Reincarnation?

[Progress]

So I'm interested in how valid the Buddhist view of Reincarnation is and to a lesser extent, Hinduism's. I just don't see the validity of the teaching is and would like some opinions on it. 

[Keyblade Viking]

That absolutely seam to be the case, we are reborn until we're ready to leave this world behind.

There are many reports of people who remember shit but that's all I can say for now, any more understanding require a lot of walking.

Keep in mind "As Above so Below"

[A way to Actualize]

I think everyone has soms kind of memories they can't explain. Half a year ago, I did a past-life regression on Youtube. I losed a huge fear with it. The results were very interesting.

[Gnosis]

On 2/8/2016 at 8:12 PM, Progress said:

So I'm interested in how valid the Buddhist view of Reincarnation is and to a lesser extent, Hinduism's. I just don't see the validity of the teaching is and would like some opinions on it. 

In my view, the Buddhist and/or Hindu belief of Rebirth and/or Reincarnation is more of a perspective than a religious belief. As a matter of fact, it does not change anything in actuality. The teaching of reincarnation can be interpreted in a whole range of ways, and you'll see that none of these affect the practice in a direct way, though all of these are debate-bly valid and in-valid. 

Let me elaborate by giving a few different perspectives on the teaching of past-lives, as the teaching does not have to be interpreted in a literal sense (though it can be). Past-lives can be interpreted as just another cyclical metaphor (that you see in so many different cultures around the world). For instance, you in each moment or perhaps you in each day. As you "die" when you go to sleep and are "born" again when you awake. 

Or you may interpret past-lives in a literal sense, in that the experience that you identify yourself with (some call it the I AM experience) is "dying" and being "reborn" again as your body dies (the common literal interpretation of past-lives). Or you may interpret past-lives in another literal way with a little more flavor, for instance some would say that other people, animals and things are equally your past-lives, and that is no more and no less valid that any of the previous interpretations. Or even to take that interpretation further added with a little modern physics (the many worlds interpretation of Quantum Physics), we can interpret past-lives as perhaps "you" in other parallel universes, or even every particle in existence across all parallel universes. 

So there you go, that's a bunch of different ways to interpret the teaching of past-lives. But in fact, none of these are actually relevant to you and your path. To say "you only live once" would be just another perspective of viewing the same "phenomenon" (for lack of a better word), that is the I AM experience. Because "you" as who you believe you are and this particular experience, is only occurring now. And in that sense, "you" only live once. Which is why, regardless of your belief or disbelief in the teaching of past-lives, the matter of the fact remains unchanged. 

In my opinion, the teaching of past-lives is more of a motivation to pursue Enlightenment than an excuse to excuse it.

I hope this helped. 

[Progress]

@Gnosis Didn't the Buddha talk about his past lives? He was said to be able to use magic but despised it.(Probably from all that meditating). Of course Reincarnation isn't the main point about Buddhism but I just don't know how to make sense of it. For distinguishing purposes I mean't Reincarnation as in literal lives. Rebirth is the law I think you're talking about when you are never the exact same person a second ago.

[Sarah Marie]

On February 8, 2016 at 4:12 AM, Progress said:

So I'm interested in how valid the Buddhist view of Reincarnation is and to a lesser extent, Hinduism's. I just don't see the validity of the teaching is and would like some opinions on it. 

I am a medium and connect people to their passed loved ones on a daily basis, so I believe in some sort of reincarnation, but don't really believe in the teachings of Buddhist view on the timing. If I remember right they believe that you come back after 7 days on the other side. I've connected to spirit who has been on the other side for decades. 

[Binary Encoded Sunset]

@Sarah_Flagg Wow Sarah, a medium huh? I'd really like to know more about that. I've been pretty far out there but still, as far as I can understand, connection with the dead would be more in the sense of a thought form or as the Tibetan Buddhists call it "Tulpa". Is that not just a residual thought? A sort of intuitive thinking based on available information? Sorry, I digress, I'd like to know more about this & any potential validation of mediums.

Back on the topic of reincarnation. In theory - whilst our physical bodies can be destroyed, science says that energy is "immortal". If we are fundamentally energy, then yes, we continue to exist somewhere in some form. If all is one & we are none, then existence is an ever changing deathless sculpture of interweaving order from chaos (perhaps like an ocean of fractals - ok less theory - more directness). Having seen my "residual self image" almost as realistically as I can look down upon my body & see it now in a lucid dream then maintained the same "frame of perception" but in another body & supposedly other dimension (so I waas told) in that astral experience, I like to think that yes, perhaps that residual self image can travel on past the body. I know it can in the "realm of dreams". You hear of great Buddhist masters & Yogi's deciding when to go & leaving their bodies "just like that" supposedly having died of cardiac arrest. The stories of people's outer body experiences all link up very nicely to perhaps add some weight to the notion that some perception of "spirit", energy or consciousness - whatever - can travel beyond. In a universe full of polarity, I like to think that in life there is death so in death one might reasonably theorise there could be life!

But, from the direct experience of no self - It seems that metaphor for the unborn - or deathless - that we die alive when the ego is trancended & are reborn when we return to it through attachment. That these could be past lives. From a perspective of oneness, it seems apparent that there is life in death either way because we are every part of this experience. One person is part of all life. When that person dies, all life - that both sort of "is & is not" that person still continues... although that raises the question of the validity of objectivity from our subjective experience.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Binary Encoded Sunset

[Progress]

@Sarah_Flagg Thats nice I was wondering how reincarnation corresponded with mediums.

[Gnosis]

10 hours ago, Progress said:

@Gnosis Didn't the Buddha talk about his past lives? He was said to be able to use magic but despised it.(Probably from all that meditating). Of course Reincarnation isn't the main point about Buddhism but I just don't know how to make sense of it. For distinguishing purposes I mean't Reincarnation as in literal lives. Rebirth is the law I think you're talking about when you are never the exact same person a second ago.

I don't think it matters too much as to how you make sense of it. Teachings and stories are just that, teachings and stories. 

By magic I presume you're referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhi. If there was one point Hindu literature couldn't stress enough, it was that Siddhi are ultimately distractions. 

Edited February 13, 2016 by Gnosis

[Guest]

Here is my opinion on reincarnation:

When you go to sleep at night there is a definite ending to your awareness of your consciousness. A few hours pass and you wake up. Since you are unaware for that time you do not notice it. There is never really a gap in awareness subjectively. All you remember is the last thing before sleeping and then immediately you are awake again even though 8 hours have passed.

When you die you lose your awareness also but 14 billion years may pass without your* notice before you are born again. Again there is no gap in your subjective awareness of consciousness. It's just that this time you do not have neural structures left functioning from 14 billion years ago telling you who you are. So you do not remember the time before you** were born. For the same reason you** will not remember death, you will just find yourself awake somewhere in some universe in some point in time reading some weird alienated forum post covering the same topic. Or you will be completely non-physical in a way we do not understand trying to talk through a channel to answer someones questions, who knows?

What I mean is, from the perspective of awareness there is no such thing as death, all you will ever know is life. But at the same time from the perspective of a person death is a real phenomena. An enlightened person holds the perspective of self as awareness and so understands that awareness will prevail after death, even if it takes eons for life to form again. When they try to communicate this to individuals identified as "people" they were misinterpreted giving rise to the idea of a person dying, going up somewhere and coming back as themselves in some way.

* when I say (your) here i mean if you as awareness not as an individual person with habits and memories etc.

** when I say you here I mean you as a person with you own memories and idiosyncrasies

Inspiration:

 

 

Edited March 26, 2016 by Galahad

[Guest]

@Sarah_Flagg So you are actually confirming that Insidious 1-3 are all real? Don't get wrong, amazing movies but I never thought this shit is possible in real life. And it's still hard to believe, that claim of yours is rather ambitious. Are you sure you aren't just ripping off peoples money and halucinating or sth? Basically you are telling that we keep on living as ghosts in another dimension after our death, so death is actually nothing ultimate and not even scary or sad anymore?

May I ask what excatly is the other side, and what do you know about it? And what about the dead ones? They watching us? Can they come over and harass us? Or help us? I am really curious now. I know nothing about this subject and I hope you can bring some insight into my life.

[Sarah Marie]

@Lucifer Hi, yes I'd love to share my knowledge. First, I've done over 100 readings for free so no I'm not ripping anyone off and this is not how I make a living. 

I first found out I was a medium when I went to a psychologist because I thought I was crazy. He is the one that actually helped me understand that I was feeling other energies.

I don't have all the answers I only know that death is more just a death of our ego. Energies can still communicate with me to the point of giving me exact details that are completely random to connect the living and those past over. I do know death is actually not scary OR ultiment.

Also, I understand your skepticism because I was the worlds biggest skeptic. This is nothing I ever set out to be it just kind of revealed itself to me. I didn't even know what a medium was and absolutely had no religion or faith before finding this out. I'm not the only one there is thousands like me. I am however one that doesn't care about societal norms and chooses to tell and help people with this gift. My sister for example, can see them too but doesn't tell a soul because much of the population responds like you do. I just know it's a lack of education and feel a responsibility to share my gift. My job isn't to prove anyone or anything wrong, it's simply to help heal those still living who are suffering from pain and loss so they can continue living and learning the lessons they need to during this lifetime. You can check out some of my blogs at www.soulspeakwithsarah.com which explain exactly how I read etc. I also have a favebooknwhere you can see some of the people I've read. I don't get on it anymore because like I said I don't do this for a living but lots of people have written about their own personal experience on there.

 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Sarah_Flagg said:

@Lucifer Hi, yes I'd love to share my knowledge. First, I've done over 100 readings for free so no I'm not ripping anyone off and this is not how I make a living. 

I first found out I was a medium when I went to a psychologist because I thought I was crazy. He is the one that actually helped me understand that I was feeling other energies.

I don't have all the answers I only know that death is more just a death of our ego. Energies can still communicate with me to the point of giving me exact details that are completely random to connect the living and those past over. I do know death is actually not scary OR ultiment.

Also, I understand your skepticism because I was the worlds biggest skeptic. This is nothing I ever set out to be it just kind of revealed itself to me. I didn't even know what a medium was and absolutely had no religion or faith before finding this out. I'm not the only one there is thousands like me. I am however one that doesn't care about societal norms and chooses to tell and help people with this gift. My sister for example, can see them too but doesn't tell a soul because much of the population responds like you do. I just know it's a lack of education and feel a responsibility to share my gift. My job isn't to prove anyone or anything wrong, it's simply to help heal those still living who are suffering from pain and loss so they can continue living and learning the lessons they need to during this lifetime. You can check out some of my blogs at www.soulspeakwithsarah.com which explain exactly how I read etc. I also have a favebooknwhere you can see some of the people I've read. I don't get on it anymore because like I said I don't do this for a living but lots of people have written about their own personal experience on there.

 

Thank you a lot to take the time and respond to my questions, I really appreciate your effort. Don't worry, I keep an open mind and I am ready to learn new things all the time. I think you understand that it is also healthy to have your mind not too open so it falls out, this is why I am skeptic at some things at first. I fear I can never understand this as much as I need unless I witness this happening for myself, so I'll try my best to understand this stuff and first I will check out your homepage, thanks for that btw  I like how you don't take money for this, even thought it would be acceptable if you are real, which I believe. I would take money for it, but I am just an enterpreneurial/business spirit, and also poor atm  

While I read the homepage, I get more curious. Now I wanna dive really deep into the topic. I hope you can spare some more time and help me out with a few questions. Maybe having insights into this field will help me to coach people better. Is there actually any advice, tricks or techniques I can use to notice my undead friends and relatives...and maybe even pets?...around me? How can I tell them things, and how can I get their messages? Or is that only possible for you?

I might add that sometimes I believe that I "feel" and "see" more than regular people. I feel energies and sometimes I feel very aligned to the universe and sometimes I just know stuff. Sometimes when I enter a house I instantly know something is wrong there, the aura is very uncomfortable or when I interact with people I can tell pretty fast who is a fake bitch and who is a real, honest person. I don't think I have ever been wrong with those things. I think I pick up on vibrations pretty fast. Maybe you could spare an advice if, and how I could use that to get more aware of the undead around me?

[Vercingetorix]

@Sarah_Flagg I am also a skeptic  simply because haven't experienced anything "extraordinary" in my life, and the fact that such claims are seem to be easy to prove scientifically, and if you can prove them scientifically you will get a Nobel prize, a lot of money and recognition and on top of that you will help science advance to it's next stage! 

what are your thoughts on that?

[Sarah Marie]

@Lucifer Hi! I just realized I forgot to answer one of your questions, I have never seen insidious so I am not sure.

Yes I actually believe everyone can develop the awareness. I am positive your loved ones are already around you it's just hard to notice or people second guess themselves. So for instance, if you think you see with your eyes (physically) a loved one out of the corner of your eye and you look and they're gone, this is their way of showing you they're still around. Every spirit has a different way of showing themselves some can come from birds and you will see a certain bird and think of a passed loved one, that is not a coincidence that is them. 

I'm going to explain this because spirit is showing me so I figure it must be connect to you or someone reading this.

If you were to sit in a room with someone and close your eyes, even though you can't see them in the room you still know someone is there. This is the same feel I get when a spirit is next to me. Put me in a big auditorium with 500 people, and I'll feel like I'm in there with 5,000 people because of all of the spirit. Hence the social anxiety I used to suffer from. On the same note if I sit you down and ask you to close your eyes, and I hold my hand an inch away from from your skin you will be able to feel the heat from my energy. Spirit often shows itself like this. Which is why I consider everything energy. 

You already have these abilities and are conscious enough to interpret them because like you said, you can feel when something isn't right. It's just about educating yourself from other mediums/psychics (this is something I never do even though I can usually see the future, mainly because we have free will and I don't want to claim stuff I can't prove) and reading books. I asked other mediums to mentor me and help me understand. You have to understand this was NOT accepted in my family and extremely scary to me. I really wanted to burry this part of me and even just talking about it I would shake and hate myself for being able to do this. Now, however I have seen the benefit of this gift and done so many readings that I am at total peace with it and love it about myself. But it wasn't always like that. There are also YouTube videos on how to open your third eye. I notice patterns with how spirit shows up, orbs in pictures, through animals, through dreams etc. In a reading I can connect the dots for a person so if they did see them in a dream and it was them I can accurately describe the dream. The person then has the validation that it's real because how would I know that? 

@Vercingetorix This is something I would 100% be willing and ready to do. I feel like my life purpose is to raise councsciousness at a societal level and feel this could be part of my path. I am not sure where to start with someone who has the money and is willing to hook me up to machines etc. I do know that spirit speaks to me telepathically and it's just that I *know* things. It's not like theyre whispering in my ear because that would totally freak me out. LOL. 

I always joke that I will be thanking Leo in my speech because without his help I would have never unconditioned my societal norms and done this work. 

Now, if you really want to stretch your mind let me tell you about my sister in law who can talk to angels. I don't understand or know about it I only believe her because people pay her LOTS of money for her readings and she has read me personally. 

To my understanding there are different realms. Living, "dead", guides, Angels, lower realms and that's all I've ever seen. I don't know how that works exactly and I don't share that bit of information with everyone but it's just something I've been shown. I can not see any lower realms but my sister can which is why she doesn't speak of this and is so scared. She explains them as the worst feeling energies you can imagine. 

I am a very scientific minded person and am SO open to having scientists or whoever help me raise awareness about this.

Most of my personal beliefs match up with Leos completely.

[Vercingetorix]

@Sarah_Flagg haha I see! But  doesn't such things seem to contradict Leo's approach? when you die the ego dies, how could it communicate with the living world if it doesn't exist anymore?
and anyway why would someone be interested in such things even if they are possible? isn't it just another distraction in your way to higher consciousness? 

do you know of the One Million dollar paranormal challenge by James Randy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Million_Dollar_Paranormal_Challenge

 

Edited March 26, 2016 by Vercingetorix

[nbolt]

"mediums" 

[Sarah Marie]

@Vercingetorix I am not connecting to egos, I'm connected to people's higher self. I will check that out I haven't ever heard of it.

[SkyPanther]

Rebirth is a perspective;

I am typing this on my phone, so please forgive the short response.

All things in the universe are "existence". You, me, your cat, dog, flower, etc, etc.

Since there is no "you", that is there is no ego self, you could say you are the universe. So the thing that "rebirths" is the "universal existence" bound by chaos theory, or "cause and effect" (karma).

You, that is the universe and existence, existed as verious things all started an unknown time in the past by a single cause that splintered out(think of a river breaking up into different streams) into all the people, animals, planets and other universes and planes of existence. 

That's my take on it as a Student of Theravada Buddhism.

Edited March 26, 2016 by SkyPanther

[Guest]

@Sarah_Flagg Still I am a little skeptical, but I will investigate more on this issue. For me to believe this, I need to witness this first hand with my own eyes...or ears. But I don't say it's impossible. Of course you know it's possible and no one can argue with that. Again thank you for your time and giving me so many insights, they could be life changing and I am surely intrigued now. Have a wonderful day!