How do I see reincarnation?
The main reincarnation I can find is how this life is reincarnated here and now. My thoughts tell me there is some continuity – in this situation, this human self, the world – and it’s somehow reborn afresh here and now. (The two are categorically different. I can find the past only within thoughts while what’s here is here in immediate perception and all sense fields.)
No matter how we see reincarnation or rebirth, it’s all happening within and as what I am. This moment, this human life, possible past or future lives, they all happen within and as what I am. They are part of my world of experience.
Whether there is reincarnation in a conventional sense is a matter of research and science. For me, it doesn’t matter so much but if or when mainstream science acknowledges it, it will mean a significant shift in mainstream worldview out of strict materialism.
If I have images of past lives, they mirror me here and now. They point to something I can explore and get to know in myself now. That’s the usefulness and value in it for me.
These are some of the ways I find useful for looking at reincarnation. The first helps me notice that I can find the past only within thought while I can find what’s here in all the sense fields. The second helps me notice that all experience, no matter what it is, happens within and as what I am. The third is a reminder that reincarnation – as it’s understood conventionally – is a matter of research and science, not personal opinion. The last is a way to use images about possible past lives to point back to something in me – and my human life in the world – here and now.