Whether we live in Philadelphia, PA or Philadelphia, Jordan, at some point in our lives we are brought face-to-face with certain universal and existential questions to which we rarely give serious thought otherwise:
Is there an afterlife? What will happen to me when I die?
Hinduism, Jainism, and other Indian religions maintain we will have no attachment to our current sense of identity in an afterlife, but our souls may return to this life reincarnated in the form of another being.
Many Eastern traditions teach the concept of "rebirth," a way of understanding reincarnation that is particularly Buddhist. The Dalai Lama describes rebirth as a process of being continually born in others. It is "like lighting successive candles, using the flame of the preceding candle," he says. "While each flame is causally connected to the one that came before it, it is not the same flame."
According to many Western religions, we do retain a sense of our identity after death. Our souls are "resurrected," either immediately after death or in the end time with all other souls of the departed, to live for eternity with God.
While most sects in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam do not hold a specific doctrinal belief in reincarnation, writings by certain mystics within each of these traditions occasionally do, nonetheless, refer to souls returning to this life with new identities.
Numerous references to reincarnation are also found in Hebrew scripture, particularly in the book of Isaiah. And the Kabbalah, a book of Jewish mysticism that is sacred and authoritative in Hasidic Judaism, specifically refers to the belief in gilgul, the transmigration of souls, wherein our souls live the lives of numerous people through the centuries of time.
The basic tenets of some form of life after death are thus common to all religious traditions. What we actually believe ourselves, however, is a deeply personal matter. Taking time to explore and ponder the possibilities of the afterlife with a spiritual mentor, or with a close friend who has no specific religious agenda, can be a spiritually enlightening experience at any time in our lives.
Comments