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Reincarnation is the religious or philosophical concept that the soul or spirit, after biological death, can begin a new life in a new body. This doctrine is a central tenet of the Hindu religion.〔The Buddhist concept of rebirth is also often referred to as reincarnation.see Charles Taliaferro, Paul Draper, Philip L. Quinn, ''A Companion to Philosophy of Religion''. John Wiley and Sons, 2010, page 640, (Google Books ) and is a belief that was held by such historic figures as Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates. .〕 It is also a common belief of various ancient and modern religions such as Spiritism, Theosophy, and Eckankar, and is found as well in many tribal societies around the world, in places such as Siberia, West Africa, North America, and Australia.〔Gananath Obeyesekere, ''Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth''. University of California Press, 2002, page 15.〕 Although the majority of sects within the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam do not believe that individuals reincarnate, particular groups within these religions do refer to reincarnation; these groups include the mainstream historical and contemporary followers of Kabbalah, the Cathars, the Druze〔Hitti, Philip K (2007) (). ''Origins of the Druze People and Religion, with Extracts from their Sacred Writings (New Edition)''. Columbia University Oriental Studies. 28. London: Saqi. pp. 13–14. ISBN 0-86356-690-1〕 and the Rosicrucians.〔Heindel, Max (1985) (1908 ) ''The Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures (Collected Works)'': (The Riddle of Life and Death ). Oceanside, California. 4th edition. ISBN 0-911274-84-7〕 The historical relations between these sects and the beliefs about reincarnation that were characteristic of Neoplatonism, Orphism, Hermeticism, Manicheanism and Gnosticism of the Roman era, as well as the Indian religions, has been the subject of recent scholarly research.〔An important recent work discussing the mutual influence of ancient Greek and Indian philosophy regarding these matters is ''The Shape of Ancient Thought'' by Thomas McEvilley〕 In recent decades, many Europeans and North Americans have developed an interest in reincarnation. Contemporary films, books, and popular songs frequently mention reincarnation. ==Conceptual definitions== The word "reincarnation" derives from Latin, literally meaning, "entering the flesh again". The Greek equivalent ''metempsychosis'' (μετεμψύχωσις) roughly corresponds to the common English phrase "transmigration of the soul" and also usually connotes reincarnation after death,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Encyclopædia Britannica )〕 as either human, animal, though emphasising the continuity of the soul, not the flesh. The term has been used by modern philosophers such as Kurt Gödel and has entered the English language. Another Greek term sometimes used synonymously is ''palingenesis'', "being born again".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Heart of Hinduism: Reincarnation and Samsara )〕 There is no word corresponding exactly to the English terms "rebirth", "metempsychosis", "transmigration" or "reincarnation" in the traditional languages of Pāli and Sanskrit. The entire universal process that gives rise to the cycle of death and rebirth, governed by karma, is referred to as ''Samsara'' while the state one is born into, the individual process of being born or coming into the world in any way, is referred to simply as "birth" (''jāti''). ''Devas'' (gods) may also die and live again.〔(Teachings of Queen Kunti by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Chapter 18 ) "To become Brahma is not a very easy thing.... But he is also a living entity like us."〕 Here the term "reincarnation" is not strictly applicable, yet Hindu gods are said to have reincarnated (''see Avatar''): Lord Vishnu is known for his ten incarnations, the ''Dashavatars''. Celtic religion seems to have had reincarnating gods also. Many Christians regard Jesus as a divine incarnation. Some Christians and Muslims believe he and some prophets may incarnate again. Most Christians, however, believe that Jesus will come again in the Second Coming at the end of the world, although this is not a reincarnation. Some ghulat Shi'a Muslim sects also regard their founders as in some special sense divine incarnations (''hulul''). Philosophical and religious beliefs regarding the existence or non-existence of an unchanging "self" have a direct bearing on how reincarnation is viewed within a given tradition. The Buddha lived at a time of great philosophical creativity in India when many conceptions of the nature of life and death were proposed. Some were materialist, holding that there was no existence and that the self is annihilated upon death. Others believed in a form of cyclic existence, where a being is born, lives, dies and then is reborn, but in the context of a type of determinism or fatalism in which karma played no role. Others were "eternalists", postulating an eternally existent self or soul comparable to that in Judaic monotheism: the ātman survives death and reincarnates as another living being, based on its karmic inheritance. This is the idea that has become dominant (with certain modifications) in modern Hinduism. The Buddhist concept of reincarnation differs from others in that there is no eternal "soul", "spirit" or "self" but only a "stream of consciousness" that links life with life. The actual process of change from one life to the next is called ''punarbhava'' (Sanskrit) or ''punabbhava'' (Pāli), literally "becoming again", or more briefly ''bhava'', "becoming", and some English-speaking Buddhists prefer the term "rebirth" or "re-becoming" to render this term as they take "reincarnation" to imply a fixed entity that is reborn.〔"Reincarnation in Buddhism: What the Buddha Didn't Teach" By Barbara O'Brien, About.com()〕 Popular Jain cosmology and Buddhist cosmology as well as a number of schools of Hinduism posit rebirth in many worlds and in varied forms. In Buddhist tradition the process occurs across five or six realms of existence,〔''Transform Your Life'': A Blissful Journey, pages 52–55), Tharpa Publications (2001, US ed. 2007) ISBN 978-0-9789067-4-0〕 including the human, any kind of animal and several types of supernatural being. It is said in Tibetan Buddhism that it is very rare for a person to be reborn in the immediate next life as a human.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Five Precepts )〕 ''Gilgul'', ''Gilgul neshamot'' or ''Gilgulei Ha Neshamot'' (Heb. גלגול הנשמות) refers to the concept of reincarnation in Kabbalistic Judaism, found in much Yiddish literature among Ashkenazi Jews. ''Gilgul'' means "cycle" and ''neshamot'' is "souls". Version of Kabbalistic reincarnation says that humans reincarnate only to humans and to the same sex only: men to men, women to women. The equivalent Arabic term is ''tanasukh'':〔(mullasadra.org ) 〕 the belief is found among Shi'a ghulat Muslim sects. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Reincarnation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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