Past lifes are something to note but not dwell on. I could care less
about past lifes. I am guessing if my intuitional experiences are
correct - I remember during one meditation that I was a black baby
about a year old left in the dessert of perhaps Africa to die of
thirst and starvation. I sat there in the hot sun alone with just a
blanket wrapped around me. In this lifetime I will not visit places
like Arizona, the middle east, or Vegas or any place that has a hot
dessert. I always travel to caribbean type places or places with an
abundance of vegetation. That experience was a visual from
meditating.
Another visual from meditating was that I was a type of Priest of a
high order, dressed like the Pope (seemed like during Roman times) - I
was standing on the bow of a large ship and raising my hand over the
heads of people in a crowd surrounding the boat and blessing them. In
another life which I remember more intrinsically in my being while in
my everyday walking arond state- I was a French solder - an actual
Three Muskateer and I lived in France - and spent a lot of time in
Paris -- I had the cape, the feather hat, and the sword, the whole
bit -- I don't remember if I raped and pillaged alot or if I was just
a noble solder -- I don't know how I died, or if by the sword or not.
I do remember during my first trip to Paris in 1985 - the cobble stone
streets I walked down felt very, very familiar -- I knew I had been in
Paris before in another lifetime, and I knew it was during the
lifetime when I was a Three muskateer (one for all, and all for one).
I enjoyed my vacation in Paris as a young woman here in this life time
just on vacation in Paris, but I felt no need to investigate this past
experience of being in Paris in another lifetime. I also felt no need
to come back and visit Paris again it in this lifetime. I felt the
need to leave it in the past and move on -- and that going back was
uninteresting and unnecessary.
I always felt that it was totally irrelevant to try to remember past
lives or spend time entertaining the idea or if it happened or not or
what happened. Also, I always felt that blaming bad karma in this
life on what we did in a past life is really a believe in a form of
punishment and guilt rather than "forgiveness" So I never felt
comfortable with Karma as it is is often taught in many eastern
religions from that perspective. First of all I could never remember
much or any of my past lives, whether I was so called, bad or good,
and therefore cannot forgive what I can't remember anyway, so why
dwell on it -- it felt ridiculous do try to find out in the past what
is causing my present suffering and then forgive it -- I also
suspected that it would be ridiculous for God causing me to suffer in
this life time for something I did many lifetimes ago for which I
don't remember anyway. So how could I even atone for it, if I did not
even remembe it anyway, and then also -- who really decided if
whatever I did was right or wrong anyway -- who was the judge of that
anyway.
I had a a friend Darrell in Grammer school who was only nine years old
who would steal food everyday from the grocery store to help feed his
family. His mother cleaned houses for a living to raise seven
children on her own. My friend Darrek loved his mother and his
brothers and sisters, and he made sure he did whatever he needed to to
make sure they ate. I mean he was considered a thief in an
authorities (police, shop keeper, school principles eyes) etc. and
perhaps God's eyes according to some religions, but was he really --
and did he really need to pay for that in bad Karmu -- who decided it
was bad. Also, people do things out of obligation, if you are a
soldier in the dream, serving your country - a soldier fights and
kills -- so how can one judge that when that is his job as a soldier (b
(besides the fact that it is just a dream anyway) -- and for those who
kill and hurt others from a state of fear -- that's just an action out
of fear -- or wrong mindedness - anyway - even with Hitler, or Manson -
- I mean it is not a judgement call -- it's about compassion and
forgiveness in understanding why people do what they do -- they feel
separate and afraid and think they can find what they need outside
themselves --- that is just a mistake -- not a judgement call, -- that
is why I always thought if there is karma in the sense of paying for
the wrongs one did in the past, and reaping the rewards of the good
that one did in the past -- it has nothing to do with God. I always
felt it was a made up belief system to keep the world going round and
round and round -- I always suspected that this is exaclty what the
idea of Karma did - kept everyone stuck on the wheel -- so although I
preferred much of the Eastern philosphosies of catholiscism - I knew
that all religions had dogmatic beliefs to overcome in order to
awaken.
I got really honest with myself two years ago, when after a yoga
posture class - I was talking with another yoga student in the
dressing room -- and she got on the subject of Karma -- Anyway, the
conversation ended up with her asking - Why do you want to get out of
the world? Don't you want to be in the world and help people, and
people less fortunate then us such as orphans, starving people, abused
women, war veterans etc, etc. And I had to say, honestly, No, I
don't -- I don't want to be here anymore at all for any reason. I
don't want to hang around here anymore and try to collect some good
karma for a better life next time -- I don't want make up for any bad
Karma life after life. I don't want bad karma, and I don't want good
karma -- I don't want any karma -- I just want out.
It may have sounded shallow to the girl I was talking to -- but I did
not care -- it was the most honest thing I could say -- and hear for
myself -- and it felt right -- and it was just one more step in
realizing I was heading in the right direction with my thinking. It
was another major breakthrough for me in wakinging up -- by hearing
myself say that to her.
Anyway, thought I was share that for people who are wondering if their
lack of interest in the world on the "Mother Teresa" level makes them
feel shallow or uncaring. Or to think they have to stick around to do
so called "good things" in order to win God's favor - is another
insance thought --
It is better to do good from a place where we know we are already good
and perfect, and from a place where we already know that we can never
be anything else.
Thanks for listening.
Love & Light,
Whitney
--- In Disappearance_of_the_Universe@..., "garyrrenard"
<garyrrenard@y...> wrote:
For those of you who may be too young to remember Carnation Instant
Breakfast, I apologize for the pun. Am I dating myself? (Hee hee) In
any case, even though ACIM teaches that reincarnation is impossible
because the body isn't real (so we must just be dreaming that we're
living these different incarnations) it also says on P.61 of the
Manual for Teachers, "All that must be recognized however, is that
birth was not the beginning, and death is not the end." Arten and
Pursah talked a lot about different lifetimes, past and future,
including theirs and even a couple of mine. They always reminded me
at some point that like the entire universe, these lifetimes are
only
dreams within a dream. I think that like with Buddhism and Hinduism,
an interest in reincarnation is a major part of most people's
spiritual path at some point, and it certainly was mine. I'd like to
hear any experiences you may have had in this area, whether in
remembering past lives or what your thoughts are on this subject.
Love and peace, Gary.
