| Reincarnation is essentially a concept that | | | | the common concept of being reborn as cockroach |
| presupposes the existence of multiple lives. The idea | | | | comes from. It is way much more complicated than |
| comes from Hinduism and goes back to the 9th | | | | that but that is what people generally know. |
| Century BC. But there is more than one belief on the | | | | Buddhism took after Hinduism as it embraced |
| matter, even within Hindu writings the meaning evolved | | | | reincarnation as well but not assuming the existence of |
| over time. | | | | an individual entity, a self. It is karma that goes from |
| According to the Vedic and Brahmana hymns, the | | | | one existence to another and determines what kind of |
| most ancient ones, life continued for humans for both | | | | life the new being will have, with no memory of |
| the manifestations of body and soul. This is why | | | | previous lives. It also introduced the concept that it is |
| people were buried with their personal belongings, like | | | | very unlikely to come back as a human a second time |
| the Egyptians and other cultures in the area of | | | | immediately after one's death on earth. |
| Mesopotamia. According to this conception of | | | | The Western concept was adopted centuries later, in |
| reincarnation immortality was limited and was obtained | | | | the Middle age mostly. Traditions such as Catharism |
| through sacrifices and good acts in one's life that | | | | and Hermetism took a Neo-Platonistic view and |
| would please the gods. | | | | considered the soul to be the part transferring from |
| Upanishad writings changed that view and sustained | | | | one life to another to keep achieving levels of |
| that esoteric knowledge was the way to attain one's | | | | knowledge that will eventually allow us to go back to |
| true self, which made karma and reincarnation | | | | the one god permanently. |
| become key in future developments in Hinduism. | | | | Reincarnation is a vast subject; there is a lot more |
| In the Epic and Purana hymns reincarnation becomes | | | | detail available on the internet on each of the |
| a normal process of life and compares going from one | | | | conceptions summarized above. Although there are |
| body to another to changing ones clothes when they | | | | differences one aspect remains the same: it is a lot |
| are old. These writings clearly define the results that | | | | more complex than coming back as a cockroach. |
| could come from sinful activities, which is the where | | | | |