What You Might Not Know About Reincarnation

Reincarnation, or the rebirth of our spiritual form into different bodies over time, is a broadly accepted concept across many spiritual traditions and cultures. It is a natural extension of the Law of Karma, which tells us that there is no cause without effect, nor effect without a cause. But beyond the basic concept, many of us don’t know very much about this eternal cycle.

Nature is full of these ongoing cycles: the planets in their orbits, the seasons here on Earth. We, in both our physical and spiritual states, are no different. At the moment of conception, our cells begin to multiply at exponential, and highly patterned rates, until the time comes for our physical birth. It is widely believed that each soul, or reincarnated spirit, enters the body when we first draw breath.

It is the agents of karma, among them the angels, who decide, for specific reasons, which souls will occupy each new body. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned or obstacles to overcome. The point is, it is believed that we ourselves do not choose.

In many spiritual traditions, such as Buddhism, the purpose of reincarnation is such that each soul may learn the requisite number of lessons in physical form to ultimately achieve enlightenment, or nirvana. One truth not commonly known is that many more souls exist in the Universe than there are physical people on Earth. A soul may not be reborn immediately following one death; it may wait for hundreds or thousands of years.

Reincarnation makes life what it is intended to be a glorious adventure in which victory is absolutely sure to be ours if we persist. It proves that man is the master of his fate on his road to the stars ~ Shaw Desmond

Our physical world is one of conceivably countless worlds within the cosmos, and it is short-sighted to think that souls would not inevitably visit these other worlds. Many who have experienced past lives report existences in other, non-human bodies in distant galaxies. Reincarnation’s lessons are literally on a cosmic scale.

Just as we can look to a much grander scale to understand reincarnation, so too can we look to the microscopic. Our cells, of which we have trillions, are not only continually being born and dying, but they also hold memories of our past lives. Scientists today are discovering what spiritual masters have known for centuries: the pleasures and pains we feel in our present bodies are often reflections of who or what we were in the past.

Reincarnation is a spiritual metaphor for ‘school’ in many ways. To advance to the next level, we need to master the lessons of the level we currently find ourselves. As humans in mortal bodies, we struggle to overcome the problems of the ego self: pride, vanity, anger, and all the other foibles of humanity. Just as teachers will patiently repeat the same lessons, our angels and other spiritual guides will use reincarnation to overcome these struggles.

We are born and reborn countless number of times, and it is possible that each being has been our parent at one time or another. Therefore, it is likely that all beings in this universe have familial connections ~ Dalai Lama XIV

The next time you find yourself wrestling in a particular dilemma, use it as a ‘teachable moment.’ What in your past lives might have caused this stumbling block? Begin to meditate and delve deep into this part of yourself, and you may start to discover new insights. You might say, as the Buddhist tradition does, that it is one step higher on the ladder which is reincarnation.