Reincarnation

What is it that reincarnates?

It is a common, but incorrect apprehension, that it is the person's outer personality that reincarnates over and over. This would imply that the same mentality and the same nature have a status of immortal existence, and that it is only the physical body that is replaced. We would then almost resemble ourselves from life to life, maybe except from the various bodies. The mistake here is the identification of instincts, feelings and thoughts with our inner essence. Even though a person's character and capabilities, emotional constitution and instinctive habits definitely are important and very crucial, when we deal with human existence, these ways of expression are only partly and limited manifestations of something far greater and more extensive, that is our soul or inner consciousness, which is the reason for all the other aspects. In our inner nature we are far more than what we can express in one single personality at a time. We are souls that couch ourselves in personalities with mental, emotional and physical forms. Therefore it is the soul and not the personality that reincarnates, and the soul brings out a new personality each time with the inclinations and possibilities, which are partly the fruit from previous karma , and which are partly connected with the soul's evolutionary design.

We can use an image to illustrate the relation between the personality and the soul. The personality can be considered the house of the soul, the soul's residence. The house is constructed with a foundation, floor, walls, ceilings, windows and doors. Specific materials have been chosen and used for the building of a house with special qualities and possibilities. This is the soul's physical form, the outer body with its senses. If we go inside the house we will feel a certain atmosphere and an environment, which are conducive for certain expressions of life. This is the soul's astral or emotional expression. If we walk about in the house we will discover that it is arranged and furnished in a certain way with a number of organized functions in the various rooms. This is the soul's mental or intellectual form, the intellectual "furniture". Not two houses are identical and both atmosphere and arrangement will be unique from house to house. And here is an important point. We would never dream to mistake the resident for the house, even though the two are closely connected. The resident, who uses the house, is the soul, the inner consciousness, that constantly develops. The house is the residence of the soul, its instrument and form. Just as we can move from one residence to another, thus the soul renews the personality, when one mission has been completed and a new is to be prepared.

Another well-known metaphor is to call the personality the soul's clothing. The soul puts on clothes when it starts a work, and it will take off the clothes when the day is over and it is time for rest. The next morning a new day starts with new duties, and the soul will put on other clothes that have been cleaned and are more suitable for the coming challenges. The soul's clothing depends on its work and the special constitution required. Just as we should not mistake the clothes for the person, thus we should not consider the personality the core of our existence. Behind the physical, emotional and mental forms a consciousness lives and develops, and learns from the many incarnations' experiences, which sows and reaps and sows again, to harvest again new insights, characteristics, qualities and capabilities. We may have many intentions and emotional feelings, but these can change and we remain the same. Our identity exists on a very deep level. Behind the many intellectual models and emotional conditions is a soul-individuality, which continues to grow, and which contains lasting qualities such as growing wisdom and love, purpose and selflessness, insight and clarity.