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[Malediction]

Listening to the reincarnation/past life episode has brought an interesting question to mind.  Why is reincarnation assumed to be an automatic process, or something arbitrated by the higher self?  I may be barking up the wrong tree here since I myself have not had any past life experiences, but it seems to me that in order for your consciousness or soul or spirit or whatever you want to call it to survive the process of exit from this body and entrance into another it would have to have its spiritual shit pretty well together.   Anyone have any input on this?

- Malediction

[Malediction]

Now that this place is a little more active, I hereby resurrect my previous query.

- Malediction

[Yvsaph]

That's an interresting question.

The only input that I can offer is that the Tibetan Book of the Dead says that those who are reincarnated will actually choose their next parents, so one would think that they have grasp of what's happening around them. Maybe the act of reincarnation is like suffering a massive blow to the head--giving one some sense of spiritual amnesia. Its like children who laugh or point at things that aren't visible; perhaps they retain some of their extra-perception--just like a person with amnesia remembers how to speak and walk.

[ktbrady]

This may be too simple for some, but physical lives could be like clothes on a body, the body in question being the spiritual body and just like we change clothes, we change physical lives.  We consider one physical life to be the big life, what if the big life is our spiritual body reincarnating into multiple physical lives like living multiple realities.  I do not understand it too much on an intellectual level, but I do on a feeling level.

[Yvsaph]

This may be too simple for some, but physical lives could be like clothes on a body, the body in question being the spiritual body and just like we change clothes, we change physical lives.  We consider one physical life to be the big life, what if the big life is our spiritual body reincarnating into multiple physical lives like living multiple realities.  I do not understand it too much on an intellectual level, but I do on a feeling level.

A good analogy.

[ktbrady]

  I think (watch out she is thinking--cringe)  it would be nice to have my "spiritual shit" together when I die and reincarnate to another life, but  maybe it does not matter whether or how enlightened I am, what if reincarnation just is and the degree of enlightenment is just an added element.  Maybe that is why we work on being enlightened.  I think I answered my own question from another post    I want to believe, Scully, I want to believe.
 Liken it to a butterfly, does a caterpillar  need to have its energy together to become a butterfly. It just happens.    Maybe like a butterfly emerging from  a cocoon, but in our case, ALOT of cocoons , each life brings us closer to union with our Source?  Forgive me for the rant, tylenol brain because my tooth has an ache, 

[Yvsaph]

Yeah, when it comes to Karma and elightenment, I've found it much easier to simply sit back and do the best you can. Obviously you would want to work toward something better than what you started with--metaphysically, or spiritually, speaking--but you should just allow it to take place. You can't force or rush Elightenment, if such a thing is truly attainable. Perhaps that is too simplistic to some, but I think many a Buddhist would agree.

Forgive me for the rant, tylenol brain because my tooth has an ache, 

Sorry to hear about your tooth. . . wishing your pain alleviated.

[Shimmer]

I have Awakened in this life, which I presume means that I’m beginning to get my ‘spiritual sh!t’ together now.  If so, how did I reincarnate to get to this point if I was oblivious to the spiritual aspects?

(Disclaimer: I’m neither a believer or an non-believer, however, I have certain memories that I cannot explain and I have had a total stranger tell me about all of my past lives, somehow chronologically matching each life perfectly to various subjects I have been interested in throughout my life.)

[Yvsaph]

Well, like I said, maybe in the actual act of reincarnation your spiritual self gets jolted to a point that you forget certain things. Those who are "naturals" or those who can recount things about past lives simply forgot less.

(Disclaimer: I’m neither a believer or an non-believer, however, I have certain memories that I cannot explain and I have had a total stranger tell me about all of my past lives, somehow chronologically matching each life perfectly to various subjects I have been interested in throughout my life.)

I don't believe, necessarily, in reincarnation either--and even if it's an actual occurrence, I like the whole "It's not very relevant to this life" take on it--but I think it's good to believe in the possibility of anything.