Reincarnation may seem a quaint and irrelevant fossil from some ill-informed past, yet the notion of reincarnation persists today in the official doctrine of Buddhism. You may be surprised to learn that the Dalai Lama distinguishes Buddhism from Christianity largely based on the opposing views of reincarnation. Buddhism retains belief in reincarnation whereas Christianity does not.
"The Buddhas are men. They have lived lives of charity, devotion, and serenity. Their merits in previous lives, in accordance with the law of retribution for deeds, have allowed them to attain to absolute wisdom. They are omniscient, freed from passions, assured, at their death, of escape from transmigration; they will not be born again; they will enter into Nirvana." p64 Asiatic Mythology
Like any good Roman Emperor, Constantine strong-armed compliance with the Nicene Creed in June 325 AD to consolidate all power under the central authority of Rome. The best way to accomplish this was to declare Jesus Christ to be the One and Only Son of God, not to be emulated but rather to be worshiped and pleased like any obedient dog serves its Master. So personal evolution and personal transcendence could never arrive at union with God- only Jesus Christ could achieve God-consciousness and thus become the Word incarnate.
"The creed is much more than an affirmation of Jesus' divinity. It is also an affirmation of our separation from God and Christ. It takes great pains to describe Jesus as God in order to deny that he is part of God's creation. He is "begotten, not made," therefore totally separate from us, the created beings. As scholar George Leonard Prestige writes, the Nicene Creed's description of Jesus tells us "that the Son of God bears no resemblance to the ... creatures."
The description of Jesus as the only Son of God is carried forward in the Apostles' Creed, which is used in many Protestant churches today. It reads: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty... I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord." But even that language - calling Jesus God's only Son - denies that we can ever attain the sonship that Jesus did." -http://reluctant-messenger.com/origen6.html
It is time for us to finally throw off the shackles of the Nicene Creed and of Roman oppression- and every other form of bondage both overt and covert- and claim our absolutely equal access to personal Life, Liberty and Happiness. This is the American Dream!
You and I are equally worthy to achieve liberation in this lifetime, to wake up today as JivanMuktis, as humans fully alive and free to live, dance, sing, cry, and to "run, wide-eyed and laughing, to the tomb."
further reading:
http://www.mission.org/jesuspeople/reincarn.htm
http://www.wondercafe.ca/discussion/religion-and-faith/reincarnation-theosophical-vie
http://www.lightinfo.org/dir-reincarnation.htm
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