Lesson Nine: More Lives Than One

Lesson Nine: More Lives Than One

He had seen a young man being walled in

Lord Tennyson met a friend whom he was sure

he had met in an earlier life.

"So friend, when first I looked upon your face,

Our thoughts gave answer each to each, so true

Opposed mirrors each reflecting each,

Although I knew not in what time or place,

Me thought that I had often met with you,

And each had lived in others' mind and speech."

The doctrine of rebirth is not confined only to

Buddhism and Hinduism but is accepted in

many religious and philosophical systems

throughout the world. Almost every country of

the East accepts the doctrines as too obvious to

need proof.

And Western writers have traced its presence in

the legends and ideas of nearly every country in

the world, including those of the Egyptians who

built the pyramids and the Greeks in their

golden age. Pythagoras and Plato taught it.

Even among the early Christian Church fathers,

the belief in rebirth was held by personalities

like Clement of Alexandria, Justin Matryr, St.

Gregory, St. Jerome, Origen, St. Augustine and

St. Francis of Assisi. In fact, the early church did

accept it. It was only five hundred years after

the demise of Jesus Christ that the Council of

Constantinople was held in 553 A.D. and

declared rebirth heretical. The decision was

arrived by a simple majority vote in the

proportion of 3 to 2.*

Even under the pressure of the Church, many

great minds in the West had adhered to this

doctrine of rebirth. They ranged from

Schopenhauer, Goethe, Kant, Hume and Disraeli

to Emerson, Huxley, Tennyson, Wordsworth,

and other leading minds of the Western world

today.

1.One Life Versus Many Lives

For those who believe in life after death, some

teach that after a brief span of life on earth

ranging from a few hours to, perhaps, eighty or

more years, a person is either eternally

condemned to hell or rewarded with everlasting

happiness in heaven. Surely the few years we

spend here is an inadequate preparation for

eternity?

And if there is any Justice at all, the entire

theory should be questioned forthe injustice it

suggests.

Again, if there is lifeafter death, a belief which

is basic in religious. thoughts, this naturally

seems to point towards rebirth. If it’spossible

for a life to exist in some form after a person

dies, why can't there be lives before the present

one? one wonders why some menhave so

readily accepted the idea of a life after death

and yet have discarded the idea of lives before

birth.

Voltaire pointed out that to be born many times

is no more miraculous than to be born once.

To the Buddhist, life on earth is like a wayside

inn upon a road. Thetravelersenter through

the door of Birth and exit through the door of

Death. Within the common meeting room are

found men and women of every type who

gather experiences by interacting with one

another.

*Leslie D. Weatherhead, The Case For

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