Some time ago I created this topic to ask the same question:
While the three life model seems to be the dominant way of explaining it, perhaps the one life explanation isn’t wrong either. I mean, the process that drives us from one life to the next seems to be pretty similar to the one that drives us from one place to the next, from one job to the next, from one relationship to the next etc.
We believe doing something will make us happier so we pursue it and because of that end up in a certain situation experiencing certain pleasant and unpleasant feelings. We want to re-experience the pleasant feelings and avoid the unpleasant feelings in the future, so we start grasping and holding on to some things. This in turn moulds us into who we are, how we define ourself - we are what we “own”. But because everything we “own” eventually disintegrates, we’re left with only suffering. And then…well THIS didn’t make me happy, but I bet THAT will…and here we go again 