Is reincarnation time linear?

Don't take the concept of reincarnation to literally.

 

We have addressed this subject before in various threads, two of which I have included at the addresses below.
http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=165878&highlight=reincarnation
http://www.hipforums.com/forums/show...=163917&page=1
I copied and pasted my explanation from these two threads.
Buckle up its a long ride....

Let me start with a section from The Buddhism of Tibet by The Dalai Lama. I’m going to paraphrase some to save typing.

Body and mind have direct causes. The direct cause of the body is the father’s semen and the mother’s blood. The direct cause of the mind is…let me quote this,

I think this means that a new mind is brought into existence that is similar to a mind that continues from a previous life and it is linked to the previous mind at conception.
He continues,

So, mind can only come from mind.

But what is the continuation of mind? How can their be a continuation of this mind if there is no permanent entity (be it self soul or whatever)? What is it continuing? You answer mind. But what is mind? So how can 'it' be continued?

For the moment let's just assume that an entity called the self, or mind, exists in some form or another, as we see evidence of it. There is me and there is you. What the nature of this self is, is another matter and will side track us away from the issue of it possibly being re-incarnated.

So, let me switch to Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying, An Exploration of Consciousness with The Dalai Lama, and see if any of these questions are addressed. In Tibetan Buddhism, there are latent propensities, or imprints called bag chags, pronounced bakchak. (I am paraphrasing again)These are stored in the mind and result from previous behavior and experiences and can come from previous lives. Bhavaviveka, an Indian Buddhist philosoper, states that a calf knows where to suckle milk as a result of knowledge from propensities carried over from previous lives. Buddhism considers this to be primarily a mental propensity as opposed to physiological in nature.
However, some propensities are biological. For example humans exist in the realm of desire, due to the body, and so desire and attachment are the predominant impulses and would be considered biological.
In addition, physical constitution plays a part. Deep tantric practice transforms the mind, but also at a subtle level, the body. If one’s parents had transformed their bodies in this way, the genetic information would be handed down to you.
Moreover, the external environment of the individual is a product of collective karma. The existence of a flower is influenced by the beings in its environment. But the color of the flower, etc. is due to natural law and biology.
The calf's knowing where to go for milk is due to mental karma, but also other influences.

We are now going to investigate the aspects of the mental bakchaks.

The Abhidharma is a category of Buddhist scriptures that attempts to describe worldly phenomena. Some of these scriptures are said to be direct teachings of the Buddha while others were developed later.
Within these scriptures is the concept of Alayavijnana or storehouse or foundation consciousness.
In the Yogacara school, consciousness is one of the five Skandhas and is divided into three layers, the Citta, Manas, and Vijnana. Manas is thinking, reasoning, etc and Vijana is the reaction to input from the sense organs.
Citta is Alayavijnana. It is the repository of all of the imprints, habits, and propensities from this and all former lives. It is the ground from which all manifestations and experiences seem to arise. It can contain objects but cannot ascertain them, and so, is morally neutral. It is always present and comprises the personality of the individual.
The foundation consciousnesses is a continuum from beginning less time and carries consciousness through successive lifetimes.

Of course the Dalai Lama sez this is all baloney.
Notice I didn't say that the Dali Lama doesn't believe in re-incarnation, just that he doesn't agree with the concept of a foundation consciousness.
I don't buy the subtle thread as, it seems to me, nowhere is this subtle thread explained nor how it is connected from life to life.

I'll add some of my own thoughts here that I have been piecing together from different sources...
Consciousness is awareness. It is pure energy. For energy to manifest as consciousness it must come into contact with at least one of the six senses.
When an object comes into contact with the eye, the image is transferred to the brain as energy. This energy is converted in the brain to consciousness of what is seen; and the self arises as what sees. The self then scans past experiences and identifies the object. After identification a feeling is generated based on the identification. From the feeling, volition arises and the body is moved to act. The event is then stored as memory.
Then self then dissipates, as there is nothing to generate it until the next moment of awareness.
This is one cycle. This cycle is repeated each time a sense organ meets an object.
Each cycle lasts about 50 milliseconds as the energy packet is delivered, is interrupted, and then a new cycle begins. This means that the self is not a continuum. There are different selves generated with each cycle that then passes away.
The illusion of a permanent self is due to the retention of nerve impulses by memory. The illusion holds until the person can step outside and observe the process. Then the persona dies and only the perception exists.
Having said that, there must be a connection between each cycle for the continuity of the organism that experiences the self. The self is a product of memory, but the brain that houses the memory must also maintain itself in the ever changing flux of Ultimate Energy.
During this interval between cycles, when the self dissipates, there is no time for the self, it is non-temporal. Time does not exist, the only time that exists is when the self exists.
So what carries the self from moment to moment? I would think, the brain and it's memory. The body continues to exist due to the environmental karma that suurounds it. We are maintained by each other.
So, we know the self, and personality, is an illusion perpetuated by memory. We can tell by the fact that when a person has no memory, there is no self. And we know the self is an illusion.

Now, the question is, can the illusion of the self migrate from one body to another? (Re-incarnation)
I am thinking it can and I'm thinking that it is an A-temporal transference, it happens outside of time.
I suspect the transference happens in the environmental karma that surrounds the individual.
It seems all accounts of re-incarnation, that I can think of, involve the re-incarnated individual re-cognizing, places, objects, people; all environmental factors from a previous life.

Mind in this context is a term used to identify the Ultimate Which Has No Name and can not be described by words.

This use of the word Mind does not mean that Mind is a thing. Ultimate Mind is not a thing, nor a non-thing, therefore, there is nothing to arise.

In addition, for mind to arise we would have to postulate a before arising, a continuation, and a discontinuation of mind. But since there can be no arising without a continuation, and no continuation without a discontinuation; we see that all three times are really different aspects of the same concept and cannot exist on their own.
If they cannot exist on their own, there can be no separate arising.

So, there is no Mind to arise and no time frame for it to arise in.
Now, the question is, can the illusion of the self migrate from one body to another? (Re-incarnation)
I am thinking it can and I'm thinking that it is an A-temporal transference, it happens outside of time.
I suspect the transference happens in the environmental karma that surrounds the individual.
It seems all accounts of re-incarnation, that I can think of, involve the re-incarnated individual re-cognizing, places, objects, people; all environmental factors from a previous life.
Briefly, since everything is energy and all energy is one, everything is everything all at the same time...or rather outside of time as time is part of the general energy pattern.
So a pattern, or wave, is set up in the general energy field and it represents the individual ego, or an ego pattern, based upon the karma, or action that defines it. Now since this pattern exists as an energy wave, and the wave is contained in the general energy field, it can continue to exist after the death of the body that originally set it into motion as a harmonic induced in the general field of matter which is itself only a different vibration of the same energy field which comprises the body, ego, matter, time, etc.
This harmonic karmic wave can then be "picked up" by another body, which itself is only a form of energy, and it can induce certain actions, or karma in that body by the principles of harmonics!
..because, if I understand wave theory correctly, there is no transference of matter as a wave propagates..

So there is no need for a soul, ego, self, or whatever to transfer from one body to another….only the past action of the illusionary self is passed on in wave form and picked up by another body that it resonates with.

Let me rephrase that...
There is a self, but it is an illusion.
Since the self is an illusion there is nothing to pass on except the illusion.

Of course this is all at one certain level....