Reincarnation - Seem to be a theme of the book?

[Nizawiza]

 

Hopefully we can all discuss this! After the release of the 11th book, and it was revealed to Rand that he had lived thousands of lives and he can remember living every single one of them.... I sat there thinking how remarkable it would be for myself to do this.

 

All throughout the book, there are quotes such as "may you be reborn into the light again", and even the theme of the book "the wheel of time", suggests there is a certain cyclical period, 7 ages or cycles to be exact.

 

There are many civiliations of our own world that proclaim there is also 7 ages or cycles of time that we all go through, astronomy shows that the earth is going in certain revolutions around the Sun, and through a period of about 30,000 years, we go through about 7 different ages where we intercept certain energies from the sun that affect our earth. AKA: The theory that 2012 is the end because its the end of a cycle and the earth will align with the sun and the center of the galaxy.

 

Right now I am re-reading the books as I am sure many other fans of this series are. In the second book, when Rand enters "the thousands of worlds that could be", something strange happens as he channels the One Power and he sees thoudands of ways that his life could have gone, or maybe that he accually lived. So did the others.

 

 

I just find it interesting that Reincarnation is mentioned so much throughout the series of the book, and even finalizes itself with Rand when he discovers all the lives he has lived, and how revelation  helps him to become a complete and more positive person within his own self.  Now the most interesting thing I find is that the Reincarnation that is mentioned throughout "the wheel of time", isn't anything like where we are born as a fox, die and are reborn as a man. It seems that the Reincarnation that is talked about flows in a pattern from life to life, and that we carry with us everything that we are from life to life. So a choice that is made in one lifetime, such as deciding to "sell your soul to the dark one", will affect every life thereafter.

 

 

Fun topic to talk about, I really enjoy this topic because I grew up alongside this book, starting to read it at about age 15 and now im 19. My idea of reincarnation has also strangely evolved with this book also. So lets discuss :-)

 

 

 

 

 

[The Fisher King]

Its that eternity-long turning of The Wheel, baby!!! ;-)

 

Fish

[Vermillion]

I think rebirth is key to redemption.  Do it right the next life.

[Nizawiza]

Lol do it right the next life... thats called procrastination mate ;-)

[jemron]

There's an awesome interview with RJ himself that is at the end of every single audible audiobook recording where RJ talks a bit about his influences of the mythology of the Wheel of Time.  He says (I'm paraphrasing here of course) the "Western" way of thinking that life or existence is linear, rather than cyclical is liberating because what we do in this life matters to what happens next or where we end up, whereas the "reincarnation" or "time as a wheel" way of thinking means that we can never progress farther, and that we are constantly re-living with no chance for redemption or progress.

 

However, as TGS showed, it seems that he wanted to suggest with his Wheel of Time mythology is that reincarnation and cyclical life DOES give a chance for redemption when you remember your past experiences.  This is the difference, IMO, between current religions that believe in reincarnation, and RJ's version of reincarnation.

 

Also, it is interesting to me that the ending of this series could very well be the ending of the turning of the Wheel of Time.  What if the series ends with a "memory of Light" or "a memory of reincarnation" and time, from the ending of the series on, will be linear, and no longer cyclical?

[Vermillion]

Lol do it right the next life... thats called procrastination mate ;-)

 

Not really.  Its no matter what mistakes you make in life your rebirth is a chance at redepemption.  Not really so much the issue of being a rock star in your next because Simon bombed you out on Idol.

[Nizawiza]

He says (I'm paraphrasing here of course) the "Western" way of thinking that life or existence is linear, rather than cyclical is liberating because what we do in this life matters to what happens next or where we end up, whereas the "reincarnation" or "time as a wheel" way of thinking means that we can never progress farther, and that we are constantly re-living with no chance for redemption or progress.

 

[Nizawiza]

Oh, in a way this is true. In a way, I think reincarnation is highly controversial and very misunderstood with the decadent and misinterpreted ideas that reincarnation can be any species going and inhabiting another species. There are even ideas that the soul will enter the body of a dead person. I think reincarnation is a real thing, and the Buddha taught the idea that eventually we can break free of our karmic bonds and break free of the seemingly never-ending cycle of the material world. This is called Nirvana by the Buddha. Or, the idea of Jesus that we can "go within to our inner-selves, and there the kingdom of Heaven will be revealed to thou", is the same as the concept of Nirvana, and is very similar to any great teacher of the past who wished to help his brethren out of this pit of clay we call the earth.

 

This is not a topic aboujt religion, just because I mentioned a couple key-names that people have created a religion around please do not take it out of context.

 

My idea of true reincarnation goes beyond anything science class will teach you, because true religion embraces the other side of life or the spiritual. As Robert Jordan aptly said it at the beggining of every book, "this was not a begining or a end, but it was a begining". At some un-determinable point, we were created through harmonic regeneration and started life as a small conflux of energy or a small vortex. This vortex expressed itself into the material world as maybe a simple hydrogen atom that had two electrons that rotated around a central point. This central point is the end or the apex of the vortex that is from the ajoining dimension. As this small hydrogen atom goes through its cycle of say about 100 days, the atom will "die" or pass of into the spiritual dimensions. Here, this very intelligent energy will find other vortexes of energy that are alike in nature to this hydrogen atom, and they will join together as a harmonic expression. Then, it will naturally reincarnate back into the material world to express its new higher intelligence as a larger expression. Lets say this happens about a thousand times a thousand. Eventually, this little hydrogen atom will become a very complicated atom such as Uranium, with over 100 different small balls of enery rotating around the center of the atom.

 

This was the starting point of your life. Everything you are composed of and all the habits you have are the result of this "reincarnation". There is not a single thing you do in your life that has not been learned in a previous lifetime or in the "in-between lives". We compose our physical body of the same atoms that we evolved from. Also, it is of most interest to note at this time that it is known in science that every atom has a certain weight in the material world... and here is the tricky part, all atoms also have a thing called a Isotope, but science has no idea what this isotope is.

 

This isotope is the same atom, but in the spiritual dimensions. Therefore, it has a different weight. Both are intimately connected to eachother.

 

Therefore, as a conclusion to the idea I have about reincarnation, each life is of the utmost importance and we may as you said change very little or almost none from life to life in the cyclical idea of reincarnation, but the linear idea that most Westerns have leads to where? One life, one death. The cyclical idea is more in line with our modern day age of science because of this, Einstein destroyed the idea of Mass and solid objects when he introduced the theory of E=MC2, which basically meeans that energy and mass are both inter-convertable and therefore we can conclude that everything is basically energy. Einstein also proved that energy is indestructable, it can only change form. This also goes in line with the "theory of reincarnation".

 

Believe as you wish, like I said this is a very interesting cnoncept of the book and it seems that all the characters of the "wheel of time" accept the idea of reincarnation and the creator and the cycle of life and the pattern of life without a second thought. Here, on this little speck of cosmic dust that we call Earth, people put their stamp of approval and dissaproval on everything that comes into the viewpoint of their five senses. This is the way of life at the present moment, and will be the way of life until we break free of the Karmic Wheel of Time through careful selection of the ideas and experiences you incept into your conciousness on a daily basis. In the natural result of cause and effect, you will either create a great life for yourself with the positive energy that resides within your spirit such as Rand Al'Thor may have achieved over many lifetimes, or you may become Moridin, who's life is devoted to anything we consider as negative and works towards the destruction of all sentient life-forms.

 

But whatsoever way of life you choose, there will always be redemption. There will always be a chance to come back into the Light again and walk with the Infinite Creator hand in hand again. For he is all things, and would never reject one of his own based on anything you do. The Infinite Creator lives again through all of us, since we are expressing our lives in a Finite way. This is the Saidar and Saidin of life. Positive and negative, or just simply polarities. Complete opposites which are alike in nature and will always be attracted towards each other.

 

So be sheltered in the Light of the Hand of the Infinite Creator and rejoice for each moment that we can laugh and dance.