The document discusses reincarnation from Buddhist and other spiritual perspectives. It provides an overview of Buddhist cosmology, which describes 31 planes of existence divided into the sense-sphere realm, fine-material realm, and immaterial realm. Each realm contains beings at different stages of spiritual development experiencing various levels of suffering. It also describes the cosmology presented by spiritual teacher Adi Da Samraj, involving progression through subtle planes after death. The document argues that reincarnation could be "re-engineered" to help beings avoid past mistakes and reconnect with spirituality through counseling children who remember past lives and guiding souls toward auspicious rebirths.

1. Re-Engineering
Re-Incarnation
The Reality of Rebirth and
How It Might Be Managed
Michael LaTorra
Associate Professor of English [Retired]
New Mexico State University

2. Religion & Science
• Re-incarnation is a part of Hinduism,
Buddhism, Taoism, and many shamanic
religions
• Scientific research into re-incarnation by
professor of psychiatry Ian Stevenson during
40 years investigated 3,000 cases of children
around the world who recalled having past
lives

3. The Process
• In most cases, re-incarnation happens in an
almost mechanical fashion
• The desires and aversions of one life cause
re-birth in a subsequent life
• Highly spiritually advanced beings re-incarnate
by choice, not by chance
• Tibetan Buddhist tradition depends on
re-incarnation for its top religious leaders

4. Models of the Cosmic Domain

5. Buddhist Cosmology
• Divided into 3 broad realms: the sense-sphere
realm, the fine-material realm and the
immaterial realm
• Each of the 3 realms is divided into several
subsidiary planes, for a total of 31 planes of
existence

6. Buddhist Cosmology
• Sense-Sphere Realm = 11 planes
• Sensual desires predominate
• 7 planes of better sensual experience: human realm plus the 6
“heavenly” planes = the gods under the Four Great Kings; the Gods
of the Thirty-Three, presided over by Sakka, a good-hearted deity
but prone to negligence; the Yama Gods; the gods of the Tusita
heaven, where future Buddhas await their final rebirth; the gods
who delight in creating; and the gods who wield power over the
creations of other gods, including Mara who tempted the Buddha.
• 4 planes of deprivation: the animal kingdom; the sphere of ghosts
afflicted by incessant hunger and thirst; the sphere of the titans
characterized by constant combat; and the hells characterized by
torment.

7. Buddhist Cosmology
• Fine-Material Realm = 16 planes
• Gross matter is absent, only finer material forms exist
• Denizens of this realm enjoy greater bliss, power, luminosity, and
vitality than do denizens of the sense-sphere realm
• Experience of these planes corresponds to the Buddhist meditative
attainment of the first four jhanas
• Planes = Brahma's Assembly; the Ministers of Brahma; the Maha
Brahmas; the gods of Limited Radiance; the gods of Immeasurable
Radiance; the gods of Streaming Radiance; the gods of Limited
Glory; the gods of Immeasurable Glory; the gods of Refulgent Glory;
the gods of Great Benefit; the gods of Immeasurable Benefit; the
gods of Refulgent Benefit; the Pure Abode of Aviha; the Pure Abode
of Atappa; the Pure Abode of Sudassa; the Pure Abode of
Akanittha.

8. Buddhist Cosmology
• Immaterial Realm = 4 planes
• Mind only; no materiality
• Denizens of these 4 planes enjoy enormous lifespans,
extending for 20,000, 40,000, 60,000 and 80,000 great
eons (exact duration of an “eon” is not specified)
• Experience of these planes corresponds to the four
immaterial meditative jhana attainments and share the
same names
• 4 planes = Infinite Space; Infinite Mind; Nothingness;
and Neither-Perception-nor-yet-Non-Perception.

9. Buddhist Cosmology
• Why none of the worlds in the Buddhist
cosmos is true “heaven”
• Life in the cosmic worlds arises due to
conditional factors
• When those conditions no longer obtain, life
ceases
• Life experience in the cosmic domain is
impermanent, not fully satisfactory, and lacks
essential Being

10. Buddhist Cosmology
• "In Buddhist cosmology existence in every realm, being the product
of a kamma [karma] with a finite potency, is necessarily
impermanent. Beings take rebirth in accordance with their deeds,
experience the good or bad results, and then, when the generative
kamma has spent its force, they pass away to take rebirth
elsewhere, as determined by still another kamma that has found
the opportunity to ripen. Hence the torments of hell as well as the
bliss of heaven, no matter how long they may last, are bound to
pass. For this reason, the Buddha does not locate the final goal of
his teaching anywhere in the conditioned world. He guides those
who are still tender to aspire for a heavenly rebirth and teaches
them the lines of conduct that conduce to the fulfillment of their
aspirations. But for those whose faculties are mature and who can
grasp the unsatisfactory nature of everything conditioned, he urges
determined effort to put an end to wandering in samsara and to
reach Nibbana [Nirvana], which transcends all planes of being."
~ Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Introduction", The Middle Length Discourses of
the Buddha, 3rd edition, 2005, p. 48.

11. Cosmos of Avatar Adi Da Samraj
(1939-2008)

12. Adi Da: Seven Stages of Life

13. Cosmos of Adi Da Samraj

14. The Cosmic Mandala
A series of concentric planes or spheres seen during
the death transition or in visionary experiences

15. Cosmos of Adi Da Samraj
RED =
Realms of
existence
lower or
more
gross than
the
human

16. Cosmos of Adi Da Samraj
GOLDEN
YELLOW =
The plane of
human
embodiment
and the
lower etheric
or astral
realms

17. Cosmos of Adi Da Samraj
SILVERY
WHITE =
The
highest
astral
realm

18. Cosmos of Adi Da Samraj
DARK BLUE/
BLACK = The
"empty space"
between the
higher astral
planes and the
subtle realms

19. Cosmos of Adi Da Samraj
BRILLIANT
BLUE = The
subtle or
mental planes

20. Cosmos of Adi Da Samraj
Avatar Adi Da has spoken about the subtle realms as benign
places or dimensions of existence where the sense of separate
self is hardly noticed, thus they are “places” of apparently
limitless joy and bliss. Experience in them is typically free of fear.
One is freer to notice and participate in the inherent nature of
Existence Itself — Self-Radiant Love-Bliss, Consciousness and
Light. The experience of pervasive and indescribable Joy, Love,
Radiance, and Awareness is characteristic of the subtle realms.
Even in the midst of such potentially magnificent experience,
however, from the “perspective” of the highest Realization, even
this most refined state of existence, as full of joy and bliss as it
may be, is still a condition of suffering, of non-Realization.

21. Cosmos of Adi Da SamrajCLEAR WHITE = The radiant core of all light frequencies,
often manifesting as a 5-pointed Star, the gateway between
the subtle realms and the Radiant Transcendental Being, or
Divine Domain = true Heaven

22. Adi Da Samraj
"While you are alive, you make the mind, and when you
die, the mind makes you. By your action, all the while
now, you are putting things, so to speak, in this
unconscious, this deeper personality, which is outside
the brain. You are enforcing and reinforcing patterns.
You are patterning it. You are (in some sense) indulging
in what is there in the unconscious, but you are also
adding to it."

23. Adi Da Samraj
"Death is by no means simply a doorway to ‘heaven’.
What is on your mind now when you lose physical
attention? What kinds of thoughts do you have, what
kinds of dreams do you have, what kinds of fears do
you have? That makes your ‘experience’ after death."

24. Adi Da Samraj
"Then, when you die, the conscious part falls off, the
physical falls off, and that which was unconscious
before, which is outside the brain, is now ‘who’ you are
— and ‘where’ you are. It is a place. It is the mind-
realm. This is what follows life."

25. Adi Da Samraj
Instructions for the Death Process
"There is a strong Attractive Force felt Upwards. Let yourself
feel That Force.
There is also an Upward-Moving Sound. It is an intense
Vibration That can be heard and That Moves High Above.
Let yourself be Drawn Upward by that Sound and be Moved
by That.
There is also a profound Bliss felt Above.
Let yourself be Attracted Upward by that Feeling of Bliss.
Eventually, you will see that Attractive Light Above, the
Brilliant White Light. [con’t]

26. Adi Da Samraj
Instructions for the Death Process
"Hold to the Center, hold to the Upward Attraction.
Let go of everything.
Allow yourself to be Attracted and Drawn—straight, like an
arrow—into That White "Brightness". That Bliss, That
Vibratory Force (or Sound).
Allow all sense of separateness and otherness to be
Dissolved Above, in the Un-conditional Force of Being Itself,
the Divine Self-Domain."

27. Why re-engineer re-incarnation?
• Help the re-incarnated being to avoid
repeating past mistakes
• Help the re-incarnated being to resume
creative endeavors
• Help the re-incarnated being to reconnect
with spiritual community

28. How to re-engineer re-incarnation?
• Create a centralized clearinghouse for reports
from families with children who remember
past lives
• Develop counseling techniques to help these
children to uncover the karmic reasons for
their current re-birth
• Connect children and families to spiritual
community for ongoing growth

29. How to re-engineer re-incarnation?
• Overcome our present social taboos about
discussing re-incarnation and spirituality
• Learn more about the subtle processes that
occur after death and before re-birth
• Guide the one who is to be re-born towards
an auspicious body-vehicle
• Use future science & technology to create new
types of incarnation vehicles

30. "You are not Consciously a separate
entity, even though you may presume
yourself to be such an entity through
your usual association with
‘experience’. Conventionally, you
believe that the realm wherein you
are one with God is somewhere other
than your present circumstance.
You believe that the Divine is some ‘One’ else or ‘Other’.
You think that the Divine is so profound you could not
Realize God except in a totally different state,
circumstance, and dimension than this present one. But
God is simply the Shining, Conscious Being That Is your
Nature at all times and under all circumstances."
~ Adi Da Samraj