The Greeks believed in transmigration, or re-embodiment of the soul, after a period of retribution in Hades. This idea appeared in some poets and philosophers, and Plato set forth a well-develoved doctriane of immortality and rebirth of the soul.
According to this belief, the soul passes from one body to another untill it is purified. It then returns to the dwelling place of "God". Buddihist call this place nirvana (eternal place). Brahman Hindus say the soul joins Brahman, the universal power.
The return of the soul to Brahman comes from the idea of karma. This is the belief that what a person does decides his destiny. If he has lived a fairly good life, he will be reborn, or reincarnated, as a human being, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, high or low on the social scale. His character in the last life determines what he will be in the next life.
(The World Book Encyclopedia, 1968)
Does reincarnation alway have to be an award or a punishment?
For the most part, the above can easily be agreed on in many of the religions of the world, pertaining to those that accept reincarnation. Simply put, if you are good in this lifetime, you will be rewarded in the next or if you are bad in this lifetime, you will be punished in the next. I do believe that this is a possibility, however, I feel that this argument is lacking. Not only does reincarnation serve a purpose as a reward or a punishment of a past life, but also that it is just simply ment to be. In clarification, if a deity wants you to come back to earth to fulfill a purpose and it is the best place to fill that purpose, then that is a good reason to be reincarnated. So not only does reincarnation serve the purpose as a reward or a punishment, it is also the best way to place a person or being in order to fulfill a purpose.
Is it possible for one to have a good life and be reincarnated into a lower being like a plant or an animal?
This may be hard to prove, but I feel it is an interesting issue. Lets say there is a man that lives a good life, but for some reason he is a dog in the next life. How would you explain that? For this one we would have to look to evolotion of the clue. At one time the dinosaurs ruled the earth and man was a lower being. Slowly dinosaurs becames reincarnated into man and then they died out. Then man evolved into a higher being. Slowly man becomes reincarnated into dogs and then man dies out. Then dogs evolve into a higher being. Slowly dogs become reincarnated into mice and then the dogs die out. Then the mice evolve into higher beings, and so on till the end of time. Again, not to say that there isn't a possibility of being reincarnated as a human in reward and as an animal in punishment. This is just another alternative way to look at reincarnation.
(Lilly McKenzie, 2000)