October 30, 2011
by Beryl Lawson
At this time of the year when it is said that the separation between the living and the dead is thin it might be good to consider another view on what survives after the death of the body.
Readings
Bhagavad Gita chapter 2
As the lord of this mortal frame experienceth therein infancy, youth, and old age, so in future incarnations will it meet the same. One who is confirmed in this belief is not disturbed by anything that may come to pass. As a man throweth away old garments and putteth on new, even so the dweller in the body, having quitted its old mortal frames, entereth into others which are new.
Benjamin Franklin’s Epitaph
The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book Its Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ’d) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author.
Gottfried de Purucker
“We are here because we have been here before, because here we sowed seeds of destiny, and we come back on this earth to reap those seeds which we sowed. This universe, governed by cosmic law, will not allow us to sow corn or wheat in San Diego County, and three or four months afterwards travel into Arizona or Nevada and attempt to reap the corn and wheat there. Where we sowed the seeds, there shall we reap the harvest. It is obvious. Our very being here, to the man who can think clearly and logically from step to step, or thought to thought, is a proof of reincarnation. Otherwise we must say cosmic law put us here by chance. And who believes that? If fortuity governed this world we would see the stars in their courses and all the planets running helter skelter all over the cosmic spaces without law, without reason, without order, without intelligence, without systemâ€.
A brief look into the many religions of the world, both ancient and modern, both eastern and western allows us to see that the idea of rebirth and the preexistence of the soul is a central concept of them all.
I have been accused of believing in reincarnation because I’m afraid to die. I’ve never thought of it that way. The reason reincarnation as a theory appeals to me is that the concept includes humans within the larger concept of cycles .Therefore what I would like us to consider in the short time we have this morning is the logic of the idea of preexistence and rebirth.
Our seventh principle tells us that we belong to A larger universe than we often think of.The laws which govern the larger whole also govern the parts. The universe is one of law, Cycles pertain in all aspects of life. The beating of our heart, Day and night, seasons, tides, years and I would include birth and death. What comes after night? Day, what comes after winter? Spring. Low tide? High tide, death? Birth.
What are we? This body of ours has changed completely many times since our birth. There are not any particles of our body today that were there seven years ago yet has our identity changed? Do we not feel we are the same I as we were then? That identity the true I, the spirit in the body is that which survives the death of the body and has come from many incarnations before this birth and will go on to experience many new forms in many places in the future.
Let us look, as an example, at an actor and his many parts. The actor, or the individuality, takes on many different roles. Tonight he may be Hamlet, tomorrow Othello. When he is through with Hamlet he removes that mask or personality and takes on a new one for the next role. Although the parts are different the actor brings with him the lessons learned in his old part. So he becomes a better actor.
Why are we here? To pay our debts we have incurred in the past, our karmic debts, and thereby to evolve in mind and heart, to realize who we really are and to help on the evolution of every living thing.
If we have lived before why don’t we remember? Most of us don’t/ We don’t remember our early years. We don’t remember most of the experiences we’ve been through in this life. Isn’t a good thing that we don’t remember? What a burden, how would we get on with the task at hand?
But in another sense we do remember. Our characteristics, our talents, our problems which seem to have been with us right from the beginning, our likes and dislikes, the lessons we need to learn. These are memories that we bring with us when we are reborn. This is the karma which we have made and which it behooves us to tackle in this life. If not now they will be there waiting for us in the next, with interest, as it were..
However, some people do remember .Have any of us had the experience of being someplace we have never been before in this life and have the feeling we’ve been there before? Have we ever met someone for the first time and have known that we have known the person before? Instant love or instant dislike?
Dr. Ian Stevenson, of the University of Virginia, spent a good part of his life investigating cases of children who seem to remember a former existence. He has looked into hundreds of possible cases both in the east and here in the west. It is usually a child between the age of two and five who will exhibit characteristics or speak of things that could not have come from the present environment or family. When these things have been investigated Dr. Stevenson has often been able to verify the family, names and places that the child has spoken about. There can be several explanations for this phenomenon but rebirth seems a very strong possibility, We can’t take the time now to go more into his investigations but he has written quite a few books on his findings. He conjectures, among other things, that likes, dislikes, degrees of intelligence or lack thereof, physical and psychological deformities may be evidences of what we have experienced in the past and have brought forward into this life. Although he is now gone his work is being carried on by his associate , Jim Tucker.
How do genes fit into all this? We say “it’s in the genesâ€. The genes seem to be the physical record of the form we incarnate into when we are born. Are they the determining factors in all we do or are? They seem to be the storehouse in which our physical and perhaps other tendencies are stored. Think of a computer. We say:. It’s in the computer. How did they get into the computer? Who put them there? Without the spirit behind it all there could be no form into which we incarnate and which we use to further learn and grow.
How would a consideration of reincarnation impact how we live our lives? For one thing we really would have a stake in the future for it will be our future. We will not put off til tomorrow what has to be done today for tomorrow it will only be harder to do. We will look on others with a compassion and tolerance born of the knowledge that we have been or will be in the future perhaps in their shoes. The form may be different, the essence, the spirit, the life of all is the same. The web of life, the spirit in everything is one. Living from this point of view changes everything. It might even change the world.