Past Lives & Present Problems

An essay addressing the burden of unfinished business from the past and planned destiny in the light of Buddhist teachings. Very few people realize that the doctrine of reincarnation is not a minority belief, but that it is presently contributing to the integrities of more than a billion human beings. Many of the world's most illustrious thinkers have accepted the theory of reincarnation as the most reasonable and practical solution to the mysteries of man's origin, purpose, and destiny. One of the principal objections to the concept is due to a popular misunderstanding. It has been assumed that it means the binding of the individual to an endless succession of physical re-embodiments, each of which is devoted to the payment of moral debts incurred at some remote time in the past, each incarnation leading to further karmic responsibility -- the pattern extending to infinity.