Narrative Essay - Reincarnation

I've always sort of been interested in the idea of reincarnation. My whole life I've been having dreams where there are faces and environments of which I have no conscious memory. Logic tells me they are in my memory somewhere, I've just buried them so deep I cannot consciously conjure them whenever I feel like it. So my deepest dreams reveal my deepest buried memories. Or, an even more rational explanation is since dreams are so mysterious, the faces and places I see in them could just be a culmination of a few different familiar memories combining to make something entirely different; something I don't recognize.

OR... and here's where my Romantic side comes in, they could be my unconscious memories from a previous life.

I'm sure I've blogged about this once or twice before somewhere, so I won't bore you with my own dreams and theories.

What I've really been interested in lately is karma and how the idea of reincarnation plays out in the world.

Take the steady human population increase over the history of the world, for example. If reincarnation exists, why are there more and more humans every day? Are ants or some other "insignificant" creatures being killed off and replaced by more humans?

This could make sense, since certain kinds of animals have become endangered. Does it add up? For every death, there must be a new life to take its place. Is the ratio really accurate?

And if humans are killing off whole species of animals, are those animals then being reborn as humans... are they seeking revenge on the humans who destroyed them because they're all of a sudden able to "pick on someone their own size"?? Is that why there's so much war?

Or is karma twisted in a way we can't understand? Maybe being reborn as a human is punishment, rather than the high position many believe it is. Sometimes I look at a dog and envy it's simple, happy life. I wish I could be free of all my responsibility, my conscience, my emotions, my reason.

Of course it would be terrible without them. But if I was ignorant that such things existed, how could I possibly miss them? What I wouldn't know, couldn't hurt me.

Tangent, sorry.

It's an interesting thought. Maybe evil trees or mosquitos are being born into the tragic life of human beings and that is why there are so many. Maybe once they're human and on top of the food chain they don't feel compelled to change their evil ways so they wreak havok on other people, on other nations, on their own families.

Perhaps that is why the population increases as it does. Being reborn as a human may not be the highest honor reincarnation can offer. It could be the lowest.