Reincarnation – one life after this life after another…
What a wonderful thought that our soul is immortal and begins a new chapter and learning curve with each successive human lifetime!
There are many who intuitively feel that subsequent human births will follow this one. Others cannot entertain the idea of ’having to go back’ to endure everything they have had up to this lifetime and totally reject the idea of recycled souls as unfortunately the opportunity for fresh and brighter experiences.
There are occasional people who imagine they have lived a previous life of great fame and splendor with magnificent achievements that allow them to identify with heroes of the past and unfortunately too often Cleopatra or Napoleon is the chosen claim.
However, many of us remember past lives, or parts of some, that filter down to current habits, personality talents, and sometimes as unreasonable fears, people’s instant likes and dislikes and require reason and balanced attitudes. in self-discipline, or a philosopher or an expert. psychotherapies to help reduce the negatives and feel free to experience the positives. There are also strong happy memories spontaneously retrieved without any apparent external cause. Both happy and tragic moments and experiences are engraved deeper in the soul.
At certain stages of individual inquiry into spiritual matters, it becomes important that we remember a difficult lesson from the past for some reason we can only speculate about, as it is usually a matter directed by higher intelligences beyond our understanding. Sometimes it may be to observe our physical death in a previous life to be convinced of the immortal nature of our soul. Or it may be remembering a humble role in a previous life to balance a dominant place in society at this time.
But certainly we must venture to guess that the memory of past lives is not for our indulgence or entertainment, but to help us meet our responsibilities in this present life.
Only when we are making progress in overcoming our material nature and are better attuned to our soul, do we gain the chance to see an accelerated spiritual ‘video’ of our soul’s entire journey up to this point.
The reluctance to face reincarnation as a natural law was instilled in those of the Christian faith following the deliberate eradication of the concept from the doctrinal teachings of the early church. There is no such hesitation in other religions and philosophies. In Hindu culture it is a simple custom of parents to encourage babies to express any vague memories of a previous life if they wish to communicate on matters not related to the present. This is unlike Western parents, whose habit is often to punish such a memory as mere fantasy or a lie.
Memories of all kinds, recent or long-term, are important. But it is our beliefs and ideas that guide us in our present lives along with our innate sense of moral and ethical values stronger than any assumed codes or unproductive reminders of the past.
Ideologies that focus on future rewards and strengthen the belief that self-sacrifice will be rewarded in a widely promised future heavenly state after death. Any promised reward, such as that of a large harem, makes the young eager to die so they can enjoy future sensory pleasures.
Others choose to believe in being good at a life of service to others so that after death they can mingle with the souls of friends and loved ones in the same company.
For most of us who sincerely love this planet Earth, there is only the motivation to appreciate the wonderful gift of the opportunity of life in our wonderful natural environment and yearn to return here after completing our current life. If it is love and appreciation that determines our destiny, then this is likely to repeat itself as an attractive proposition.
Those who seek the truth will consider the concept and perhaps realize the perfect order and justice that accompany our progress through the ‘classroom’ that we share on earth, sharing the same opportunity that we all have to grow in an intelligent understanding of life. This right of free will works independently of our inherited material circumstances that reflect our debits and credits in the divine justice that we know as the Law of Karma. It is to this law that the spiritual teachers of all ages have referred when in their wisdom they instruct us to “Have faith in The Law”. It is this justice and fairness that does not allow ‘favourites’ that our secular law seeks to emulate, however poorly.
By accepting the natural law of reincarnation and our future incarnations as inevitable within the natural justice system of Karma that works to give each of us our due, it brings comfort to allow for further advances in spiritual growth. We are inclined to reduce our irritation against the apparent injustices of human society and calm any feelings of impatience and anxiety regarding the limited time of life. We have all the time in the world!
Just as a member of society must acquire knowledge of the established laws of a country before functioning within it, we all must acquire knowledge and be familiar with the universal laws of life that apply in the entire environment of moral and spiritual life. in which we share .
When we find our way through the many adventures, experiences, and discoveries that result from the use of our free will and that require our wise choices… we discover that it is very well trodden. It is illuminated by the wisdom of others who have safely preceded us, as well as by our own inner wisdom: the spiritual richness of life experience accumulated by our soul, lifetime after lifetime…
