song for theme #14B: Reincarnation

“Reincarnation” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of “My Generation”¹ by Pete Townshend / The Who

Your body goes in the ground 

You ride the Big Wheel round²

Your soul³ leaves when you die

To return with a baby’s cry

Reincarnation

This is reincarnation thank you

Death is not a tragedy

Your soul it will always be

Consciousness taking on new form

Law of Karma⁴ not to scorn

Reincarnation

This is reincarnation thank you

All you do has consequence

Karma brings cosmic justice⁵

If something bad you do today

When reborn you may have to pay

Reincarnation

This is reincarnation thank you

You don’t just go fade away

For a thousand lives you may play

I’m not trying for big consternation

I’m just thinking ‘bout reincarnation

Reincarnation

This is reincarnation thank you

Going round again and again

Lives are full of suffering

The painful cycle can end

When all desire you transcend

Reincarnation

This is reincarnation thank you

Losing all pleasure and pain

Ego gone, Oneness to gain

Nirvana Moksha whatever⁶

Your soul dwells there forever

Reincarnation

This is reincarnation thank you

Thinking ‘bout reincarnation

Thinking ‘bout reincarnation

Thinking ‘bout reincarnation

This is reincarnation thank you

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1—Contemplation of this song’s “Hope I die before I get old” line, and other lyrics suggests it has a living and dying theme.

2­— Riding a Big Wheel is how a soul riding a cycle of death and rebirth might be roughly characterized.

3­— To some the soul is “the vital spirit in all humans.” Yet, according to Alex Lickerman, “no sect of Buddhism posits the

      existence of a non-corporeal ‘soul’—an eternal, unchanging version of ourselves capable of living independently of a brain

      and a body.” To Harvard’s Richard Wolman, writing in Thinking With Your Soul, the soul represents “the essential whatness

      of a thing in the sense of its definitive meaning, the essential and enduring character of a body possessing the capacity for life.”

4­— Karma, says the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, “is the force of creation, wherefrom all things have their life.”  Some Buddhists feel 

      karma is what gives us identity.  A “Law of Karma” might be “What you give to the world, you receive back from the world.”

5—Divine or cosmic justice refers to justice administered by God, either now, in judgment made after death, or by karmic forces. 

6—This refers to a state of oneness with ultimate reality, of total liberation from human suffering, a state of consciousness beyond

      describing. Nirvana is a Buddhist concept—the equivalent in Hinduism is Moksha.    

Comment: this theme has value as emotional armor. Feelings of dissatisfaction, hopelessness and pain of victimization can be mitigated with belief that “the next life” will be better and justice will finally be done.