Reincarnation

### Aliases

Reincarnation, Rebirth, Transmigration, Metempsychosis, Anattā, Anātman, Samsara, Gilgul, wheel of existence

### Users

Mortals

**Reincarnation** is a prolific concept in several of the world's cultures and religious beliefs.

## Overview

Reincarnation is the cycle of one's mind or Soul being transmitted or moved into a new physical body when the body itself dies. Reincarnation isn't restricted to humans as animals and plants are said to be involved in the process. The result of one's reincarnation is mostly dependent on the actions of one's actions in their life (karma), If one commits inhumane and evil actions the worse they are reincarnated as, while if one does good in the world the higher up and more powerful their reincarnation will be.

When someone commits enough good actions they can transcend the cycle of reincarnation and finally rest outside of the cycle.

## Process

When a soul reincarnates, it receives a new ego, a new identity and a new personality, but with its old experiences kept in its essence. Due to the soul gaining a new identity, it is common for two different incarnations to interact with each other.

While for some reincarnation and karma is a fair process as the person in a new life pays for the crimes he committed in the past life, others claim that this is unfair and that it seems that God likes to have fun with human suffering, because a since the person does not remember their crimes, the person suffers penalties without even knowing anything and is therefore innocent. This obviously generates a reason for debate, after all, it would be very mean for someone to say that a child was born with a serious illness because of their own fault.

## Myths and Legends

### Abrahamic

Though not prevelant, reincarnation is believed in certain sects of the 3 major Abrahamic religions. An example would be Judaism with the concept of Gilgul. Kabbalah and Gnosticism believe in the concept of reincarnation. However, in Gnosticism, reincarnation is seen as something negative, since Yaldabaoth would have imprisoned human souls in bodies of flesh and blood to prevent them from leaving their physical prison. Reincarnation serves for the soul to remain imprisoned, since whenever the body dies the soul goes to a new body and remains imprisoned.

### Hinduism

In Hinduism the process of reincarnation is called Samsara. Samsara is essentially the Soul's journey through the spiritual world. Samsara in Hinduism is overseen by the Trimurti, with Brahma creating new life, Vishnu preserving and watching over their life, and Shiva ending the life with death before brahma restarts the cycle all over again. Life is said to originate from the universal will Brahman and when someone finally knows their true self they attain freedom from the cycle of suffering, attaining Moksha.

### Buddhism

The Budhist rendition of Samsara is largely simmilar to the hindu Samsara. Budhist Samsara is described as a cycle of suffering from being reincarnated again and again. The cycle is seperated into 6 segments, the Niraya, the Preta, the animal, the Human, the Asura, and the gods. Like a wheel, a soul would go through these states in sequential order, starting with the Niraya. However the first person to transcend Samsara in Budhism was Gautama Buddha. After Buddha had attained Nirvana he laid out the doctrine in which to attain Nirvana, known as the Eightfold Path.