by Ben Hughes

Created on: February 07, 2008

Reincarnation is most commonly associated with the major Eastern religions of Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism and also with Jainism and Taoism, as a central tenet of what happens to our souls after death, as well as giving us a meaning for living.

A basic idea of all religions is the belief in a soul which lives on after our body dies. The main different between the major Western religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism and the Eastern religions is what actually happens to our soul. Whereas the Western religions believe in heaven and hell, the Eastern religions believe in reincarnation: the soul enters another living organism and life starts again.

In other words, the body is an earthly vehicle which carries an immortal soul.

WHAT DETERMINES REINCARNATION

All religions base the quality of the future "life", or what happens to the soul after death, on what happens during their present life. So good actions in our present life will mean that we are reincarnated as something better; bad actions will see us come back as something worse, or a lower form of life.

Most religions which believe in reincarnation restrict it to coming back as a human or animal. But some groups open it up to all living entities, so including trees, flowers and all living things.

HINDUISM AND REINCARNATION

Hindus believes that the route of the soul (atman) is determined by the karma (actions) of the recently deceased person. Bad karma results in the soul moving down through the structure of different life forms, while good karma results in the soul moving up the life cycle.

How do Hindus know whether their actions are good or bad? It's all to do with their purpose (dharma) and only by performing actions in accordance with their purpose can the actions be judged as good or bad.

The ultimate aim of all Hindus is to break free of this cycle of birth, death and rebirth (samsara) and reach moksha: where the soul will be with God (Brahman) for eternity.

SIKHISM AND REINCARNATION

The Sikh idea of reincarnation is adopted from Hinduism, so Sikhs will also try to perform good actions and avoid bad actions to prevent their soul from an eternity of reincarnation.

BUDDHISM AND REINCARNATION

While Buddhism doesn't state a permanent and unchanging identity, there isn't strictly such a thing as reincarnation. But the Buddha still referred to his past lives.

Buddhism teaches that what is reborn is not the person but that one moment gives rise to another and that that momentum continues, even after death. It is a

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