TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Have you ever wondered why some people in the world are born so poor and on the other hand, some people are born so rich?

Have you ever wondered why some babies are born with illnesses and others are fine? Do you ever wonder why life seems so unfair? To many people, there is a logical reason behind this. It’s called reincarnation.

Reincarnation is a concept where the mind of the spirit is reborn. When the physical body has died, the mind can be reborn as a new human being or into various other states depending on the causes created by the previous life.

According to Buddhism, where reincarnation is called to the philosophy, whatever we are suffering in this life is caused by our previous actions whether in this life or our previous lives. Hence, the disparity in our various states of being.

Now, is there scientific proof of reincarnation or do only those who are religious believe in it? Here are the opinions of several experts in their respective fields.

Dr. Phang Cheng Kar (M.D.), Consultant Psychiatrist & Medical Lecturer
President of KL Buddhist Mental Health Association

The studies on reincarnation were pioneered by a psychiatrist, the late Dr. Ian Stevenson from the University of Virginia. Dr. Ian Stevenson has collected more than 2,500 cases of children with spontaneous past-time records. When I say spontaneous, I mean those children who spontaneously without other interventions: not through dreams, not through hypnosis, not through other methods, just recalled their past lives.

A typical case will involve children around the ages of two to four when they start making statements about their past lives. They may say things like, “Mummy, you are not my mum”, “You are not my dad” and they make statements referring to their past lives. Typically, they will demand their parents to bring them back to their past lives.

Dr. Ian Stevenson focused a lot of research on these cases. They go through a verification process by bringing the child back to their past life; they will list out all the facts and verify them one by one. The most convincing part is that not only their memories are verified, often these children also have birthmarks or birth defects that correspond to the injuries in their past lives that killed them. And those were verified with medical autopsy reports. So, it is very convincing. And these cases were all published in medical journals.

Anne Jones, International Healer, Author & Speaker

I think the name that people use these days is ‘free thinker’. My belief system covers a lot of the religions, but it isn’t tied to a particular one. I do believe in reincarnation. And as a healer, I look all the time for reasons why people have their problems. I don’t work with the symptoms; I work with the causes. And repeatedly, I find that the cause of their problem is hidden way back in their previous lifetime.

I believe our soul is on a journey; it keeps coming around in a cycle to earth and on earth we learn lessons. Every experience we have is an opportunity to learn. We may see them as a disaster, a challenge, a terrible setback, but actually it is an opportunity to learn. And as we learn, our soul, our spiritual energy grows, our wisdom grows.

And I believe that we have a physical body and a spiritual body, and it’s the two of these together that take the journey on earth. But the spiritual energy moves beyond us when we die. It goes home to the other realms where there are not the challenges on earth.

Brahmacharini Nishita Chaitanya, Acharya of Chinmaya Seva Ashram, Hong Kong

In Hinduism they would say, you can’t get existence from non-existence and existence can’t become non-existent. So, if it’s existence, it is always there; existence continues.

And so, at birth we say this baby has come into existence. But you can’t come into existence from non-existence; existence would have been there, and it’s continuing. What has come into birth is a particular form, the shape of the baby; but prior to this, it has existed possibly in another form that we can’t physically see.

As the same with death, we continue to exist. In fact, I don’t think religions disagree on this. I think whether we talk about the three main religions of Islam and Christianity, they believe that you exist after death. They may not say we have another lifetime. But if you say we live in heaven, then we continue, our existence continues. So, there are no contradictions there from within all the religions.

So, from a very logical point of view if we were born with inequalities, it can’t be that the Lord favours some and do not favour the other. Because when you talk about God, he is all compassionate, he is all loving and he sees us all as his children. How would you say that he is partial? We can’t blame the inequalities we see at birth to the Lord. It would have to be some other cause. It is actions that we have done in the past that bear consequences.

Susan Lim

My driving force believing in reincarnation is because of what I see, the inequality in life. There must be something. In Buddhism, it is taught that reincarnation exist but it is not by pure chance; how we are today, how everyone is today is based on previous actions.

Not just reincarnations found in the Buddhist faith you can also watch documentaries of people of different races, different religion, different culture who have also claimed to have remembered their past lives. It is not a religious thing. It is just normal people who can recollect their past lives. There is a whole lot more for me to believe in reincarnation than not to believe.

Ngeow Voon Chin

I personally do not have any experiences of past life recollections. My only frame of reference for my belief would actually be my observation and believe in my guru who is a reincarnate Rinpoche. From my observations of the special qualities of my guru, certainly, I do believe that he did not acquire all his special attributes only in this present life.

Susan Lim

I had the opportunity to meet my current guru, His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche and that is when I started to see for myself beings who can recollect their previous lives. Not only H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, but also H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s teacher, the previous His Holiness Zong Rinpoche.

I also heard of this story from my teacher, H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche himself. Before Zong Rinpoche, the previous reincarnation passed away or went into the clear light. What happened was he picked his own toys in preparation for his next reincarnation to return and our teacher went out with him together to pick those toys.

Of course, at that time, my guru didn’t know that the purpose of the toys was actually for his teacher’s preparation for his next life. When I heard about this story I thought, “Wow, even these beings, they don’t feel death, they look forward to their next life,” it is just like a continuation.

There are also other monks, similar to H.H. Zong Rinpoche, before they passed away they would even write down the date, where, and the names of their parents whom they will be taking in their next rebirth. These are stories that are very common in our lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

Reincarnation – What makes you believe in it?

Anne Jones

I think it is the very fact that there is no physical proof. We live in a world where people are giving physical proof of virtually everything. We are based on a scientific belief system – if you could prove it, then it is true; if you can’t see it or prove it that way, it is not true. That is the material world, I’m afraid. It could be frightening, I think, to some people. I think they find it difficult to believe in anything that isn’t physical.

Susan Lim

What makes me believe in reincarnation is also the very logical explanation that the Buddhist faith offers the explanation of how our mind works. Our mind works in this way… just like when you watch a movie, it’s framed by frame-by-frame. So, our memory and our existence are recorded in this manner.

For example, right now I’m talking about reincarnation and I remember what I had for lunch. But if I were to try to remember what I had for lunch a month ago, the very same day, Monday for example, I am unable to recall. Just because I cannot remember, does it mean that I did not exist a month ago? No, it’s illogical. Similarly, we may not remember our past, but we were there, we did exist at that time.

So, the explanation about how the mind works in Buddhism in a very simple and very logical way has helped me to have a very clear and strong faith that reincarnation does exist; it doesn’t mean that I have forgotten, therefore I did not exist.

Dr. Phang Cheng Kar

I believe that we are made up of energies, in some form, there is a continuation. Energy cannot be created, energy cannot be destroyed. Whereas the psychological aspects of the mind cannot just be nothing.

Ngeow Voon Chin

An important beneficial aspect of understanding that there are future lives that we must account for is that we need to create the correct actions to ensure a good rebirth and not having more suffering.

That itself will improve our immediate present life situation much better and that we are also accountable for whatever we do right now. And whatever that we are suffering, we also learn from our past lives. What we have done before, results in the present life suffering.

Anne Jones

If you have hope and faith that your life goes on, it makes complete sense about everything you go through in this lifetime. Yes, I think it must be dreadful not to have it but with it, it makes sense. It means you have got to believe that when you die then you are going to move on to another realm and then you’ll come back again.

It gives you a more permanent feeling about life and it gives a purpose to it all. Otherwise, what is the purpose? Why are we just here? Maybe to go through a very dreadful lifetime, but what is the purpose of that? I don’t see how they can give you a good reason for that.

Dr. Phang Cheng Kar

It is one of the ways to give people a sense of purpose. That this is not the only life, there is a continuation. So that whatever decisions, aspirations and dreams that people have they are more long-sighted, they are not just short-sighted and focusing on just now. I think that is a fact. Especially as a psychiatrist, I see a lot of people with anxiety disorders or depression. So, believing in rebirth can help.

Brahmacharini Nishita Chaitanya

For me, the most important thing is, if I know that my death is not the end of me, that if I continue to exist then it makes me more acutely aware that my present actions will have future ramifications which I’m not going to escape.

If I do something and I die, I might escape the consequences but I’m not going to escape. In today’s world we talk about the environment and you know we are abusing the atmosphere, we are dirtying the oceans, we are polluting the air and then you think well, it doesn’t matter, because the maximum I will live is another 30 years and then I will die, and then so what? Let whoever who has to deal with, deal with it. But chances are, I’m going to come back and I’m going to have to deal with it. If you look at it from a very global point of view, what I’m doing to my surroundings I’ll have to come back and face it.

Even from a point of view of actions and reactions, and in terms of the relations I keep, the attitude I nurture and encourage, the habits I form, all of these are going to stay with me for a very long time because they don’t end at death. So, it is with a stronger resolve I must make sure to do the right actions, maintain the right attitude, and be more responsible for my behaviour. Even if we do not believe in reincarnation and if we can find another way to maintain that attitude and outlook, then the purpose will be served.

Susan Lim

I live by the fact that reincarnation exist. At the end of the day if I believe in reincarnation, I will be a better person because I know that this is not the end. Every action counts. Every action is recorded down. So whatever effort I claim to become a better person, it will all contribute towards the whole of humanity in that sense.

To believe in reincarnation it is so much more beneficial than not. Anyway, who can prove that reincarnation doesn’t exist? By just believing in reincarnation, we all will become more responsible members of society because we will be more careful with our actions towards one another, towards the environment for example, because it doesn’t end here.

Narrator

To those who believe in it, reincarnation is a law which exists without you necessarily believing its existence. Are you really convinced that there isn’t life after death? Are you so sure? But what if there is? It is something to think about, isn’t it?

This transcript has been edited for clarity and ease of understanding.

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