduction. <br></br> <br></br> The story, actually many stories are the tale of several people connected across space and time. It is a movie which demands several viewings, as the plots twist and weave in and out of each other like colored swirls intersecting and moving among each other. For one visually…</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: georgia, palatino; color: #333333;" class="font-size-3">Cloud Atlas was made by the same team who brought us the Matrix movies. That should be a suitable enough introduction. <br/> <br/> The story, actually many stories are the tale of several people connected across space and time. It is a movie which demands several viewings, as the plots twist and weave in and out of each other like colored swirls intersecting and moving among each other. For one visually attuned in their thought the imagery is beyond description.<br/> <br/> Cloud Atlas is set in several times and places. First is in a small Pacific Island in the mid-nineteenth century, then fast forward to 1931 in Belgium, then to 1973 in the US, and to the present day. The next story takes place in 2112 in a future Seoul, and finally in post-apocalyptic Hawaii, year 2321.<br/> <br/> There are two phrases that define Cloud Atlas very well. These are the point and counter points of hope, despair, love and hate.<br/> <br/> First is the voice given to those who oppress, who want to make corruption and darkness their way of the world: "<em>There is a natural order to this world, and those who try to upend it do not fare well</em>." Echoed several times, this message is that things are best left as they are, that the forces of change are an enemy to be dreaded, feared and avoided at all costs. It rails against our better angels and insists that the individual has no place, or right to change the world.<br/> <br/> On the other side, there is the theme: “<em>Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.</em>” This is the voice of the reformer, the person who defies great odds to bring about change, and a better world. <br/></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: georgia, palatino; color: #333333;" class="font-size-3"> </span></p>
<p><a width="300" href="http://api.ning.com/files/ByLwr1NCORyMxR4g4Yv31FPHvWV99nY1PcWMbaxfXePRXkKCmGzEsr9eYVv3j3FmZ7M6C5wD4tnMrcXvyc0*nGq*rUF6*2Jk/mVENrhS.jpg?width=300" target="_self"><img width="305" src="http://api.ning.com/files/ByLwr1NCORyMxR4g4Yv31FPHvWV99nY1PcWMbaxfXePRXkKCmGzEsr9eYVv3j3FmZ7M6C5wD4tnMrcXvyc0*nGq*rUF6*2Jk/mVENrhS.jpg?width=305" width="305" class="align-left"/></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia, palatino;"><span class="font-size-3">The film has a strong theme of reincarnation, as each successive bead on the thread is identified by a unique birthmark, a comet. What makes this interpretation unusual is that the awareness moves across lives, not only forward, but backwards across time and space. This hints at something much more complex going on. It speaks of relationships existing not only across space and time, but through them, as if each exists in a tapestry of nowness</span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Where things get difficult is in the sudden switches between plots. In some instances two or three of the stories can appear, not necessarily in sequence over the space of just a few seconds. Those bridges, rather than breaking the story up, tend to show how each character and situation ties with the others. Sometimes it really can be overwhelming.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: georgia, palatino; color: #333333;" class="font-size-3"><br/> The casting is also a tour de force in creativity. The leads, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Hugh Grant have roles in all six stories, and many of the other characters play in four or five. Several actors move across genders (quite believably) and in both directions. Of course one should expect the unexpected here. Cloud Atlas is directed by the Wachowskis (The Matrix) and Tom Tykwer. The changes in time and place are unexpected, and the way these are used in the plot are quite breathtaking. For first time viewers, try not to focus too much on detail and keep to the big picture. When you come back the second time, as I’m sure you will, you will start to see things in ways that are simply eye-popping. <br/> <br/> Cloud Atlas is a feast for the senses, for the mind and the emotions. It leaves you feeling that no matter how long the odds, how bleak the prospects that each and everyone of us has the capacity to make a difference. It all comes down to the question of how empowered do we feel. For those who place themselves as victims of circumstance perhaps there is a natural order to things. For most of us here it is worthwhile to hope that we are bound to each others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.<br/> <br/> As a note for those who may think about taking the kids or grandkids there are a few sexual situations, so act in accordance with your own best judgment.</span></p> Does Believing in Reincarnation (Or Any Other Post-Mortem State) Make Us Better People?tag:theosophy.net,2012-06-08:3055387:Topic:1123472012-06-08T17:52:02.980ZJoe Fultonhttps://theosophy.net/profile/JoeFulton
<p>This is another case of things you think while in the shower. This has occurred to me several times as of late.</p>
<p>The answer always seems to come out "no".</p>
<p>I am not a hideously bad person, by most standards. I am happily married and exceedingly faithful in marriage. I do not go out and deliberately do harm to others. My existence is fairly orderly but I have little patience for people who act like sociopaths. And that brings me back to the question. </p>
<p>My experience in…</p>
<p>This is another case of things you think while in the shower. This has occurred to me several times as of late.</p>
<p>The answer always seems to come out "no".</p>
<p>I am not a hideously bad person, by most standards. I am happily married and exceedingly faithful in marriage. I do not go out and deliberately do harm to others. My existence is fairly orderly but I have little patience for people who act like sociopaths. And that brings me back to the question. </p>
<p>My experience in "spiritual" endeavors is that belief in afterlives, of any sort does not have any impact on how people actually behave. An example is one very well known archivist in the (sic) theosophical tradition who also has been caught at cyberstalking. If one believes their actions carry on to the next life, or the one thereafter I would think that they have a great future ahead as a victim of a similar invasion of privacy or other obsession. I just don't see it.</p>
<p>The problem is that nobody really can say for sure what happens after one dies. What we do know is that the body stops working and falls apart. As far as other "bodies" goes, well, that's just someone expressing an opinion with no solid evidence to back it up.</p>
<p>I guess out of all of this I have come to the conclusion that Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" was right; "The best you can hope for is to die in your sleep."</p>
<p>That leaves me with trying to make the best of what is in front of me, here and now. If reincarnation is a fact and I'm wrong, so be it. In any case the world is better off. If reincarnation is not valid then the same is true. For some reason the whole line of reasoning sounds like a variation on Pascal's Wager. The funny thing is, in both cases, whether you multiply the number of possible gods or the number of different types of reincarnation, the odds work out in favor of non-belief.</p> Consequences of Reincarnationtag:theosophy.net,2011-12-28:3055387:Topic:1023762011-12-28T03:13:01.133ZJoe Fultonhttps://theosophy.net/profile/JoeFulton
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">There are many different views of Reincarnation and they all carry consequences, just as any statement that can be made. This discussion is a fork off of Jon Fergus' "<a href="http://theosnet.ning.com/forum/topics/reincarnation?commentId=3055387%3AComment%3A102186&xg_source=msg_com_forum" target="_self">Reincarnation</a>" discussion. In this case we would like to look at the consequences of the different…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">There are many different views of Reincarnation and they all carry consequences, just as any statement that can be made. This discussion is a fork off of Jon Fergus' "<a href="http://theosnet.ning.com/forum/topics/reincarnation?commentId=3055387%3AComment%3A102186&xg_source=msg_com_forum" target="_self">Reincarnation</a>" discussion. In this case we would like to look at the consequences of the different ideas.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">What difference does it make if we come back as a human, higher being or even a cockroach? Why is it important?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">Why should there be a relationship between consciousness and form? Are we implying that somehow humans are privileged? Why?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva;">Give it some thought and we would love to see your answers.</span></p> Tibetan Buddhist Bardo's - comparable to Blavatsky's 'devachan'?tag:theosophy.net,2011-09-04:3055387:Topic:775522011-09-04T06:25:21.926ZKatinka Hesselinkhttps://theosophy.net/profile/KatinkaHesselink
<p>This question is really very specifically for David and Nancy Reigle, our resident Tibetan Buddhism experts, though of course anybody else who wants to chime in is welcome as well. </p>
<p>I've been getting my baptism in TIbetan Buddhism recently (took refuge, followed a two week FPMT course, expect to be active in the Gelugpa movement a LOT from now on). </p>
<p>Of course this leaves me with the issue of how to combine what I learned in theosophy with what I'm now learning from Tibetan…</p>
<p>This question is really very specifically for David and Nancy Reigle, our resident Tibetan Buddhism experts, though of course anybody else who wants to chime in is welcome as well. </p>
<p>I've been getting my baptism in TIbetan Buddhism recently (took refuge, followed a two week FPMT course, expect to be active in the Gelugpa movement a LOT from now on). </p>
<p>Of course this leaves me with the issue of how to combine what I learned in theosophy with what I'm now learning from Tibetan Buddhist teachers. There are clear discrepancies. </p>
<p>The main issue, given the importance of the topic, is karma and rebirth.</p>
<p>On the one hand the discrepancy doesn't appear as large as commonly reported, because these teachers insist that while there is no constant, unchanging something that is born again and again, they do insist that there is a stream of consciousness that goes from one life to the next. This is good enough for me, though fitting it on top of our theosophical terminology is perhaps hard. Still, our 'atma-buddhi-higher-manas' is not unchanging either, so perhaps the discrepancy really is only imaginary. Even 'atma-buddhi' isn't unchanging. It's only when we get to atma-proper that the suggestion of something unchanging starts to appear. But if you look at how Blavatsky talks about that, it's definitely at least an option to interpret even atma as changing. </p>
<p>Anyhow - that's not my question for today. </p>
<p>When it comes to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, it's well known that rebirth is thought to take place within 49 days. What's less well known is that this rebirth is thought to usually NOT take place in the human realm. This is stressed as a stimulus for spiritual practice. After all, as theosophy too agrees, a human rebirth is the desirable kind. </p>
<p>This rebirth in <a target="_blank" href="http://www.katinkahesselink.net/tibet/tibetan-buddhism.html">Tibetan Buddhism</a> can take place in countless heavens, a few hells, as a human being and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.katinkahesselink.net/other/after-death.html">as an animal</a>. The only disadvantage to those heavens is, as I understand it, (but I'm no expert just yet) that the stay there isn't endless. What if the stay there is generally a few thousand years? Doesn't that make the term of staying there a lot like our devachan? </p>
<p>In theosophy rebirth (as a human) is said to often taken thousands of years too - because we spend most of our time contemplating the good of our last life (my interpretation of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.katinkahesselink.net/devachan.htm">devachan</a>). In short: a sort of self-created heaven. </p>
<p>Blavatsky too stresses that it would be preferable to, as the real practitioners do, skip or shorten devachan and simply be reborn as quickly as possible - to not take a break, to go on working for the benefit of humanity. </p>
<p>I wonder - does putting it like that put too much strain on theosophy or Tibetan Buddhism, or is it really a way to bring together two seemingly conflicting accounts of what happens after death? </p> How Many Different Types of Reincarnation Exist?tag:theosophy.net,2011-08-23:3055387:Topic:751792011-08-23T04:48:36.601ZJoe Fultonhttps://theosophy.net/profile/JoeFulton
<p>I was musing around and the subject got around to reincarnation. There are many flavors from many different traditions.</p>
<p>What are some of the ideas that you have heard of around reincarnation?</p>
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<p>Joe</p>
<p>I was musing around and the subject got around to reincarnation. There are many flavors from many different traditions.</p>
<p>What are some of the ideas that you have heard of around reincarnation?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Joe</p>