AndrewX:
Another way of getting at it: Who or what chooses where a person is reincarnated to? The complex mechanical universe? A complex mechanical Karma? A roll of the dice? God?
Well, if you look at the quotation from the teachings in the Ancient Wisdom, via Alice Bailey, the answer would be
the Lipika Lords.
The first line of the definition from
de Purucker's Online Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary, referencing teachings from HPB (same Master, writing via an earlier student), tells us this:
Lipika (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root lip to write] A scribe; divine beings connected with karma, recorders who impress on the astral light a record of every act and thought, great or small, in the phenomenal universe.
I will go ahead and quote the remainder of that paragraph in the glossary, including a reference to
The Secret Doctrine, as it provides an in-depth answer to your question. Note that the word
`manvantara' refers to a cycle of planetary or solar evolution lasting for literally billions (or trillions) of years, while
`pralaya' is the corresponding
NIGHT, or period of inactivity which follows each manvantaric
DAY.
The lipika are active cosmic karmic intelligences, the highest class of architects, which lay down from manvantara to manvantara the tracks of karmic evolution to be followed by all evolving entities within the manvantara about to begin; and these tracks are rigidly begun, and their direction controlled, by the endpoint of the paths of karmic achievement in the preceding manvantara. They "project into objectivity from the passive Universal Mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the 'Builders' reconstruct the Kosmos after every Pralaya, . . . it is they who are the direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation -- or, as called by Plato, the 'Divine Thought' " (SD 1:104). The lipika thus are in every sense the agents of karmic destiny, for they are both the vehicles of divine ideation in their work, and yet the expressions of karmic law arising in the past and projected on the background of the future. Their intelligence and vitality permeate their particular universe and all the beings in it, so that the lipikas are stamped with whatever takes place.
If you breathe, if you speak, if you think ... and as you do each of these things ... you are literally IMPRESSING upon the substance of the Cosmos the RECORD of what you DO. Because of this, `karma' is sometimes translated simply as `ACTION.'
Skipping a portion of
de Purucker's definition, here is the rest of what he has to say in the Theosophical Glossary:
Because of their lofty position, they are identified with the universal intelligence, as its immediate vehicles or channels. Thus they are not only the channels but the imbodiments of karma, and therefore not only the interpreters or agents of karma, but the recorders or scribes upwards into cosmic ideation of whatever takes place on lower planes. Their function is thus dual: imbodiments, channels, or interpreters of karma to be worked out in the universe in which the lipikas function, and thus agents of cosmic ideation; and second, as the scribes or recorders of the innumerably multitudinous karmic records of the beings below themselves.
The lipikas correspond to the Egyptian forty Assessors of Amenti, to the four Recording Angels of the Qabbalah, the Hindu four Maharajas and chitra-gupta, the Christian seven Angels of the Presence, and to the Book of Life of Revelations. They are directly connected with karma, with the Day of Judgment, or the Day-Be-With-Us, when everything becomes one, all individualities becoming one, yet each knowing itself.
Karma, though a LAW, is not blind. In one sense, we might think of Karma as working out the same for all beings, and ultimately, this is true. But it is NOT purely mechanical, if you consider this rather detailed definition and description of the Lipika ... the AGENTS of Karma - Who record and adjust, or `balance the scales,' as this Law applies to Humanity (and to all other beings in the Solar System, or beyond).
Any real understanding of Karma, and the above mentioned
AGENTS of Karma, operating anywhere from
the Sirian System (the Cosmic Christ), right on down to our Earthly Humanity ... any such understanding will show
beyond question that our Cosmos is
more than Fair and Just, it is everything
we know of as PERFECT, ORDERLY and BALANCED.
{If we substitute the word `God' for `Cosmos,' the resulting understanding will not likely be the same. Many people do not believe that our Cosmos - and world - is ultimately governed by these various LAWS, which the Esotericist accepts ... and they will only accept that `God is thus-and-such' - which suggests an IMPERFECT Creation. I think we must be careful here, and tentatively entertain the idea of an Imperfect Cosmos, tending toward Perfection ... even while under the Aegis and Direction, or Guidance, on ALL levels - of a `Perfect Deity.'}
Even as the
Beings currently undergoing material and spiritual evolution WITHIN the billions of Solar Systems in our Galaxy, all can be said to be traveling a
spiral path of the attainment of
relative degrees of PERFECTION ... we must also try to consider that the PLAN of evolution allows for
and INTENDS that eventually,
ALL of these Beings will reach the same, unimaginable Goal of Final Union or AT-ONE-MENT with
the Supreme.
It is a challenging step, I realize, to ask ourself,
WHAT IF God is
not only the Wonderful, Glorious, Beautiful and Magnificent BEING Whom and Which has been portrayed by ALL the world's religions down throughout the ages ... WHAT IF God is actually all of that sans the anthropomorphisms and HUMAN aspects, which we undeniably, even if unintentionally, attribute to ...
(... and yet, notice the very fact that many of us would finish that sentence with
a personal pronoun, GENDERED and as matter-of-fact as if we were referring to our high school gym coach! 
)
Even worse, atheism and materialism, are so unfortunate because then we
really do start looking around to try and explain the workings of
the whole Universe as if it really was nothing more than
a giant clock. We might as well forget about God altogether, if we look at things Deistically, bc God
might as well not be there at all! And in such a worldview,
consciousness itself (the `I,' the mystical `We,' or even such notions as
The ONE) becomes reduced to nothing more than biochemical or electrical brain states ... and utterly deterministic.
But even once God has been revealed to us,
in some slight measure, as a reality ... we still have the tendency, as with everything else in life - if we are not careful -
to SETTLE for the first
explanation, or the first
experience, that comes our way! We do not remember, as the expression goes in Sanskrit, to say
`Neti, Neti' ...
Not this, not this. If we could ponder for a moment, that
God is ALL of what we have (just) experienced - yet also INFINITELY more (yeah, literally) - then we might refrain from the temptation and the tendency to go around
telling others HOW they should conceive of the Divine, let alone
WHOM and what they should understand or regard AS DEITY.
And this is why it just drives me nuts sometimes, or
really even POs me, if you'll pardon the expression, to find people saying things like
, "Jesus is God, and He's the ONLY way to Godhead." All that reveals, is that they really haven't been paying attention (
parrotting off what's written somewhere is NOT original thinking, and it doesn't take much skill, either) ... and it also shows that, as mentioned above, they've SETTLED for the first
`God experience' which they've had. And even then, we've got to consider that
one person may actually experience something of Christ's Love and even
direct Presence, while there are as many
degress, or Expresssions, of this Divine Quality (and Aspect of Godhead) as there are
colors in the spectrum - both visible and otherwise.
This wanders a bit away from a direct treatment of
KARMA, let alone Reincarnation, but again - to hear folks insist that
"Christians cannot, or must not believe in such a thing," only convinces me of one of two things. Either this inflexibility just shows that that person is
utterly ignorant, however much they might wish (and pretend) that it be otherwise, of
Christ's own Teachings on this matter, as given both in the Apostles' direct presence (both secretly and openly) and to the masses ... OR, such a person is so blinded by the
rigidity and the
dead-letter aspect of Christianity -
or really churchianity - that they would much rather dedicate themselves to
weeding out Truth Itself in order to toe the party line, and preserve the existing
structure of the catechism - lacking as it currently is in clarity on this particular matter of belief/doctrine.
We can argue, and rightly so, that
the original teachings on Reincarnation are
no longer present ... and make the point that
Christians today do not often accept this doctrine. But why, I ask, will
any of this matter, as we increasingly come to understand the Universe
even from a largely SCIENTIFIC point of view, as being - IN FACT - Governed (Intelligently, Lovingly,
Beautifully and Wonderfully)
by this very LAW of Being?
Why, I ask, will it be useful
as anything more than a history lesson, to show that -
yes indeed, for quite a number of reasons, the Law of Rebirth has been REMOVED (and `reduced' - in terms of frequency & clarity of appearance) .. from the Christian teachings, and therefore from the
minds and hearts of Christians worldwide.
I think we have
plenty to learn by studying the psychology of it all, and by asking ourselves,
"If this is so, then what does that say about other doctrines which we have been forced to accept ... or which we are told SHOULD NOT BE QUESTIONED ... or which we have come to accept without a moment's pause for consideration." Yes, Sunday School classes DO provide folks with an opportunity to
confront some of these issues, and even for all the
fuss that Dan Brown's
DaVinci Code made, it was a wonderful
shake-up in the sense that
it got folks wanting to learn more about their chosen Faith ... and about Church history.
Well, we should
never stop asking questions, and we should always try to find ways to ask them
from new perspectives, and in light of NEW understandings and knowledge which we've come to. Sometimes this can be difficult, and we become
stuck in a rut, as it were, and then we will eventually find,
sooner or later, that what we've been taught (and
come to accept) may not be
quite how things actually are.
We must have a
foundation of some sort, a
faith - in terms of an accepted system of ideas regarding spiritual matters - yet our quest, and our journey, should not be focused on
what other people tend to believe, or what
most people believe (even as other Christians, or other Buddhists, etc.). It should be about what
makes the most sense for US. And that may actually be -
a mixture of 95% Christianity, and 5% Buddhism, or it may be vice versa ... or yet 50/50 ... and while there WILL be some difficulties we must face, in reconciling the
differences between these two systems - I think we must be OPEN to the possibilities.
A dog is not a cat, and a cat is not a tree. But the person who insists that
Christianity is not Buddhism, and that one of these has room in it for reincarnation, while
the other does not ... such a person has a very clear AGENDA in such insistence. We should be asking ourself,
"Oh, and WHY NOT? Why can't these two Great Religions co-exist - even side by side, with a mutual exchange of ideas, and a willingness to see connections where HITHERTO WE HAVE NOT?"
Only an unwillingness to
learn more about ourselves, about each other, about our
God, and about the Universe ... will stand in our way. I, for one, will
not let any other person
IMPOSE upon me such restrictions. I will
think for myself, and look for connections, rather than divisions. My definition of
`Truth' is not,
"that which has been canonized and stamped with a seal of approval by certain EXTERNAL authorities." And so I DO continue to ask questions, even about
the most basic matters - INCLUDING Karma, Reincarnation, Life After Death, and so on.
But I also accept
what my experience, and experiences, have taught and shown me. I feel it is
far more important, to seek to EMBODY what I have learned ... and fortunately, I feel that this is
100% good, even if there have been (and are) some hard lessons along the way, and even as I balk a bit in accepting that
I am 100% responsible for my own actions (and thoughts, beliefs, speech, future, etc.).
Either you step up to the plate, or you sit on the bench, but either way,
you're still in this game ... which is not a
rat race, but more like a
schoolroom than a ballgame, I suppose. I have no authority to teach (when it comes to ultimate spiritual answers), but I
do have the
Responsiblity to try and
embody all that I have learned, insomuch as I believe that to be an accurate picture of
God's Plan for us all. I must always be ready to accept how little I've understood, and see
a slightly bigger picture ... not
bigger in terms of time & space, but larger in the sense of
more inclusive.
If your Plan doesn't have room for everyone in it,
I would humbly suggest you need to broaden your horizons. As one Wise Sage said a few years ago,
"If your plate gets full ... get a bigger plate!"
Namaskara
