What we know about reincarnation
or Life after Death
I would like to say something in this article about
reincarnation or life after death.
I have to say straight away that I am not talking about this
subject from experience. This is just second hand knowledge
picked up from my reading of books.
There are plenty of authoritative books on this subject that
you can read if you are interested. I would recommend the
following:
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Life after Life by Raymond Moody.
Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss.
The Tibetan Book on Living and Dying by Sogyal
Rinpoche.
I would suggest that you start with Life after Life by
Raymond Moody. Raymond Moody is a doctor and a man of science
and this is a truly path breaking book about Life after Death
and reincarnation. Moody met a number of people who had a Near
Death Experience. These people had suffered clinical death in
the sense that their bodies had died. But they were revived
mainly through modern medical techniques.
Although the bodies of the person who had this Near Death
Experience (NDE) had died, their consciousness however was not
extinguished. All of them had remarkably similar experiences in
many respects. One common experience was that most of these
persons who had this NDE witnessed what may be described as a
flashback of their entire lives. They witnessed their entire
lives as they had lived it till that date. And this flashback –
if we could use this term – was remarkably detailed and even
very minor experiences were remembered.
Another common feature of the NDE was the witnessing of a
Being of Light. This Being seemed to communicate with the
person having the NDE without spoken words or even language – a
sort of telepathy and a communication of meaning without
language or words. The Light itself was bright but not harsh –
unlike looking at the Sun.
The Being of Light seemed to have some important questions
for the persons having the NDE. It seemed to stress in
particular on Love and Knowledge. It wanted the person having
the NDE to tell it in what ways he or she had experienced or
expressed Love in his or her life. And likewise, what had the
person learned – how he or she had gained in knowledge.
Love and Knowledge is as good a basis for leading your life
as any other. If you read Bertrand Russell, "
Why I am not a Christian ," he also stresses Love and
Knowledge.
Russell was a mathematician, philosopher and agnostic. He
believed all religions to be both false and harmful. He would
have looked upon reincarnation as a superstition. But the
scientific findings I mentioned came up after his death.
I have probably been more helped and more inspired by a
reading of Bertrand Russell's books than the books of any other
author or authors.
Despite Russell's rationalistic and hedonistic views he
himself had had a sort of mystical experience when he was a
young man. And that experience gave direction to the rest of
his life. He was inspired by three passions, a longing for
love, a thirst for knowledge and an unbearable pity for the
sufferings of mankind. I think that when Russell died – as he
did in the 1960s – and met that Being of Light he must have
found a kindred spirit.
Anyway a reading of Life after Life should open your mind to
the possibility that there may be life after death and
reincarnation. I stress again – the author, Raymond Moody, is a
doctor and a man of science and this book uses the reasoning
process of science to reach its conclusions.
It is noteworthy also that all of the common features of the
NDE were described in detail in The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
This book gives an account of what happens to a person after he
or she dies and gives the authoritative view about
reincarnation as per Tibetan Buddhism. It is a ancient
religious text of Tibetan Buddhism and is the basis of many of
their rites and rituals. So we now see that the conclusions of
modern science are approaching that of ancient religions.
Many Live, Many Masters by Brian Weiss is also an
interesting book but not as scientifically rigorous and
convincing as Life after Life. Brian Weiss was a mental health
professional who hypnotized one of his patients – Catherine –
to help her overcome her complexes. In this hypnotized state
Catherine remembered many of her past lives and described them
in detail. She also had the experience of meeting many masters
or guides in the transit state after death and before rebirth.
If we are to believe in her account we have to accept the fact
of reincarnation.
As I said earlier, this book is not as convincing as Life
after Life but it was also well received by the medical and
scientific community as well as the general public. This book
is about reincarnation proper. Life after Life only describes
the transit state after death and before reincarnation in a new
body.
Most ancient religions assure us that death is not the end
and that life continues after the death of the physical body.
As I have described in this article there are now some
scientific reasons for reaching the same conclusions.
At any rate I think that if you choose to make Love and
Knowledge the basis of your life on this Earth, then you will
never regret it. This is as good a philosophy of Life or reason
for living as any that you could hope to find.
I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful
to you.
Stay tuned for more articles in this continuing series.
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