Musing on the Mechanics of Reincarnation

What is this ‘subtle body’ that we keep hearing about, and what does it have to do with reincarnation? Ken explains that, as proposed by the great Wisdom Traditions, such as Vedanta and Vajrayana, human consciousness has at least three primary components: states, structures, and bodies. The three major states are waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, a simple version of structures is the chakra system (when looked at in their developmental aspects), and bodies are necessary to support both states and structures. Put simply, for every mind there is a body—they are the supporting structures of consciousness, giving us at least a gross bodymind a subtle bodymind and a causal bodymind. The claim of reincarnation theories—generally speaking—is that the subtle and casual bodyminds can separate from the gross bodymind at death, enter an intermediary subtle-dream plane (such as the bardo), and then proceed to reincarnate in another gross bodymind from there.

Traditional conceptions of between-life realms and reincarnation often rely heavily on metaphysical schemes such as the Great Chain of Being. The problem is, traditional metaphysics, even without going into the issue of reincarnation, cannot adequately respond to postmodern criticism—which is why an Integral Post-Metaphysics is needed, and that is just what you will find suggested here....