Search the Community

Ever since childhood I've been both fascinated and terrified by death. I will not discuss the actual death here but what happens after what we perceive as death. I'm being guided through a whole new dimension as we speak, but it is so difficult to convey, I'll have to chose my words VERY carefully. I used to believe in reincarnation, but right now, there are louder and louder elements that make me believe that we do not "go" and "come back", but somehow all is simultaneous. This right here, is extremely difficult for human mind to understand, simply because part of its nature is to live in time. I believe that what you are accessing @Sarah_Flagg, is another timeline so to speak, where the consciousness that is called upon, is able to revert to this present timeline as the known (departed) person. Damn, this is so hard to put in words that make sense even to me.. Feels like playing a song without knowing the notes, you only know when the melody's not right. Going further, I also feel that we're somehow accompanied by the same "people" that keep changing "costumes" (bodies). and in the same time, all those people have so many facets to them, that in the end, there's not at all more people...but just one changing facet. I'm sorry, I'll stop here because I cannot really express what comes through... Hope this helped somehow tho

So I'm interested in how valid the Buddhist view of Reincarnation is and to a lesser extent, Hinduism's. I just don't see the validity of the teaching is and would like some opinions on it.

I can see what you mean, the reason why we are afraid of death is not because we are afraid of losing our body, but because we are afraid of losing our self image. Enlightenment intellectually is losing the ego, and death is essentially losing the ego(from a thoughty, intellectual perspective) Though Leo gave some good advice above ^ I will just add that Alan Watts agrees with Leo, enlightenment also involves the realization that death as we intellectually see it is impossible, he states that enlightenment apparently shows you that lack of experience cannot happen, and reincarnation exists; another way of saying that lack of experience cannot occur. So according to Alan Watts, and adding to Leo's comments enlightenment is not like death, enlightenment is detaching from the ego, the ego still exists though you are 'detached' and see its true colours, and death is losing the ego in its entirety, you do not see it for what it really is or detach from it. Though anyone's intellectual interpretation of the above is a vivid story compared to the real scenario, I probably don't have to assert this but take caution