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I am in a situation that many will find themselves in unfortunately. Desperate to make sense of tragedy and begging for answers. And in this state of mind, we look for someone to blame or to explain it to us. We really want to believe in things that really make little sense to a very inquisitive person.
First off, Reincarnation? Are we here to learn? Do we live multiple lives on earth in an effort to reach some enlightenment or spiritual understanding. If so? If we are all here to learn and have been here many times, why is the world so full of ignorant people? This teaching and learning stuff is not working out so well. At least not for earthlings.
God. Okay if god created everything from nothing and there was nothing here, than he ain't from around here. That makes him an alien. And if god is responsible for everything than he is an absolute uncaring, unloving prick! A loving god does not burn and punish his creations for eternity. So hell is maybe just something man made up to scare people into putting money in the plate they pass around.
It is my own opinion that all the worlds religions are made up by man and none of them have the correct answers. However each may have a very small part of the bigger picture. And to believe in a bigger picture, one has to believe in a supreme being or at minimum a supreme energy that infiltrates everything and everyone. And there's the rub. Some of us cannot believe just because someone said so.
I need some form of proof. I want to believe but not just blindly.
We need to rethink all of it.
The energy part is not so hard as dark energy and dark matter make up 95% of the universe and we know absolutely nothing about it. Zero understanding. Only theories, ( best guesses)?
But there could be simple scientific explanations for it and we just haven't figured it out?
I would like to believe as it might calm my tortured self. But short of a burning bush in my living room or dying and seeing for myself, I chalk it up to desperation for answers that don't exist.
Furthermore, desperation often leads to hallucination.
But in reality, of course, there is already a supreme energy that infiltrates everything and everyone. It's just energy, just space-time, just the 4 discovered fundamental forces, etc. etc. Unless by "supreme" you meant "full of consciousness or fairness." In that case, only nervous systems and possibly robots in the future would be capable of that as the Sun is only capable of what it's capable.
Often, we can find happiness in being thankful for the little things and not expecting, but being happily surprised by the bigger things. A tragedy is only so because of broken expectations of fairness. But what is bad can be replaced with what is good, unless we don't let it. We only beg for answers because we think we are lost without them. Sometimes the answer is none-of-the-above or we-don't-yet-really-know. Sometimes the answer is staring at us in the face and we just don't see it or don't accept it. Don't let imagined perfection get in the way of real well-enough.
Reincarnation has (or at least had at one time) a fair bit of popularity in the West. It has its' appeal. After you die, you get another life, and then another one after that. And if you are a good boy and eat your greens, each life gets Better. What a system! But it gets better -if you are Not a Good Boy, but get away with it without being punished for it, your own Karma punishes you for your own deeds. Bloody hellfire! It's all the advantages of heaven and hell without the injustice.
This isn't of course the idea of rebirth in Buddhism where endless cycles of life was seen as a burden that we all wants to end, by getting off the wheel of rebirth. However,in actual practice, thanks to all that nasty western influence that has undermined their traditions, everyone seems not to care about not getting another life, but ensuring that the next one is a bit better, or no worse.
I recall as a kid reading one writer's Western idea of rebirth. His theory was that we opt for rebirth ourselves because at death, we are shown our whole life with all its' mistakes ( don't i know what I'd do different next time) and we are so anxious to put it right that he dive into a rebirth right away. And get reborn with no memory of what we did wrong and every chance of making the same mistakes all over again. I felt quite sick.
I am in a situation that many will find themselves in unfortunately. Desperate to make sense of tragedy and begging for answers. And in this state of mind, we look for someone to blame or to explain it to us. We really want to believe in things that really make little sense to a very inquisitive person.
First off, Reincarnation? Are we here to learn? Do we live multiple lives on earth in an effort to reach some enlightenment or spiritual understanding. If so? If we are all here to learn and have been here many times, why is the world so full of ignorant people? This teaching and learning stuff is not working out so well. At least not for earthlings.
.........
Good reincarnation theory is in Hindu philosophy samkhya (sankhya). According this philosophy is something like evolution on a spiritual basis. Since a simple forms of life (viruses, bakteries..), plants...
People are according this philosophy the peak of earthly development. And nexts step are higher beings, for example Siddhas, Vidyadharas - people who obtain higher spiritual knowledge through meditation... see for example book by old hindu priest Somadeva, Ocean of stories (is free on net in pdf.)
Hi stevie60, Your questions are valid and many ask the same thing.
This is my input: Ask someone that knows.
Or read someone that knows.
Here you will get opinions and speculation from many that don't even know a thing
about how anything works...and thus, you perpetuate the confusion.
If you care to I could give you a list of books privately, just ask.
I started reading about the Afterlife in the 70s...sometimes I think I have read every NDE and
every detailed book written from 'the Other Side' messages.
I myself was shocked to experience a past life "scene" that blew my socks off...and another and another....
all reflecting lessons..and giving me insight into what an amazingly slow learner I am.
PS You willl find out God is not a pr*ck.
Best wishes on your research.
Oh, eventually you will find instructions (books) on how to speed up things so you can finally
'not need' to come back to this place anymore. Sound exciting? It is. Simple instructions in English..
Who would have thought !
I've never heard a satisfactory explanation from believers in reincarnation for the population explosion. If the same souls are being recycled over and over, howcum the world's population has doubled in such a short time? Who is churning out billions of new souls to inhabit billions of new bodies?*
Rhetorical. I know believers think a god is cranking them out at the heavenly soul factory.
I've never heard a satisfactory explanation from believers in reincarnation for the population explosion. If the same souls are being recycled over and over, howcum the world's population has doubled in such a short time? Who is churning out billions of new souls to inhabit billions of new bodies?*
Rhetorical. I know believers think a god is cranking them out at the heavenly soul factory.
In fact, there are 15 dead people for every person living. We surpassed seven billion dead way back between 8000BC and AD1.
I lean toward there being "something" to this because of stories from family and friends that are not easily dismissable, but I don't know any more than anybody else does.
A psychic recently told me she saw me washing dishes at what appeared to be a convent in medieval times. She said I was not part of the community that lived there, but that I was thinking that they were really no different from me. That was kind of depressing. The highlight of my past lives was washing dishes?
Did I resent it instead of accepting my fate? Is that why there is no dishwasher in the condo I purchased and I have to wash dishes by hand?
That's what my spiritual growth amounts to over 500 years or so?
I am in a situation that many will find themselves in unfortunately. Desperate to make sense of tragedy and begging for answers. And in this state of mind, we look for someone to blame or to explain it to us. We really want to believe in things that really make little sense to a very inquisitive person.
First off, Reincarnation? Are we here to learn? Do we live multiple lives on earth in an effort to reach some enlightenment or spiritual understanding. If so? If we are all here to learn and have been here many times, why is the world so full of ignorant people? This teaching and learning stuff is not working out so well. At least not for earthlings.
God. Okay if god created everything from nothing and there was nothing here, than he ain't from around here. That makes him an alien. And if god is responsible for everything than he is an absolute uncaring, unloving prick! A loving god does not burn and punish his creations for eternity. So hell is maybe just something man made up to scare people into putting money in the plate they pass around.
It is my own opinion that all the worlds religions are made up by man and none of them have the correct answers. However each may have a very small part of the bigger picture. And to believe in a bigger picture, one has to believe in a supreme being or at minimum a supreme energy that infiltrates everything and everyone. And there's the rub. Some of us cannot believe just because someone said so.
I need some form of proof. I want to believe but not just blindly.
We need to rethink all of it.
The energy part is not so hard as dark energy and dark matter make up 95% of the universe and we know absolutely nothing about it. Zero understanding. Only theories, ( best guesses)?
But there could be simple scientific explanations for it and we just haven't figured it out?
I would like to believe as it might calm my tortured self. But short of a burning bush in my living room or dying and seeing for myself, I chalk it up to desperation for answers that don't exist.
believe it or not, there are many people who believe it. i like that people can freely believe without the encroachment of a dictatorship or autocratic cult of personality. personally, i wouldnt have the audacity to impose my beliefs on someone who has a different belief. religious freedom is a right that assures belief without autocratic persecution
I decided to believe in reincarnation and live a virtuous life in order to come back as a sea otter. Needing the BIG answers is going to keep you in constant anxiety. All we can do is settle on what makes the nost sense to us and live accordingly. By me, best is caring about what happens to everybody in my various communities and doing what I can to demonstrate and promote that caring in others. I don't purposely do what will really cause me any serious personal trouble, but I will make a bit of sacrifice to help someone who needs it and I am sure I can actually do some good.
I decided to believe in reincarnation and live a virtuous life in order to come back as a sea otter. Needing the BIG answers is going to keep you in constant anxiety. All we can do is settle on what makes the nost sense to us and live accordingly. By me, best is caring about what happens to everybody in my various communities and doing what I can to demonstrate and promote that caring in others. I don't purposely do what will really cause me any serious personal trouble, but I will make a bit of sacrifice to help someone who needs it and I am sure I can actually do some good.
I'm good with that.
Oh dang. I wanted to come back as a great white shark. You might be my dinner, nate.
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don't i know what I'd do different next time) and we are so anxious to put it right that he dive into a rebirth right away. And get reborn with no memory of what we did wrong and every chance of making the same mistakes all over again. I felt quite sick.
