Essay On Reincarnation

Death is natural. It affects everyone and everything that is living. It is something that every person comes to understand as being a part of life, yet people are so often afraid of it. Death reminds people of all the negative things that are a part of life, such as pain and sorrow. If an alternative to death comes around, or something makes death easier, people want to take a part of that. Many people jump to religious ideologies not always because they truly believe in them or want to follow them, but because they want to escape death. Yet in many eastern religions, death is unavoidable and cyclical. There is new life after death, but that life leads death again, and the cycle seemingly continues forever. This cycle of rebirth is often called reincarnation in western culture. It is one of the core beliefs in many eastern religions. Hinduism is one of those religions; in fact, it is likely the first religion to adopt this train of thought, as Hopfe and Woodward (2014) claim it is perhaps “the oldest and most complex of all religions in the world” (p. 78). Before one fully understands Hinduism, they must recognize the relation reincarnation has to it. Reincarnation is a foundational belief in Hinduism, and it

6). Natural reincarnation is the one traditionally referenced when it comes to the topic. It is when the true self passes itself on to a new infant and life is begun anew (p. 6). Artificial reincarnation is the more disputed kind because it is less about the cycle of death and rebirth, and more about possession. It is believed to be possible for the true self to leave the body after death and take control of an “abandoned body.” That is, a body already in the world that would be a suitable replacement from their old body. Such is said to be the case with Richard Ingalese’s (1928) Hindu