BobMak wrote:
> What is reincarnation? To begin with, reincarnation does not take
> place within a matrix of linear time. It's not as if e.g. you had a
> life in ancient Greece and then you died; then you had a life in
> ancient Rome and then you died; then you had a life in the Middle Ages
> and then you died; etc. Rather, all of your past and future lives are
> going on at once, in an eternal NOW moment.
<snip>
Yeah, right, whatever.
I don't think so.
The *real* teaching of Buddhism on reincarnation, for example, has an
attribution to Gautama: if you light a candle, and then light a second
candle from the flame of the first, and you light a third candle from the
flame of the second, and so on, is the flame of the seventh candle the
same
flame as the flame of the first?
Let's try western style: if something happens, it's natural. There is no
such thing as supernatural, just stuff we don't understand yet.
Since it's natural, all known laws apply. One is that there will *always*
be
noise, so some of whatever is being passed on is scrambled. There is
*always* information loss, so some of whatever you are is *gone* into the
static. Then there's the sheer amount of information.
Look, assuming you're over 25, are you the identical person you were when
you were 15? How about when you're 35, or 45? Suppose you'd been sent to a
war, or found the love of your life, or lost too much.
What makes the difference between who you were then, and who you are now?
Your experiences. Your memories.
Now suppose that you got sent on, and lost half of it. Are you still the
same person? How can you make that assertion?
And let's suppose you wind up in a baby, with an unformed physical brain,
that is busy trying to figure out the world. How much is going to be
written to that brain, and how much discarded as noise, while the new you
is trying to figure out how to eat, and walk, and drink?
And how much would be left the second time 'round? Without your memories,
without your experiences, it ain't you.
For that matter, there are more humans alive now than the sum total of
those
who have ever lived. Doesn't this mean that most of us are first-timers?
I'll go with Gautama. The best we can do is what we leave with those we
live
with, with those we care for, with those we teach. They will carry you
on... or not.
mark
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