Wondering About Past Lives?

Aug 17, 2010 by Charles Krill

It is quite familiar to hear people talking about past lives. This is a phenomenon which depicts that human soul is immortal and passes on from one physical body to another. The concepts or rebirth and reincarnation are ancient as well as popular.

The first and foremost thing about past lives is that it literally means having a number of past lives or births before this present one and naturally refers to the concept of being reborn in a different physical body or in other words being reincarnated. In short, this points to the belief of ancient civilizations and spiritually advanced cultures regarding the immortality of the human soul and its reincarnations.

When you are studying about past lives and the process of reincarnation you have to keep in mind that the human soul is immortal. While the physical body of a person dies, the soul is set free. It comes back to earth in the form of a new born. This process of reincarnation is also termed as the transmigration of the soul.

Most of the ancient civilizations and several religions have made studies in depth and researched about past lives and the process of reincarnation. The theory of reincarnation forms the core base for Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism as well as Sikhism. Ancient Greek philosophy talks about reincarnations. However Christianity and Islam have different views regarding the concept.

The Hindus believe that the soul has to travel to a cycle of birth and rebirth which is called samsara. This continues till the soul attains nirvana or the highest level of spiritual wisdom. During the process of birth and rebirth the life it leads, the work it does are termed as karma.

The Karma from one life time decides the condition and experience to be faced in the next birth. Through each rebirth, the journey towards moksha becomes nearer as the soul gathers more and more spiritual wisdom. At one point of time, the soul finally attains the moksha or the Nirvana. It is then set free from the cycle of birth and rebirth and attains the eternal peace and happiness.

Buddhism has separate beliefs about past lives. The religion does not lay much importance on the immortality of the soul but stresses on the process of reincarnation and thinks that it is a kind of evolvement of the consciousness. The supreme soul or the atman does not tie one life with the next rebirth. What the Buddhists believe is that with every birth the consciousness of the soul evolves and there emerges new personality from the same stream of consciousness.

The civilization of the western world in the past however did not have much belief about past lives. In modern western philosophies, a new wave of thought called theosophy has evolved which is much inspired from the Hindu line of thinking. The school of theosophy is perhaps the first institution to speak about past lives in the western world.

The doctrine of Theosophy stands on the point that the soul is a formless, all-encompassing force. It comes down from the higher planes to the human world and goes through a cycle of birth, death and rebirth. In every step there is a gathering of knowledge and experience. The death brings purity to the soul and it travels to he ethereal planes once again. There it waits in a timeless and formless state for another reincarnation.

The author Allison Small writes for the http://www.past-lives-regression.com website. You can enjoy the incredible experience of remembering our past lives for yourself and get thirty Free about past lives Audios and Videos when you visit here.