As explained in The Essence of Life and Death, being born and dying are essentially phenomena where self-awareness experiences a break and restoration in consciousness.

Upon restoration, self-awareness reconstructs the subjective world based on the information it carries as a soul—its soul memory.

This is the true nature of the phenomenon called reincarnation.

To have consciousness means to be aware of a subjective world.
To lack consciousness means not perceiving that world.

Therefore, when consciousness reappears, perception of the subjective world resumes.
And what reconstructs this world is none other than the soul memory.

Thus, the subjective world that is recognized in each moment is built through soul memory.

Normally, the subjective world doesn’t shift into something radically different.

If dreams were like a box containing scattered balls, the box would still have room, allowing for flexibility—this is why dreams can be unpredictable and freely shaped.

In contrast, reality is like a box packed tightly with balls.
To add anything, you must first remove enough to make space.

So both the dream-like and the reality-like subjective worlds are shaped by soul memory, and while they are similar in structure, the density of information differs.
That’s why the subjective world in waking life is far more detailed and intricately constructed.

Even though the world is always being built from soul memory,
it usually maintains continuity, coherence, and consistency in form.

However, in the moment of death, for self-awareness, it is the end of the world—the complete reset of the subjective world.

Since the world disappears entirely, a new one is built from soul memory.
Because the previous world no longer has form, continuity is no longer required.

In other words, death is like tipping over the box and dumping out all the balls—it is the end of the subjective world as known, the discontinuity of consciousness.

The box becomes empty, but the soul still holds many balls (memories).
These are packed again to create a new, tightly filled box.

This is how the subjective world is reconstructed, and this reconstruction appears to self-awareness as a completely new life or environment.

That is why it feels like reincarnation.

This ball-and-box metaphor of the subjective world and soul memory
also applies to views of the afterlife such as heaven and hell.

If self-awareness believes that it will go to heaven or hell after death,
then after the break in consciousness, a subjective world of heaven or hell is reconstructed accordingly.

In other words, the recognition of “going to heaven after death”
summons a corresponding subjective world through soul memory—
and that world is then experienced as “heaven”.

However, just recognizing heaven doesn’t guarantee eternal happiness.
Depending on the inner content of one’s soul memory,
even within a heaven-like world, unpleasant experiences can occur.

Let’s consider another view of the afterlife.

If self-awareness believes there is nothing after death,
then after the discontinuity, a world of “nothingness” is formed.

What does that look like?
Most people imagine it as pitch-black, empty, and void.

Few can imagine “nothing” as anything other than darkness and emptiness.

But this is actually one form of state, not true non-existence.
There is such a thing as the state of nothingness.

Thus, self-awareness experiences a dark, empty void.

It perceives this state of nothingness—pitch black, with nothing at all.

The duration it feels is unknown.

After all, time only exists when change occurs within the subjective world.

In a world of nothingness, there is no change.

Therefore, it may feel like time itself has vanished—an eternal stillness.
That void becomes everything.

Yet, self-awareness remains, along with soul memory.

Because of this, one continues to perceive the void and undergo emotional, mental, and sensory reactions.

Eventually, when self-awareness realizes “this nothingness can end,”
a break occurs again, and a new life begins.

Until then, it remains in that state of dark emptiness.

This process of reconstruction after the break in consciousness,
as in the ball-and-box analogy, is automatic as long as balls (soul memories) remain.

It is not driven by intent or thought, but a natural property of consciousness
—like how water flows downhill.

It’s also like air being sucked into a vacuum-sealed box.
Consciousness is powerfully drawn toward vision.

As long as self-awareness holds soul memory,
the resumption of perception after death is an inescapable mechanism of the soul.