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Reincarnation: An East-West Anthology

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This book is a good starting point for anyone wishing to learn about reincarnation. It has just about everything on the subject in it. The first chapters on the lectures at Harvard are a little heavy, but once you get past that (and you don't even have to read that part) there is a wealth of information that I think is unmatched in any other book. It is intellectual, without being boring, and fascinating and astounding without being too weird or unacceptable. Well done, and I highly recommend it.......you'll be amazed !!

"I died as mineral and became a plant,

I died as plant and rose as animal,

I died as animal and I was man. ...

Yet once more I shall die as a man, to soar ..." Rumi (Sufi poet)

Reincarnation:

Reincarnation (Metempsychosis) is a philosophical term, in Greek, referring to the belief of transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. It is a doctrine popular among a number of Dharmic Religions of the East such as Hinduism and Jainism wherein an individual incarnates from one body to another, either human, animal, or plant. Generally the term is only used within the context of Greek Philosophy, but was also used by modern philosophers such as Schopenhauer; otherwise the phrase transmigration is more appropriate. While belief in reincarnation is most characteristic of Asian religions and philosophies, it also appears in the religious and philosophical thought of primitive religions, in the ancient Middle East, Manichaeism, and Gnosticism, as well as modern religious movements as theosophy.

Birth and Rebirth:

The major religions that hold a belief in reincarnation, however, are the Asian religions, especially Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, all of which arose in India. They all hold in common a doctrine of karma (act), the law of cause and effect, which states that what one does in this present life will have its effect in the next life. In Hinduism the process of birth and rebirth--i.e., transmigration of souls--is endless until one achieves salvation, by realizing the truth that liberates--i.e., that the individual soul and the absolute soul are one. Thus, one can escape from the wheel of birth and rebirth.

An Evolutionary Ascent:

Professor John Boodin, was a devotee to the value of ancient thought, especially of Plato, so closely approximated some Ancient Wisdom teachings, that a Theosophist bestows on the passing phases of modern science, " Living things run their cycles in the cosmic process. They have their descent as well as ascent. ... The evolutionary ascent takes place through the stream of life from generation to generation. But the stream of life is not something apart from its environment. It includes its field. The stream of life of which we are a part runs its cycle within the earth cycle, devolution following evolution. The earth cycle itself runs its course within the solar cycle of which the earth and the other planets are a part. And the solar cycle runs its course within still more comprehensive cycles within which galaxies of stars rise from nebulae. But all the cycles run their course within the field of cosmic control." John Boodin, Three Interpretations of the Universe

Early Christianity:

While debating whether or not reincarnation was once believed by the early Church, reincarnation is a concept that tied early Christian doctrines with Neoplatonic philosophy. Some Gnostic sects, which differed very widely from Christian theology and living, adopted most of esoteric concepts. Most of the references to early Christian metempsychosis belief in Origen's writings are to be found in his work On First Principles. Occasional recourse has been made to his Contra Celsum and various homilies; yet the full breadth of Origen's thought could not be recovered and examined. De Principiis presents his most succinct treatment of the doctrine of souls and apokatastasis, and its early acceptance as an early belief does not seem entirely out of place, until the sixth century.

Origen's Writings:

It may be of real interest to the reader to have before his eye examples of Origen's teaching and of his manner of treating the form of metempsychosis and of Pre-existence, which he himself wrote early in his career; ". . . so the one nature of every soul being in the hands of God, and, so to speak, there being but one lump of reasonable beings, certain causes of more ancient date led to some beings being made vessels of honor, and others vessels of dishonor. Our knowledge of what that great Church Father wrote is mainly derived from a translation into Latin, made in later times by Rufinus, of Aquileia, a contemporary of Jerome.

Dr. Edward Moore warns that, "Origen remarks several times in his De Principiis were plausible suggestions, and that his reader is free to take what he finds valuable, and to reject what he finds offensive or useless. In all discussions of Origen's ideas, we must continually bear this fact in mind: he was not speaking as a dogmatic theologian, but as a speculative thinker, a philosopher."

Purgatory Vs Reincarnation:

- "... Catholics and Buddhists believe that this gift continues even after death through the respective concepts of purgatory and reincarnation. It seems to me that these concepts have the same starting point (continued growth) but developed differently due to cultural and historical reasons. Is there any basis for my speculation? Or, to put it another way, can the concept of reincarnation be compatible in any way with Christianity?" -- MC, Illinois

- "Dear MC, it seems to me that your thoughts regarding reincarnation and purgatory point in the right direction. Both ideas are rooted in our intuition that our inner life is a growth process; both are based on an awareness that this process is not completed in this lifetime; both express the hope that this process can continue after our death. Reincarnation and purgatory develop this intuition, this awareness, and this hope in ways that differ, ...

Karl Rahner, the eminent 20th century Catholic Christian theologian, expressed his opinion that Buddhists and Christians could gain deeper insights into both reincarnation and purgatory by comparing their teachings in this field of speculation. ..." Your Brother David

Gilgul & Kabbalah:

The doctrine of gilgul (transmigration) is a classic example of a kabbalistic doctrine that was absorbed by Hasidism from the esoteric literature, especially from Lurian Kabbalah. Unlike, however, the various kabbalistic elements that stimulated only theoretical hasidic thought, but that only marginally penetrated the hasidic story, the subject of gilgul made deep incursions into both the hasidic homiletic literature and the hasidic storytelling genre.

Reincarnation Anthology:

In four parts and appendix, this work may well be the most extensive collection, presented by writers from the East, and infiltrations into monotheistic beliefs, since the renaissance. Western thinkers are quoted from Orpheus to Lindbergh. The authors seek support from psychologists opening the third part with an essay from the Yale Review, while the last exposes scientists thought on Immortality and Soul, including Darwin, Max Planck, and Schrodinger.