Reincarnation: "Oh no, not you again"

Marco M. Pardi: Atop my computer monitor sits a small sign: “Do Not Reincarnate.” I put this there on the chance that my big Stage Left moment might come while staring into the Looking Glass of All That’s Out There. This full disclosure is my brief way of ensuring that no ambiguities arise among the various interpretations of what I write below. Actually, most of us have response memes, easily or not so easily triggered, stored in our head jelly. When I hear someone respond to the question, “How are you?” by saying “Good” my meme, “Did not proceed beyond 4th grade” immediately activates.

In the same way, when I perceive in another person the physical cues usually indicative of a pleasant thought state in response to the term “Reincarnation”, my meme “Must have had a happy childhood” leaps to the fore. Solidarity is certainly not next up. Why someone would want to return will be examined later. For now it is helpful to examine the concept and its history. Many volumes have been written on the subject of reincarnation. This article will not attempt to recapture or surpass them. The focus here will be on the fundamental world view, particularly as it relates to the individual versus the group.

As is true of so many cosmological and philosophical concepts, reincarnation has been interpreted on various levels, in different venues, and as both externally imposed (a punishment which may even include transmigration of souls) and internally allowed (a forgetting that perceptions are not real and therefore an attachment which has to be worked through). It has been viewed as a series of experiences needed to reach personal completion, and hence release. And, it can be a willful act of compassion (the Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva or the Tibetan Buddhist Tulku) in which an enlightened one returns to help others. Finally, it can be viewed in a rather resigned fashion as a Ferris Wheel with no off switch. As Madame Nozall would assure us, “You’se lived tousands an’ tousands a’ lives. Fifty bucks, on my palm.”

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