Taoism and what happens after death?

[Taiji Bum]

I always thought that traditional Taoism thought that at death the person divides and eventually decays which is why alchemy is needed. I have heard and read in many book and websites that most believe that Taoism teaches reincarnation.

 

The guy who taught me alchemy said that most peoples are like the drops from an ocean and at death return to it but there is another part that lives on like a ghost with all the memories and can still think and feel. Alchemy unites these two parts of us and makes us spiritually immortal and we can go one stage further and unite these two to the physical body and become physically immortal too. He taught me that reincarnation as a mass occurence didn't happen but did happen to spiritual immortals until they became physical immortals.

 

So what do you guys think? Is there any historical evidence of reincarnation being a late-comer to Taoism? Any opinions on reincarnation as it relates to Taoism?

[forestofsouls]

I've also heard it described in many different ways from different sources.

 

Reincarnation is a moment to moment occurance, in some ways. We are constantly changing, down to our cells and atoms. Our thoughts and feelings change often, our bodies develop, grow, and decay. Yet there is a continuity here. I am the same now as I was when I was a child, though I am completely different.

 

And if I remember to my childhood, there is a certain feeling of sentience that I observed then and now, the observer behind the thoughts, feelings, and attitude. I would probably call this my shen or spirit.

 

In my tai chi school, it is taught that people are conglomerations of energy. At death, most of this energy disperses. It is possible to create an energy that can survive death, but it is very difficult.

 

The best explanation from my perspective comes from Zen Master Seung Sahn. He wrote that the soul may divide, conglomerate, and change form. For instance, an animal soul may incarnate in a human body. That human body may die and the soul joins with two other souls to become another human. Then perhaps that larger soul dissolves into smaller souls, etc. He wrote also that strong historical personas are a collection of souls. I would imagine that along the way these souls can become more refined through good deeds, cultivation, etc. or more course through bad deeds, etc.

 

This captures both the uniqueness of the individual (in this life), and the non-uniqueness of the individual (over the long run). One can resolve the tension of a Christian teaching "it is appointed upon man to die but once, and after that, the judgment" with the widespread teaching of reincanation. A lot of people note that there are billions of humans on the planet now, where did all these souls come from? Perhaps they came from all the animals that no longer exist on this planet.

[Yoda]

"To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier." -Walt Whitman

 

 

From what I'm told, understand the Tao and you'll understand the afterlife.

 

 

One Tibetan teacher was asked what the difference was between life and death and he said, "No difference."

 

I always thought that was a pretty snappy answer.

[mYTHmAKER]

That human body may die and the soul joins with two other souls to become another human.

 

Think we could stretch this into schtzophrenia and multiple personalities in individuals

[林愛偉]

It is of mind. A state of mind where one perceves many selves. The fact of perceiving self points that there is perceiving, and in that, there is a mind that states what is, and isn't.

There is mind. There is no life, nor death. Because of the manner of attachment, we find a way to describe, and yes, label, that which we call our experiences. Each thoguht opens a door for other thoughts and feelings to follow, assisting in creating the world as we say we know it. The thoughts and feelings are of eachother, and they are of mind.

 

Being born in another body is mind experiencing mind experiencing mind, and so on in that. If there is attachment of mind and experience, there is the perception of duality.

There is the mind creating the manner inwhich one forms a "new" idea(body), and thus experiences what it considers life to be as.

 

Cultivation(alchemy as some like to call it) is the means to lessen the emotional expressions, and thus lessening its effect on the body. THis would be called balancing Body , Mind and Spirit. It is the bringing the many back to one.

In time, one experiences the feeling of wholeness, and revitalized,and mind is without the attachments. Reality has changed ,and further cultivation would be to transform mind...resulting in a transformed body.

 

 

Peace,