Conclusions

With the condemnation of Origen, so much that is implied in reincarnation was officially stigmatized as heresy that the possibility of a direct confrontation with this belief was effectively removed from the church.  In dismissing Origen from its midst, the church only indirectly addressed itself to the issue of reincarnation.  The encounter with Origenism did, however, draw decisive lines in the matter of preexistence, the resurrection of the dead, and the relationship between body and soul.   What an examination of Origen and the church does achieve, however, is to show where the reincarnationist will come into collision with the posture of orthodoxy.   The extent to which he may wish to retreat from such a collision is of course a matter of personal conscience.

With the Council of 553 one can just about close the book on this entire controversy within the church.  There are merely two footnotes to be added to the story, emerging from church councils in 1274 and 1439.  In the Council of Lyons, in 1274, it was stated that after death the soul goes promptly either to heaven or to hell.  On the Day of Judgment, all will stand before the tribunal of Christ with their bodies to render account of what they have done.  The Council of Florence of 1439 uses almost the same wording to describe the swift passage of the soul either to heaven or to hell.   Implicit in both of these councils is the assumption that the soul does not again venture into physical bodies.

Why People Reincarnate

I will list the conditions that result in reincarnation along with the logical explanation why.

Condition:

Failure of the individual to recognize the true nature of his or her own existence.

Explanation:

In the west we are taught from birth to think of ourselves in terms of me and mine and you and yours.  Or to put it another way there is self and then there are others.  That there is a difference between ourselves and others.  Yet if we go looking for this self, this thing that we call "I", we discover that we can't find it.  The reason for this is that the perception of "I" is a delusion and doesn't exist on its own, but only due to the causes and conditions that produce it.  Thus if all our lives we have believed in this fallacy, at the moment of death, we sense the impending loss of this "I" that we have become so attached to and are thus unable to let it go.  We have thus become thoroughly attached to the material world and through the desire created by this attachment we return to back to it.

Condition:

Karmic debts to others.

Explanation:

When we harm others by unvirtuous deeds such as stealing and killing.  We have created an imbalance in the forces of nature or to put it another way we have created by this imbalance a debt with that person.  This debt must be corrected and thus people reincarnate to accomplish this task. However most people out of ignorance don't recognize that this is what human life is for and as a result refuse to go along with the program and reincarnate again and again.

Condition:

Belief in a connection between body and soul or consciousness.

Explanation:

By believing there is a connection between the body and soul or consciousness a belief is instilled that what you really are is your body.  Thus fear is provoked at the time of death over its loss and desire to possess another body arises and thus you reincarnate.

Condition:

Attachment or aversion to anything in the physical world.

Explanation:

Both of these conditions result in fear over the approach of death which causes the desire to return to physical existence.

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