It’s another day with many topics to write about. After we got back from a movie last night (will post on this soon) I read another chapter from my book on Buddhism. It’s the first chapter that’s made any sense to me. It talks about reincarnation being of name and form, not of the soul. The explanation is that of a mango picked from a tree not being the same mango as that planted to grow the tree, but having the same name and form.
I take this to mean that reincarnation is not the rebirth of our consciousness or spirit in any way, but that the forms that future generations take and the lives they live will be shaped by what we do in our lives. As ours have been shaped by those who came before us. I can deal with that. It makes it easy to define good and bad, too. Anything that we do that will make the lives of future generations better can be defined as good. Of course, it still leaves some room for debate on what impact our actions will have in the long term.