Karma And Reincarnation Dictionary

Karma:

In many eastern religions, the load of guilt or innocence carried from one incarnation to the next, determining one’s lot in the next life; often used by American occultists as a general term for moral responsibility, as in “You can do that if you want to, but it’s your karma.”

(See also: Karma , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

KARMA -

1. the belief that one’s thoughts and deed can be counted against or for them to their spirtual growth by counted against or for them to their spirtual growth during several life times in Sanskrit, it means “action”. Follow the law of cause and effect (TRASB)

2. ‘action’, measure of attachment, one’s worldly circumstances, psychological development and level of consciousness, often distinguishes as good of bad Karma, though in Indian tradition, all Karma is to transcended: Imperfections that are washed or burned by yoga, meditation, service, cultivating the Dharma or other spirtual practice. That which is created so long as one doesn’t realize one’s original nature. (Bodhidharma) Consequences of a thought, word or deed; reaping what is sown. Sum of the consequences of one’s thoughts, words, or deeds in this and previous lifetimes. Chain of moral cause and effect. Force generated by consciousness or actions that conditions this and future lives. Fate, the natural and necessary happenings of one’s lifetime, preconditioned by one’s past lifetimes. moral debt, worked out and repaid usually gradually, for past actions. That which the individual has instituted, carried forward, endorsed, omitted to do, or has done right, through the ages until the present moment ’ mythical rock symbolizing peace and courage. (Vietnamese) (NAD)

(See also: KARMA , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Karma -

(1) any activity performed in the course of material existence.

(2) pious activities leading to material gain in this world or in the heavenly planets after death.

(3) fate; former acts leading to inevitable results.

(See also: Karma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

REINCARNATION

Advanced minds seem to take reincarnation for granted: Plato, Emerson, Edison, Shaw, Jung -- even Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. All life transmigrates -- indeed, not just life, but everything "returns." Many find the latter idea hard to take -- as though there must be not only no mice in the Afterworld, but no machines! Yet, obviously, if one thing evolves, then everything evolves. Molecules of steel and granite cling tenaciously, as do we, to permanence and the spider chooses her life, even as we choose ours, because spiderdom is the acme of her aspirations. Where the will exists, there return exists.

Even if the evolution of life out of the inanimate does not indicate mind apart from brain, even if it demonstrates only the "accidental" fact that things must mutate "upward" or else dissolve downward into entropy, then "mind" or "purpose" is synonymous with or implicit in "accidence" itself. The one apodictic truth is that life and complexification have prevailed, whatever else has not, including the "content" of entropy.

The universe is mind, as we've pointed out elsewhere. The purpose of mind is to know itself, and knowing can succeed only through particularization.

One way to understand metempsychosis is to imagine our poor sublunary lives as pressings onto phonograph records, on the Akasha's etheric record. When the Atma particle, or Oversoul, incarnates, it shuffles off its generalized shell and starts to particularize. In so doing it may, under certain rare and privileged circumstances, find itself able to examine previous akashic recordings in which it formed similar particularizations. The Oversoul itself, however, is made up of all these countless recorded souls. With each experience it grows in metamorphic complexity. In the Oversoul the Whole is greater that its parts -- although when it separates individually the part is naturally greater than the Whole.

The Buddhists hold that there is no "immutable soul." Therefore reincarnation is simply a way of expressing the rebirth of unenlightened mind. Rebirth is then merely like the same sand pouring into different vessels: bucket, goblet, urn, etc. If death is the abandonment of personal self, then the dividing walls between us crumble and memory has access to all former lives. Most people tend to remember only the former lives of the more interesting or arresting personalities: kings, queens, martyrs, monsters, etc. That's why there are so many former Napoleons and Cleopatras and so few kitchenmaids and village idiots.

Finally, we must detach ourselves from the encapsulating Xtian belief in literal "Resurrection." We must understand that the "raising of the dead" is a metaphorical version, not of reincarnation, but of renewal within life. To be reborn of the flesh, of fire, of water and the spirit -- these are its tetramorphic aspects, to be sure, but resurrection, reincarnation and being "born again" are all symbols of the birth or rebirth of the spirit within the "dead" soul of materialistic greed. Rebirth begins before physical death and proceeds post-mortem into actual reincarnation. Reincarnation per se, however, is not acceptable to orthodox Xtianity in the slightest because it neutralizes Salvation.

(See also: REINCARNATION , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Karma - H,N

Refers to the "debt" accumulated against a soul as a result of good or bad actions committed during one's life (or lives). If one accumulates good karma, he will supposedly be reincarnated in a desirable state. If one accumulates bad karma, he will be reincarnated in a less desirable state.

(See also: Karma , New Age, Body mind and Soul)

Karma: Depending on the culture, the concept of karma has several different interpretations. While some schools of thought use the term to mean a sort of payback for our good and bad deeds, others (notably Buddhist scholars) maintain that karma never means the effect of a good or bad deed, but the deed itself. This initial deed, they argue, sets into motion a chain of events that leads to eiher good or bad situations, depending on the nature of the original deed. Edgar Cayce, on the other hand, taught that the consequences of our actions in this life were not karma, but simply cause and effect. He said that karma was always what we bring into this life as consequences from a past life.

(See also: Karma , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Karma

(Sanskrit "deed," "action," "ritual," "result") A central Indian term with various meanings.

1)    Any mental, verbal, or physical action or intention, especially a morally correct or textually prescribed activity.

2)    The results or consequences of actions or intentions.

3)    The Hindu principle of cause and effect, originally developed in South Asian religions, that determines one's past, current, and future existences. Everything we do produces some effect, now or later, on the physical or astral planes. Representing neither good nor evil, all actions and events cause corresponding actions and events in the past or future (including past and future lives through reincarnation).

4)    Ritual activity, particularly the ancient Indian rites propitiating a pantheon of gods as prescribed in the Vedic texts. Ritual performance might be done to meet religious obligations, such as initiation into the community, to honor one's ancestors, or to fulfill individual desires such as wealth, progeny, or immortality. The results of ritual, which are also called karma, were sometimes interpreted as "unseen" (apurva), that is, postponed or not yet noticeable in order to explain apparently delayed consequences. While all could admit that actions would eventually bear consequences, the doctrine of unseen results provoked lively debate and reconsideration of the importance of ritual.

5)    The erroneous western interpretation: That the good and bad deeds that we do adds and subtracts from our accumulated record, our karma. At the end of our life, we are rewarded or punished according to our karma by being reincarnated into either a painful or good new life.

(see Karma)

(See also: Karma , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Karma:

Hindu and Buddhist ethical doctrine of "as one sows, so shall one reap".

See also Reincarnation . Yogic system of action and service.

(See also: Karma , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

ARTIFICIAL REINCARNATION - assuming the identity of someone else under hypnosis (NAD)

(See also: ARTIFICIAL REINCARNATION , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Reincarnation - The doctrine of rebirth after death. It is one of the tennents of Wicca.

(See also: Reincarnation , Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary)

Reincarnation. The doctrine of rebirth, believed in by Jesus and the Apostles, as by all men in those days, but denied now by the Christians. All the Egyptian converts to Christianity, Church Fathers and others, believed in this doctrine, as shown by the writings of several.

In the still existing symbols, the human-headed bird flying towards a mummy, a body, or "the soul uniting itself with its sahou (glorified body of the Ego, and also the kamalokic shell) proves this belief. "The song of the Resurrection" chanted by Isis to recall her dead husband to life, might be translated "Song of Rebirth", as Osiris is collective Humanity. "Oh! Osiris [here follows the name of the Osirified mummy, or the departed], rise again in holy earth (matter), august mummy in the coffin, under thy corporeal substances", was the funeral prayer of the priest over the deceased.

"Resurrection" with the Egyptians never meant the resurrection of the mutilated mummy, but of the Soul that informed it, the Ego in a new body. The putting on of flesh periodically by the Soul or the Ego, was a universal belief; nor can anything be more consonant with justice and Karmic law. (See "Pre-existence".)

(See also: Reincarnation , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Hinduism (Hindu Dharma): (Sanskrit) India's indigenous religious and cultural system, followed today by nearly one billion adherents, mostly in India, but with large populations in many other countries. Also called Sanatana Dharma, "eternal religion" and Vaidika Dharma, "religion of the Vedas."

Hinduism is the world's most ancient religion and encompasses a broad spectrum of philosophies ranging from pluralistic theism to absolute monism.

It is a family of myriad faiths with four primary denominations:

• Saivism,
• Vaishnavism,
• Shaktism and
• Smartism.

These four hold such divergent beliefs that each is a complete and independent religion. Yet, they share a vast heritage of culture and belief:

• karma,
• dharma,
• reincarnation,
• all-pervasive Divinity,
• temple worship,
• sacraments,
• manifold Deities,
• the guru-shishya tradition and
• a reliance on the Vedas as scriptural authority.

From the rich soil of Hinduism long ago sprang various other traditions. Among these were Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, which rejected the Vedas and thus emerged as completely distinct religions, disassociated from Hinduism, while still sharing many philosophical insights and cultural values with their parent faith.

Though the genesis of the term is controversial, the consensus is that the term Hindu or Indu was used by the Persians to refer to the Indian peoples of the Indus Valley as early as 500 bce. Additionally, Indian scholars point to the appearance of the related term Sindhu in the ancient Rig Veda Samhita. Janaki Abhisheki writes (Religion as Knowledge: The Hindu Concept, p. 1): "Whereas today the word

Hindu connotes a particular faith and culture, in ancient times it was used to describe those belonging to a particular region. About 500 bce we find the Persians referring to 'Hapta Hindu.' This referred to the region of Northwest India and the Punjab (before partition).

The Rig Veda (the most ancient literature of the Hindus) uses the word Sapta Sindhu singly or in plural at least 200 times. Sindhu is the River Indus. Panini, the great Sanskrit grammarian, also uses the word Sindhu to denote the country or region.

While the Persians substituted h for s, the Greeks removed the h also and pronounced the word as 'Indoi.' Indian is derived from the Greek Indoi."

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan similarly observed,

"The Hindu civilization is so called since its original founders or earliest followers occupied the territory drained by the Sindhu (the Indus) River system corresponding to the Northwest Frontier Province and the Punjab. This is recorded in the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures, which give their name to this period of Indian history. The people on the Indian side of the Sindhu were called Hindus by the Persians and the later Western invaders. That is the genesis of the word Hindu" (The Hindu View of Life, p. 12).

See: Hindu.

(See also: Hinduism , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Ascension

The rise of the "Christ-consciousness" in man-kind to the point that the individual is beyond the powers of reincarnation and karma. The word "resurrection" as found in the New Testament is best translated as "ascension". After millenia of reincarnation, the soul finally gets off the wheel of karma in "ascension". (See Ascension)

(See also: Ascension , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

a-karma:

a-karma. Non-action; detached action whose consequences do not leave a binding impression.

(See also: a-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Reincarnation:

A belief concerning the supposed process by which souls reinhabit body after body, life after life. The mathematics are implausible and most of the evidence has other possible explanations.

(See also: Reincarnation , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

karma yoga:

yoga of work or service

(See also: karma yoga , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Reincarnation :

Reincarnation

An anglicized word of Latin derivation, meaning "reinfleshment," the coming again into a human body of an excarnate human soul. The repetitive reimbodiment of the reincarnating human ego in vehicles of human flesh  - this being a special case of the general doctrine of reimbodiment. This general doctrine of reimbodiment applies not solely to man, but to all centers of consciousness whatsoever, or to all monads whatsoever  - wheresoever they may be on the evolutionary ladder of life, and whatsoever may be their particular developmental grade thereon.

The meaning of this general doctrine is very simple indeed. It is as follows: every life-consciousness-center, in other words, every monad or monadic essence, reincorporates itself repeatedly in various vehicles or bodies, to use the popular word. These bodies may be spiritual, or they may be physical, or they may be of a nature intermediate between these two, i.e., ethereal. This rule of nature, which applies to all monads without exception, takes place in all the different realms of the visible and invisible universe, and on all its different planes, and in all its different worlds.

There are eight words used in the theosophical philosophy in connection with reimbodiment, which are not all synonymous, although some of these eight words have almost the same specific meaning. They are: preexistence, rebirth, reimbodiment, palingenesis, metensomatosis, metempsychosis, transmigration, reincarnation (see under each word for definition). Of these eight words, four only may be said to contain the four different basic ideas of the general doctrine of reimbodiment, and these four are preexistence, reimbodiment, metempsychosis, and transmigration.

In no case is the word reincarnation identical with any of the other seven words, though of course it has grounds of strong similarity with them all, as for instance with preexistence, because obviously the entity preexists before it reincarnates; and on the same grounds it is similar to rebirth, reimbodiment, and metensomatosis.

The meaning of the word reincarnation differs specifically from rebirth in this, that the latter word simply means rebirth in human bodies of flesh on this earth; while the former term also contains the implication, tacit if not expressed, of possible incarnations in flesh by entities which have finished their earthly pilgrimage or evolution, but who can and sometimes do return to this earth in order to incarnate for the purpose of aiding their less evolved brothers.

See also: Reincarnation , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

 Karma-yoga:

unselfish actions

(See also:  Karma-yoga , Body Mind and Soul)

Asubha-karma - activities producing inauspicious results.

(See also: Asubha-karma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Aprarabdha-karma - the accumulated stock of reactions to activities which are lying in a dormant condition and waiting to bear fruit at some time.

(See also: Aprarabdha-karma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

ancha karma:

five ayurvedic purification methods

(See also: ancha karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)