Consciousness and Reincarnation

Although we are conscious, consciousness does not come from this world. It is from somewhere else. To say that consciousness is genetic, would mean that we could find it, we cannot. To say that consciousness is learned would be closer to the truth, although it may take multiple lifetimes to realize it. When you serve the “form” (the body or your mental formations about yourself or others), you move away from consciousness, when you serve souls, you move closer.

Remember, the Divine does not play favorites. Any sincere seeker is among the highest order of the faithful. The seeking is what brings peace, whether or not you find what it is you’re looking for. Sometimes you find something completely different. That discovery is what makes the seeking wonderful. We can't know what we'll find, exactly, but it will be good. Sincerity is key.

I Am is what I found, but the path may be different for everyone. This I Am is consciousness itself. It is the foundation of consciousness and the middle way. It may take some time to find this I Am, but it will be a great relief when you do. It is not contained by religion, nor is it adverse to religion; however, peace is a great place to start. Many religious would say that love is the best place to start. I think it might be, except we hardly know love until that consciousness speaks. True, we can see images and symbols that lead us to an appreciation of love, but our love is highly conditional, I'd say. That is not to say that human love is not real, it's just that we are so fragile in our love that we often write people off because we can't tolerate their inconsistencies any more. Of course we should try to love, but peace with our neighbors and peace with God is where I had to start.

I try not to use the term "God" very often because i think it is largely misunderstood. This great consciousness is not a ruler or a mighty king, or some kind of mysterious entity, it is all entities, all kings and all rulers. This consciousness is delighted in participating in every place all at once. There is no one, or no place, that is not alive with this abundant life. Even stones are constantly moving (atomically, I mean), they are probably not self-aware, but they are like "frozen consciousness," to quote Tolle again. We can't have this broken vision of life like some god is going to hurl us into the abyss because we swear too much, or we don't love enough. That image is outdated and archaic. The foundation of life and breath itself is what this world needs now more than ever, not the threat of great suffering.

So, reincarnation; I suppose you could call this a matter of belief. Of course, we don't know what happens when we die, but we do know we can make hell-on-earth. Maybe the notion of reincarnation arose because the human heart is mostly not willing to damn itself. But if we look at reincarnation we can see a wisdom there. Should an eternity of life or death be decided on a mere 80 years of learning? The universe itself is not even eternal, and it's 14 billion years old right now! 80 years is far too short of a lesson plan for judgement. I believe in reincarnation myself because I feel that it's the only way to explain why some people live illustrious lives, going all the way to the top, and some of us are poor and sick our whole way through. What a raw deal... I just can't believe it's all meaningless, mindless chaos.

A good perspective is akin to what Jesus said about the "wheat and the chaff" being cultivated together. He says that they will both be harvested and the chaff will be discarded. This is what I say about that. Each one of us, no matter how holy we think we are, is in some way "chaff," but we are holy too. Aren't we? We have to choose our battles against corruption if we want our whole person to be preserved. It's like the universe is examining itself to decide what it is. Our lives are just snapshots in the history of a far greater being. I don't think the whole person is discarded unless they have become completely corrupted, which is why reincarnation is a mercy too. If we don't have time to learn the lessons we couldn't learn with one lifetime, with one set of environmental circumstances, we can retake our failed tests in a future life. Karma notwithstanding I do believe we live again.

This consciousness, this universe, is far wiser and more patient than any person I know. So, how do we proceed? A good moral compass is a good place to start. Humility and all virtue would be a great place to end it, but lets be honest, that's not really possible for us mere mortals. I would say the best we can do is avoid corruption and hastily leave it if we find ourselves embroiled in it. Let your conscience be your guide there. I don't know how to help if there's no conscience in you. You'll probably get another crack at it the next go around. I have a memory of a past life that was quite similar, so just don't hurt anyone.

The Tao Te Ching has a beautiful line that says, "If you want it to be strait, you first must allow it to be crooked." That makes a lot of sense to me because as a flawed person I've spent a lot of time trying to stamp out my imperfections. We simply cannot have perfection in this world. The world can't make us happy, it can only challenge us. The purpose of these challenges is to awaken us. Suffering seems to be a large part of what makes us grow into spiritual adults. And unfortunately we don't get that growth in one lifetime. If we harm others, that sets us back too. We must be wise and harmless.

Some of us are impulsive (especially at the beginning), we need to stop trying to control the world, even just our little part of it. The universe is much more capable of handling all of this than we are. I used to fight my symptoms because they were scary. I would pray and suffer and pray and suffer, but after 15 years of that I decided that I was in the wrong practice. That's when I began to meditate. Meditation has its own reward, but this practice of peace seems to get the attention of the deep self, the universe, the god-self. The universe in us is pleased to help, but if we refuse to slow down to it's speed it can't speak the words it really wants to. Practice mindfulness, meditation, and stillness (especially my SPMI friends) it is the beginning of a new journey.

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Peace to you and yours.