Reincarnation: Different World Religions Belief

I have chosen the ideology behind reincarnation in different world religions because it interests me to learn both why and how other religions portray life after death. I am aware that certain religions believe in a physical reincarnation, while others show it to be more of the spirit and less of the flesh. Herein, I will set out to learn which religions believe in this physical reincarnation and how it works. Beyond that, I aspire to find out what requirements must be met to come back to another life in a certain way.

Furthermore, being a Christian, it will be a great learning experience to see how other spiritual reincarnations are similar to my own beliefs within different religions. Throughout this paper, I will cover five of the main religions, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Each of these religions is very unique in its own beliefs as to what it means to be reincarnated.

Buddhism may not be a common first religion to come to mind when one thinks of a thing such as reincarnation, but that is only because it is one of the religions that believe more in spiritual reincarnation.

As an enlightened being, freed from its earthly body, the deceased lama is seen as able to continue project his powers into the world. One aspect of this is that his relics, as continuing extensions of his being, become objects of worship among the deceased’s followers. The Nam-that becomes another aspect of this continuing projection, as are various other manifestations of his former presence, not least his new incarnation.

Get quality help now

writer-Charlotte

Verified

Proficient in: Whaling

4.7 (348)

“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

(McKay 361)

Here it is shown that in the Buddhism religion, reincarnation into a spirit of enlightenment is the goal. Not only that, but an enlightened individual’s possessions become items of worship as well. In a sense, these same objects are shown to be a part of the individual as well, making the Buddhist reincarnation both spiritual and physical.

Buddhists believe that this enlightenment is not guaranteed for everyone, but it is a gift that must be earned and can only be obtained through steady faith and hard work. “Tibetan religious practitioners are seen as experiencing death in a different form from that of ordinary mortals. They can extend and direct their consciousness after bodily cessation” (McKay 362). This passage went on to explain that to receive enlightenment one must become not only a religious the but an all-out holy individual for the Buddhist religion. There are many set rules that one must follow to receive the ultimate end goal of enlightenment.

A further interesting notion of the Buddhist religion is the idea of choosing when one dies to become enlightened. “Gupha Ripoche was capable of controlling his death” (McKay 361). Many Buddhist believe that their lamas, holy men, are the only individuals who are strong enough to accomplish such an impressive task. Once more, this is not a skill that all possess but it is one that all can learn and achieve through rigorous study and practice of the religion. Buddhism is indeed a religion of reincarnation in several different aspects.

Judaism is another religion in which reincarnation plays a role. Like Buddhism, Judaism’s version of reincarnation is of the spirit rather than that of the flesh, but unlike Buddhism, the Jewish religion does not have any part of a physical reincarnation. Another difference between the two religions is that in Judaism, everyone is guaranteed one form of reincarnation, some good, some bad.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence. And the wise will be radiant like the bright expanse of sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness [will shine] like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:2–3)

While some will come back to live in happiness, others will be doomed to come back and live in despair and grief. “Only the righteous, it says, will rise to eternal life, while the wicked will descend to eternal damnation” (Bronner 18). It is a tough but just view for them to believe this way.

Judaism also has regulations on how to obtain this eternal life. For one to gain this positive form of reincarnation over the negative one, they must either be a teacher or a devout follower. “Furthermore, two types of people qualify as candidates for everlasting life – those who are wise and those who teach righteousness to many” (Bronner 18). According to their religion, any course of one’s life that does not follow either of these two directions will result in gaining negative reincarnation. This creates another similarity between Judaism and Buddhism. Both have shown that great work and effort are required to gain the positive aspects of eternal life.

While Judaism does not directly speak of physical reincarnation for the human body, it does mention it when talking about Jesus Christ. “That righteous soul is rewarded in Gan Eden and wicked ones punished in Gehinnom; that the dead will be resurrected in the days of the Messiah; and that the righteous will live on in Olam ha-ba” (Bronner 81). The Jewish religion only ever mentions a physical reincarnation when discussing events regarding the Messiah. For any other purposes, it speaks only of a spiritual reincarnation of the soul to either the positive or negative eternal life.

Another religion in which reincarnation plays a major role in Hinduism, one of the most commonly thought of religions any time reincarnation is mentioned. Unlike the other two religions, Hinduism believes in physical reincarnation. “One is reborn according to one’s karma. Good karma enables the next rebirth to be a good one. Bad karma makes the next rebirth an unfavorable one” (Whaling 96). This is the first religion of this writing in which a physical reincarnation takes dominance over a spiritual one. In short, Hindus believe that the actions of this life determine the starting point of your next lifetime. This is recorded through a process that they refer to as karma.

Whaling writes, “karma arrived later to rationalize the Hindu division into higher and lower castes” (Whaling 98). From this, one can conclude that karma is the only way to determine the reincarnation that comes to a person after death. These castes are similar to the class system in the United States. This is important for the subject because it is directly related to the reincarnation of an individual through karma. The caste system is used to determine who was a bad person in their past life because they will be a member of the lower caste, poor, sick, etc. Followers of the Hindu religion even go as far as to discriminate again members of lower castes due to the assumption that they were bad people in their past lives and have earned this lower caste as a punishment.

Dharma is the overall balance of which the karma of a person is taken from out of perspective. It is what allows the Hindu people to have a fair and just basis on which to judge themselves for good or bad karma. Whaling writes, “Dharma thus becomes an ethical norm outranking caste or racial considerations” (Whaling 97). This also goes to show that the caste in which one is born should not affect what the karma of that individual will be because of the standards that they are held to remain the same through dharma regardless of their caste or birth conditions. Dharma is available to all individuals, “here is dharma that focuses upon the ritual world of sacraments, festivals, and worship and there is dharma for each. There are dharmas for men and dharmas for women. There are dharmas for each stage of life, for each aim in life, and each set of jātiswithin the caste system” (Whaling 98). This once more makes the reincarnation process fair for all of the Hindu followers and not biased against them based on their past life or previous karma. While the initial birth might put one at a disadvantage physically in this world, dharma will enable everyone to be equal in their own choices to influence their reincarnation into their next life.

Christianity is a religion in which reincarnation takes place. Much like Judaism, it is largely focused on the spiritual aspect over the physical one, but it does incorporate the possibility of physical reincarnation on more than one occasion. Di Muzio states, “Disproportion between finite human sin and infinite punishment in Hell becomes far more tractable against the background of reincarnation” (Di Muzio 1). This shows us part of the spiritual aspect of Christian reincarnation. After death, a person of the Christian faith will either be eternally happy in heaven with no fears or worries, or they will spend the rest of their time suffering in hell as a punishment for their faulty life or actions. Another passage written by Di Muzio suggests that not all Christians can come to terms with this possible negative form of spiritual reincarnation, “The idea of Hell, understood as a place or condition involving endless suffering, raises a problem that has occupied some of the most brilliant Christian minds” (Di Muzio 2).

In certain Christian faiths, a third possible option is available to those who die before they can have a true chance of following the correct way of life and accepting and living the Christian way. This third option is known to those who believe in it as limbo. From Di Muzio’s text, “Attempts to deal with this problem—which becomes especially burning when one considers the case of children who die unbaptized—range from the medieval introduction of the concept of Limbo to the Catholic idea of ‘baptism of desire” (Di Muzio 3). This is a part of the faith that adds an extra amount of fairness to their reincarnation process, beyond the path of simply living the way that the Christian God commands his people to live. It is not an entire third option itself, because it is not a permanent location for the follower to reincarnate to. Instead, they are simply staying there for a short time to wait out a judgment as to whether or not they lived a holy life to the best of their ability. Christianity is one of the only religions that offer such a form of life to those who either did not know of its religion or did not follow it correctly without intentionally doing so.

A prime example of physical reincarnation within the Christian faith is the resurrection of Christ. This symbolic event is one of the most well-known cases in which a previously dead individual returned to life to live again anew. Further than that, the Bible has a few other occasions in which a dead man was returned to life, either through their faith or in hope that their newfound lives would lead themselves and others to the same Christian faith. While this is not seen as reincarnation by some, because they are returning to this world in the same bodies which they left it, it does fit the definition of reincarnation because they were once dead and they now live again.

Furthermore, the Christian belief that all people consist of both an earthly body and sould only strengthens the idea of reincarnation in their faith. Di Muzio writes, “In general, Christian theories of identity espouse the Aristotelian principle that a human being is a composite of body and soul. Thus, such theories view the body as making an essential contribution to identity. The theory of reincarnation, on the other hand, seems to treat the body as nothing more than a temporary vessel for the soul” (Di Muzio 10). By definition, both reincarnation and the Christian belief list the human body as nothing more than a form of transportation for the soul within it to reach its final destination in another place. In Christianity, the basis of the soul leaving the body to go to Heaven or Hell is the foundation for all other laws and governs throughout the community.

The final religion that I will mention in terms of reincarnation is Islam. Islam is yet again a religion that most people would think of to be just a spiritual one over the physical aspect, but yet again, this is proven to not entirely be the case. In certain beliefs within the Islam religion, select followers believe that the human soul is reborn immediately after death if the soul is not permitted into heaven at that time. These followers are known as the Druze. According to Anne Bennette, the stipulations for this to happen are:

1. Sudden, Unexpected Death. Most remembered past lives are of Druzes who experienced sudden, unexpected, and often violent death. 2. Immediate Rebirth. In most cultures where reincarnation is believed, a soul can hover for months or years before rebirth. For the Druze, the soul of the recently deceased is immediately reborn as either an infant or a higher nonhuman form. 3. Only Human (or Higher) Rebirth. The possibility that a soul might transfer to a nonhuman corporeal existence does not exist in DruzesoulDruze’s belief. In Druze reincarnation, the soul is reborn only in human form, unless the soul moves above human existence. (Bennette 91)

From her writing, an interesting fact about the Druze is in belief that humans only reincarnate into other humans or move on to the next plane of existence. This differs from many other religions that believe in reincarnation because most of them have several different lifeforms that one can reincarnate into.

Finding a subculture within a religion that has such drastically different beliefs than the more common is a rare occasion. Many Islamic people believe that the Druze simply hold on to the idea of reincarnation so that they do not have to deal with the loss of loved ones. This however is not so. Furthermore, believing in reincarnation only for this aspect would off no more relief from death than believing in the soul moving on to heaven. “Reincarnation for the Druze is not just about happy reunions. It is about reconciling the past and the present.” (Bennette 101) As previously written, the Druze believe that reincarnation can occur when a life is cut short prematurely or violently. This would give the deceased a chance to make their peace with the world before finally being able to move along into heaven. For this same reason, they believe in immediate reincarnation rather than for a soul to wander without a body.

Beyond this idea of physical reincarnation, the Islamic religion believes mainly in a spiritual one much like Christianity or Judaism. In Islam, there is both a heaven and hell that can become the permanent home of any followers who pass away based on how they lived their lives and followed the Islamic rules. Just as other religions have described the body as being a vessel for the soul, Islam calls it to be, “The body that a soul enters as it transmigrates from one human life to another is conceived as being a container or robe of the soul.” (Bennette 89)

These religions all had various views when it came to reincarnation, and they even had different rules for how and why reincarnation would occur. Throughout this paper, I have learned and written about which religions believe in a physical reincarnation and which believe only in a spiritual one. Some of them even had a mixture of both within their culture. Many of these religions seemed to use their belief system simply as a way to control the actions of their people by enforcing a code of ethics with a supreme being or beings to answer to. Reincarnation seems to be simply a way for people to cope with the idea of death and the loss of a loved one. They use it as a way of believing that their death was not permanent and that they will be able to see that same person again, possibly in another life.

Works Cited

1. Bennett, Anne. “Reincarnation, Sect Unity, and Identity among the Druze.” Ethnology, no. 2, 2006, p. 87. EBSCOhost, 0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.160715211&site=eds-live.
2. Bronner, Leila Leah. Journey to Heaven: Exploring Jewish Views of the Afterlife. Vol. 1st ed, Urim Publications, 2011. EBSCOhost, 0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=nlebk&AN=396851&site=eds-live.
3. Di Muzio, Gianluca. “Reincarnation and Infinite Punishment in Hell.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, vol. 74, no. 2, 2013, pp. 167–180. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24709191.
4. McKay, A. C. “Tanya Zivkovic, Death and Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: In-between Bodies.” Asian Ethnology, 2014, p. 360. EBSCOhost, 0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.400785523&site=eds-live.
5. Whaling, Frank. Understanding Hinduism. Dunedin Academic Press, 2010. EBSCOhost, 0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=nlebk&AN=380349&site=eds-live.