What is the purpose of reincarnation or rebirth?

It's premise is that we will continue to take form as long as we live in the ignorance or delusion that we are separate from God. There are many different paths to end the idea of the ego's separation; the three main paths are: surrender or devotion, also called bhakti yoga; the path of knowledge, called jnana yoga; and the path of service or work called karma yoga. In the end all of these paths arrive at the same place, which is union with God. But until we merge, we come back to continually work on perfecting our path.

The second noble truth of Buddhism is that desire causes suffering. If we look at our thinking - our opinions and preconceptions, and our feelings, we see that there isn't one moment that we are not continually wishing for something or pushing something away. This constant state of craving and aversion doesn't allow us to be present in the moment. We are so afraid that we will experience unhappiness by not getting what we want, that we go to great lengths trying to make sure the world provides for us what we think we need to be happy - whether it is the need for love, security, money, sex, recognition, etc. Our egos drive us continuously in the search for happiness from the outside world. We create alot of drama and pain in this journey! A turning point comes when we no longer look for the outside world to give us happiness and turn inward on our paths to find God.

Whatever the path to God (or Universal Consciousness) that we choose, we see that it's the opinions and judgements in our minds that define and limit us (and, thus, our experiences) and that keep us separate from God. And we see that by finally accepting what God has presented as our life work, whatever role that may be, we learn to trust God and we learn to trust our process or path. This feeling of trust, knowing we are just where we should be at any given moment and that we are being given exactly what we need at every moment, leads to self-acceptance, and is the beginning of feeling peace in our hearts. As we feel this peace, our desire for others' happiness increases and we find that we have a much deeper capacity to extend loving-kindness to others.