Reincarnation: There But For The Grace of God…
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“So, the teachings tell us, if we do not assume the fullest possible responsibilities for ourselves now in this life, our suffering will go on not only for a few lives but for thousands of lives. It is this sobering knowledge that makes Buddhists consider that future lives are even more important than this one, because there are many more that await us in the future. They know that if we were to sacrifice the whole of eternity for this life, it would be like spending our entire life’s savings on one drink, madly ignoring the consequences.”
Sogyal Rinpoche
People fantasize about reincarnation. They think they’ll reincarnate to be an animal or an insect or a tree. If your spirit in the afterlife feels inclined to be these things, it would be a spiritual step back for you, but not unthinkable. The reason we are all alive, the most basic reason, is spiritual growth and development.
The thing about reincarnation is Samsara. The cycle of birth, suffering and death. We are all in it right this very minute and will be until forever or further notice. Consider we humans, as these little extensions of God, have to live every kind of life there is to live on this planet. In order to reach nirvana, to become an ascended master like a Buddha or Christ, every kind of life there is to live on this planet. That is literally millions of lives. From the mentally handicapped to the genius, from the dirt poorest to the wealthiest, the mundane to the extraordinary, and all the in-betweens in different historic periods, in every race and culture.
If you honestly think about all the living situations people all over the world find themselves in, it’s quite humbling. Recently I’ve been watching the show Dicing With Death on Amazon. It shows the living and working conditions people in some underdeveloped countries deal with daily. Hard, hard lives fraught with peril and constant danger. It makes me very grateful to have had the amount of relative ease my life, this time around, has had.
We are so myopic in our comfortable western civilization with our well maintained infrastructures and quality of life, even for our poor. We don’t think about possibly in another life being that person who along with their seven young children, trudges to the quarry to break rocks with sledge hammers and make gravel every day to earn a pittance to keep from starving. Or because of caste are doomed to clean shit out of sewers and outhouse trenches. Or having no choice but to bathe in a puddle on the side of the road. Never mind having to take a shit in full public view.
Four year olds sitting in the dirt breaking rocks from sun up to sun down. No protective goggles, no gloves or even basic shoes. Same with the child of low caste cleaning shit out of trenches. He will never have an education as we know it. Who will that person grow up to be? What will be learned in that life?
While there is always something profound to be learned in every life, no matter how menial or complex, if you’re in touch with your humanity your heart just breaks at the sight of the conditions they are stuck in. There but for the grace of God…
We don’t see or genuinely understand the challenges faced by people in war ravaged countries, or those who’s homes and villages are slowly being flooded out by rising sea levels, or devastated by drought. We definitely don’t have rainy seasons that make dirt roads never ending stretches of deep, thick mud and cause deadly landslides. We don’t have malaria mosquitoes or parasites that burrow into the body.
We have no sense of the desperation to survive that drives people to do what they do day in and day out. No such thing as a vacation and for many no such thing as adequate education if any. We take for granted our good fortune to not be living the lives others have been born into. Some of us even pat ourselves on the back and puff up our egos for having avoided the fates others were born into. As if some inherent superiority on their own part made this so. Foolish thinking. They should be grateful for their relatively easy lives this time around and be gracious, kind and charitable to those less fortunate.
We rack up karmic debts by being egotistical and haughty concerning those not as fortunate and privileged as we are. Almost insuring what our next life will be due to this glaring lack of compassion and focused outpouring of negativity. The soul needs to learn something specific.
Any of us could find ourselves in any of those lives next time around. If a soul needs to learn something specific, as all souls do, who are we to control how that learning will come? How much control did you have over being born into this life? We should be very humble and grateful when dealing with the rest of the world knowing that could be us in the next life or was us in a past life. There but for the grace of God… That may be where I’m going to find myself next time around.
If you knew for certain you could one day end up being in a life in one of these places, if you knew you would be one of these people scrounging in the dirt for existence, how would you feel about and treat people differently in this life? If you consciously think when you see a mentally ill, homeless person here in our country, that could be me in another life. How would your feelings about the homeless in America change? The same thing goes for people of other cultures and races. We all have been and are going to be, all of them.
Buddhism focuses on the breaking of the cycle of Samsara. Lifting the soul out of the cycle of suffering and death one lifetime at a time. The main focus is on compassion. Jesus called it love thy neighbor as thyself. If you imagined yourself in the life of a person in great need as they are, how would you want to be treated? It’s the reason we all should work to better the lives of all humans everywhere. Our souls will reap the benefit of charity and grace, the souls we help reap the benefit of education and enough food and clean water to live daily.
We know corrupt governments and other factors are the causes of the extreme conditions of poverty and little to no opportunities for education or a better quality of life for these souls in these countries. It’s a daunting task to face as just one person wanting to help. But we can all find at least one person who’ll benefit from an act of kindness and selfless charity, you wouldn’t have to look very hard or very far.
Samsara is endless for the soul who doesn’t strive to grow spiritually. Just repeating the same mistakes over and over again, lifetime after lifetime Ad Infinitum. Because that’s what we have. We have all of eternity to figure this mess out. As I mentioned earlier, that is the basic reason for everyone’s life. Why am I alive? To grow spiritually. I don’t remember who’s quote this is but… “The definition of evil is the avoidance of spiritual growth at all costs.”
You may ask what about ghosts? What about earthbound souls? Why aren’t they reincarnating? You can certainly choose to get off of the bus in the middle of nowhere at any time. Free will. That’s part of the avoidance of spiritual growth. Let your ego be your guide. Eventually you will have to come back. But with eternity and all, who knows when that will be? My guides tell me, when you desire to once again live in the grace of God. Those are the earthbound souls who come to me.
It’s best not to waste your precious existence. We may have eternity but that doesn’t mean you have time to squander your life. Focus on bettering your soul, as opposed to puffing up your ego. This life you’re living now is definitely not all there is or will ever be. Just like first grade isn’t the only grade in school. There but for the grace of God… Those are my thoughts on reincarnation. Thanks for reading.
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the “Universe” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Albert Einstein
