There are differing beliefs out there regarding this. Some believe that You stay Human throughout all lives, some believe in a progression from life to life.
From the literature I have read on the subject it goes something like this.
You are born within a set of 'default' conditions.
You perform actions in accordance with Your understanding of other people, yourself, and the world around You.
You die and Your actions are evaluated by Your own soul under conditions of perfect understanding.
Under conditions of perfection, You learn what Your actions should have been.
You are then reborn into a set of circumstances that will give You the opportunity to experience why your actions should have been different.
You then die and hopefully, when evaluated, You have corrected some of Your earlier actions, but new situations arose that You either didn't handle correctly, or could have handled better, and so the process is repeated. In other words, You learned some of the basic lessons, and are moving to more advanced ones.
So, what determines what Your next life will be like?
Karma... or, in other words, the lessons that Your soul needs to learn based on the actions that You have done in this life.
The bible calls this, "You shall reap what You sow."
It is quite possible, in the context of reincarnation, to spend many lives trying to learn one lesson and not getting it quite right. However, the ultimate goal is reunion with 'God' aka Nirvana aka The Perfect State of Being.
To put this in sort of a biblical perspective. After the fall / seperation, we became seperated from God. Reincarnation is a series of lessons to teach us, to give us the wisdom, to once again, become a part of God. It is a learning process.
So, what determines what You will be next? You do. Your actions with others. Your interactions with everything around You. Your thoughts and Your very state of being. When these are reviewed in the presence of perfect understanding (God), You will be able to choose, within that state of perfection, how to best proceed to learn the lessons that will allow you to reach Nirvana.
At least, That is how I understand things.
Although, it's important to understand, that one person's safe path is another's treacherous path.
I do not think all religions are good for all people.
What one believes is part of their Karma, and was chosen by them long before they arrived in this life. Each religion is used as a lense by which You view the world and through which You see others. You have chosen that lense (among many others) in conditions of perfection based on what You needed to learn.
I guess what I am saying, is this. Your religion is a part of You, and there is a reason that You believe the way You do. Trust that reason.
It is almost senseless to view reincarnation as a religion because it doesn't matter.
While You are alive, do the very best you can here, as You are. Trust in yourself.
Looking forward into what You will reincarnate into next is pointless because one does not have the perfect understanding to see even this life, muchless the next.
I guess I am saying, trust that the path You are on is the path You are supposed to be on if your conciensce tells you that it is.
I look at it as the 'ultimate grace'
Everyone is given the oppertunity to grow and advance and restore themselves and help others to restore themselves to the state of man before the fall... perfect harmony and union with perfection. Nirvana, Heaven, Bliss, whatever Your name for it.
Jessica
