Reincarnation is like the Energizer Bunny. It keeps going. It endures as a concept that stands up to the test of time, despite the numerous attacks from skeptics. When you consider its long history, you have to wonder: How can such an ancient belief continue to attract modern, sophisticated thinkers in this day and age when other ideas from antiquity (the flat Earth for instance) have long been discarded? I-Kuan Tao practitioners regard reincarnation as a self-evident truth, but in the West such a conclusion is far from universally accepted. Perhaps because science has achieved so much in our world, we have a tendency to measure everything by its standards. Never mind that spirituality is non-physical and the methods of science are rooted in physical reality. We still want to know if we can "prove" reincarnation. I observe interesting displays of human nature in this great debate. For instance, skeptics often style themselves as rational, intelligent, educated individuals and position themselves above believers. Take a look at the following actual exchange between two skeptics:
Can you feel the arrogance oozing out of these words? Not very attractive is it? Apparently these two regard believers as ignorant fools lacking in objectivity. The irony is that in this instance it is actually the two skeptics who are ignorant. They base their line of reasoning on a simple misunderstanding of Buddhist doctrine. What Buddhism considers illusory isn’t and has never been the soul, but rather our individual isolation or separateness from one another. "The 'self' is an illusion." What that means, very simply, is that you and I are one. We are a connected whole, droplets of water from the metaphysical ocean of souls. We take on the guises of individuals in this physical plane to accelerate our learning and spiritual growth, but ultimately we return to the ocean and merge with it. The totality of this cosmic ocean goes by many names – Nirvana, God, Tao, Lao Mu, Oversoul – but whatever we choose to call it, you and I are part of it. We can never be truly apart from it, or from one another. Yet another way to look at it is to consider ourselves as individual cells in the Body Cosmic. Just as each cell is a world unto itself, so too is each of us a unique personality; just as the cells in an organism form an indivisible whole, so too are we inextricably linked to one another. The idea of the limited "self" just doesn't apply when you are one with the greater totality. This is an excellent teaching, isn't it? In totally missing the point, the two skeptics cited above prove themselves to be ignorant fools… in a rather interesting display of human nature. In their zeal to prove themselves correct, skeptics often stray far away from the true spirit of scientific inquiry, even though they see themselves as champions of science. When confronted with compelling evidence that can’t be easily explained by anything other than reincarnation, their most likely reaction is one of swift dismissal: "There will always be unexplained mysteries. It doesn’t necessarily mean that reincarnation is real." The problem with this position is that you can use it to reject just about any proof one might offer in favor of reincarnation. There's no room here for new discoveries; everything must conform to a preconceived paradigm that nothing paranormal can be true. Whatever doesn't fit this paradigm is labeled "unknown" and ignored, no matter how compelling it may be. Are there such compelling proofs in the area of reincarnation? Yes. For instance, anyone who wants to can peruse Dr. Ian Stevenson's meticulous studies on children who experience spontaneous recollection of past lives. One true case from Dr. Stevenson's numerous files is a young boy who recalls being a mechanic who died in a car accident. Without any possible way to learn anything about the mechanic, the boy is nevertheless able to name specifically and accurately the driver, the crash site, the mechanic's family members, and his friends. There are about three thousand cases like this, all painstakingly documented and verified. Perhaps some of them can be explained by possibilities like hoax, coincidence or confabulation, but not all of them. A truly objective thinker would have no choice but to assign some weight to this mountain of evidence. Skeptics, however, try to gloss over it by pointing out that Dr. Stevenson's cases come mostly from India and other Eastern countries, where reincarnation is much more accepted. The children from such cultures are influenced by their environment and are therefore much more likely to spin such tales with themselves in the starring role. Let's look at this assertion carefully and ask some questions. Is absence of proof necessarily proof of absence? In other words, what does the relative scarcity of cases from the United States really mean? Does it mean that American kids don't make up stories about past lives, or does it mean that they are less likely to talk about what they recall in an environment where reincarnation is far from universally accepted? Another question to ponder: When our kids do talk about what they recall, does it even register with the parents? Does it ever occur to most of them that reincarnation is a possible explanation for the behavior, or do they simply regard it as nothing more than children exercising their imagination? And if we contend that children who recall past lives are just imagining a vivid scenario based on cultural conditioning, how then do we account for the matching details in Dr. Stevenson's cases that strain the limits of probability? As you consider these issues, I think it will become apparent to you that the skeptical position is difficult to maintain. It is essentially a cop-out, not true scientific thinking. There is something going on here. Something wonderful. Why should we look for every possible explanation other than the most obvious? Why should we fall back to "I don't know" or "I'm not sure" and sweep it under the rug? Indeed, there is cause for celebration. We're talking about some powerful reasons for an open-minded person to entertain seriously the notion that physical death is not the end. Our souls will move on. With the assistance of masters and kindred spirits, we will plot out the next set of lessons in yet another incarnation. The process continues and we, much like the Energizer Bunny also, will go on and on and on. |
