Humanities Period 8

March 18, 2016

March Impromptu
Reincarnation
Reincarnation is the spiritual thought or belief that when one dies, he/she is reborn into
another life. Hinduism is where the belief originated; however, as globalization spread
Buddhism towards China, Taoism began to adopt its concept of reincarnation. There are many
pros and cons to reincarnation. While such pros would include the ability to live through another
life even after one has died and to learn from ones past mistakes, such cons would include, in
some cultures, the belief of a social caste system through reincarnation.
The ability to be reborn in another life is an asset to reincarnation. According to an
article by Ernest Valea, reincarnation gives assurance for continuing ones existence in further
lives and thus having a renewed chance to attain liberation (lines 5-6). People who believe in
reincarnation are seeking for a spiritual way to accept the fact of their eternal lives and therefore,
go through life knowing that there is another life that they can redeem themselves for their prior
mistakes. Reincarnation is a way to view life in another perspective because people know that
they will be reborn, therefore, they continue to judge the meaning of life. The soul is considered
as eternal and pure, according to reincarnation, because of the many times it embodies another
figure to recreate the life of a person after death.
Another pro of reincarnation is to be able to learn from ones past mistakes. A person that
follows the belief of reincarnation is able to learn from their past mistakes because of the many
lives they have gone through. They know the consequences of following through their mistakes
and actions, and therefore, are able to become wiser and one step closer to reaching the goal of
escaping reincarnation and achieving nirvana. According to an encyclopedia article on

reincarnation, the soul uses the experience of each incarnation as an opportunity for expiating
sins in former lives (paragraph 7, lines 2-3). The soul looks over the mistakes and actions that
were made in the previous life and judges what should become of them in the next life. People
then learn that if they are punished with a lower next life, the mistakes that they have made
should not be made again because of the consequences that they suffered. They, therefore, use
their current life to fix those mistakes and redeem themselves for the next life.
On the other hand, a con of reincarnation would be the belief of a social caste system
through reincarnation. According to Ernest Valea, reincarnation seems to be a perfect way of
punishing or rewarding ones deed (lines 13-14). In saying that, Valea is stating that the idea of
reincarnation can attribute to a persons deeds and misdeeds. For example, if a person only does
terrible deeds in one life, they may be reincarnated as a person or animal of lower status in their
next life. The same goes for if the person does only good deeds, then they will be rewarded in
their next life as someone of a higher status. The belief of karma (consequences of ones actions)
and reincarnation coexist with each other because in the caste system, karma is the judgement
used to determine the rewards and punishments of a persons next life. If one has bad karma, it
can lead to a lower social birth, sometimes into an animal or insect, whereas if one has good
karma, it may result in a higher social caste. The ultimate goal, according to the encyclopedia, is
to escape the wheel of reincarnation totally into nirvana (paragraph 3, line 3). Throughout the
entire cycle of reincarnation, people want to rid themselves of karma and become more spiritual
because only then will one escape the cycle. By having good karma, one is slowly moving up
the social caste system of reincarnation and getting closer to escaping the vicious cycle of
rewards and punishments of karma.

In conclusion, reincarnation is believed in many cultures such as Hinduism, Buddhism,

and Taoism but all revolve around the same central concept of being reborn into another life after
death. The pros and cons of reincarnation are varied throughout each culture. Although some
pros of reincarnation would include the ability to be reborn after one has died and to learn from
their past mistakes, cons of reincarnation include having a social caste system each time one is
reborn.

Works Cited
"Reincarnation." Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 6
Mar. 2016<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
Valea, Ernest. "Reincarnation in Hinduism." Comparative Religion. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar.
2016.