Musing on the Mechanics of Reincarnation
What is this ‘subtle body’ that we keep hearing about, and what does it have to do with reincarnation? Ken explains that, as proposed by the great Wisdom Traditions, such as Vedanta and Vajrayana, human consciousness has at least three primary components: states, structures, and bodies. The three major states are waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, a simple version of structures is the chakra system (when looked at in their developmental aspects), and bodies are necessary to support both states and structures. Put simply, for every mind there is a body—they are the supporting structures of consciousness, giving us at least a gross bodymind a subtle bodymind and a causal bodymind. The claim of reincarnation theories—generally speaking—is that the subtle and casual bodyminds can separate from the gross bodymind at death, enter an intermediary subtle-dream plane (such as the bardo), and then proceed to reincarnate in another gross bodymind from there.
Traditional conceptions of between-life realms and reincarnation often rely heavily on metaphysical schemes such as the Great Chain of Being. The problem is, traditional metaphysics, even without going into the issue of reincarnation, cannot adequately respond to postmodern criticism—which is why an Integral Post-Metaphysics is needed, and that is just what you will find suggested here....
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ken Wilber - Musing on the Mechanics of Reincarnation
Another free offering from Ken Wilber and Integral Life, this time on reincarnation. This is a topic where I fail in my traditional Buddhist beliefs. Reincarnation just doesn't make sense to me.
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3 comments:
I think I prefer the materialist Judeo-Christian perspective on this one: We're entirely bound up in our bodies.
If our bodies resurrect, we come back. If not, we don't. John 3:17.
The Catholic encyclopedia on Immortality notes that reincarnation is practically annihilation, especially if we don't ever remember all of our past lives.
I don't buy the Judeo-Christian version either - material resurrection is a pre-rational belief - defying logic and physics.
Any doctrine of rebirth/reincarnation needs to conform to the laws of physics - Buddhism is much closer to that than the Judeo-Christian beliefs.
My 2 cents.
Peace,
Bill
As long as the exteriors in the AQAL model are reductionistic (flattened to material level), the model will provide no coherent explanation of subtle bodies or reincarnation. The framework must be opened so that the exteriors include not just the material expression of subtle and causal levels of reality, but those levels themselves. For more details on this problem with AQAL and a coherent solution, see http://www.integralscience.org/wilber.html
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