Now, the real you, whom you can call your spirit, soul or entity, is eternal. It always has been, is in the present, and always will be. Here, at the present time, you are Man. You are listed scientifically as a Mammal, and although you are animalistic in construction, you are far different than any other mammal on the planet because you have a free will, a mind that can think and make decisions, and you have emotions.
You have been placed here at this time, to learn all of the experiences of life. There are too many experiences to be learned in only one lifetime, so you have been here before, and you will return again.
"HOLD ON!" You say. You are speaking of REINCARNATION!
That’s right! And it’s the only thing that makes any logical sense. No, "Mumbo Jumbo", or "Things that go bump, in the night". Not even, "Just believe it because the Good Book tells you it is so".
BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER, REINCARNATION IS NOT A
RELIGION. IT IS A PHILOSOPHY.
Let’s be logical. There is no such thing as "The True Religion". All religions believe theirs is the true religion, but the Lord never gave his blessing upon any one religion. All religions are theory; therefore we will also speak of Reincarnation as theory as well, and speak of it as such. As we go along, you can make up your own mind whether to accept it and apply it to what you already believe, or simply ignore it. We doubt very much that you will totally forget it. It will take nothing away from your Religion, but will add a new perspective.
Let us look at Reincarnation as a school of life. As you progress through various lives, your soul or entity accumulates knowledge and many experiences, and grows with each experience. Let us say that the ultimate goal is to be "One, with All That Is", or if you prefer, "One With God".
The Essenes who taught and believed in reincarnation schooled Jesus. If you apply the theory while reading the Bible, many things will make sense and you don’t need someone else to explain it to you. Reincarnation teaches us that we are responsible for our own destiny and any punishment or rewards are due to our own actions
The Roman Emperor Justinian wanted total control over his subjects but had to contend with the Church, which didn’t always agree with him. He therefor replaced the Pope with one of his choice, then went about destroying all prior religious teachings and materials, placing the penalty of death on anyone caught with them or teaching about them. He then went about expunging from the Bible any and all mention of reincarnation.
But there are still traces left. Up until this time, religion was only taught to the learned scholars and the masses went along with whatever was told them. Now with total control, Justinian brought religion to the masses and taught them about an all powerful, fearful and punishing God. He now had his wish, total control.
For a moment, stop and think how many uneducated Countries have been, and still are dominated by a Church that preaches a God to be feared. People were (and are) afraid of this God who will punish all sinners, even those who do not do what the Church wished. A God who would banish people to Hell for eternity for simply not believing in him or this Church. Why would this God who created man, destroy his creations simply because they do not believe in him or this Church, or those who never heard of him, and for eternity? I think not.
Today, we still find religions who teach the same ‘fear of’, or a ‘punishing God’.
Why is man so gullible?
Now our belief in Reincarnation means that you return time after time in human form, not as an animal, bird or reptile. YOU are responsible for what ever happens to you, both good and bad. You can not blame your parents, neighbors or even God. This God that everyone prays to, does not permit or prevent things from happening. Only man permits or prevents. This God allows man his stupidity.
Whenever things go bad, people in general say, "If there is a God, why did he permit that to happen? This gives an Agnostic reason to doubt God, and an Atheist, reason to totally reject God and everything in the Bible. We are going to use a little story here to illustrate a small but very important point.
There are two small children playing together. One child places his finger into the mouth of the other who bites down on the little finger he finds in his mouth. The child who is bitten lets out a howl of pain and the one who did the biting, thinks, "Hey, look what I just did, that’s fun". A biter has just been born. Now you can swat his little behind every time he bites, however, he does not associate the sore spot on his fanny to the sore spot on the other child's finger and does not associate it with the act of biting. Now, the next time he bites, if you place his little finger in your mouth and bite down just hard enough to give him pain, "Ow", he knows what he has been doing, and he will stop biting. He has just learned a lesson:
" WHAT EVER YE SOW, SO SHALL YE REAP"
Reincarnation is a learning experience as we go through our various lives. Your learning depends entirely upon you, however. Limited, dogmatic, or rigid concepts of good or evil can hold you back. Too narrow ideas of the nature of existence can follow you through several lives if you do not choose to be spiritually and psychically flexible. These rigid ideas can act as leashes, so that you are forced to circle like a tied puppy, in a circle of confusion, doubt and anxiety.
Throughout your reincarnation existence's you expand your consciousness, your ideas, your perceptions, and values. You grow spiritually as you learn to step aside from limiting conceptions and dogmas.
As we go through life, we build up a record we call Karma. What ever you do, good, bad or indifferent is recorded. Your next lifestyle may depend upon what you do in this life, which is why we have a free mind. Our lives are not totally preordained. Doing good things in this life, may offset some of the bad Karma you accumulated in a previous existence or it may make your next existence even better, however, if you do bad things in this life, just like the child in our story, you will be bitten.
Because we have gone through many lives, (there are no new souls) our Karma may contain many things both good and bad and that is why we find both good and bad things happening to us in this life. That is why we can not blame anyone but ourselves for whatever happens to us, we are to blame for everything.
You may ask, "How do you justify the Holocaust?" " What did those millions of innocent people do to deserve what happened to them?" Understand first, you do not necessarily return in the same sex or nationality. Some of your bad Karma may not be paid back necessarily in your next life, but may come many lives later. The entities that were victims of the Holocaust, could in a previous existence been one of the hordes that rode with Genghis Khan, Atilla the Hun or have been on the Crusades, who killed, raped and maimed millions over the periods of hundreds of years. This was their time for pay back.
"HE WHO LIVES BY THE SWORD, SHALL DIE BY THE SWORD"
"AN EYE FOR AN EYE, A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH"
In our present society there is a saying, "Paybacks are a Bitch."
We do not remember our previous lives for a very good reason. What if you knew you had done something quite horrible in a previous life and in this life you were going to receive your "just rewards". You would not plan on anything. You would not start a family, go into business or even go after an education, and you may want to do your own self in, rather than wait for the proverbial ‘ax ‘to fall, yet would still pay in another life.
With most religions, through prayer, confession and even to self-flagellate, you are supposed to be forgiven of your sins. Some people go right out the following weekend and commit the same sins over again because they believe that if they confess, they again will be forgiven. We wonder how Priests receive the power from their God to be able to forgive someone of their sins. Do they have a ‘direct line’?
We believe that if you have been living a life of crime, you can turn over a new leaf and make up for some of the wrongs you have committed in this life. The way you do this is to go out of your way to help others less fortunate than you. Quit being selfish and give of yourself and your wealth even if you have little. The only thing you can not make up for is the deliberate killing of another person. If you accidentally kill another and have no remorse, then it’s a "no no".
Let’s go back to the example of our various appearances as being likened to going through school. If you do good things throughout this life, you pass on to a better life in the next appearance. If you go through this life in a life of crime, you go backwards. If you just go through life doing nothing good for anyone, you gain nothing.
It is true that between lives there is ‘time’ for understanding and contemplation, however, it is useless to say, "When this life is over, I will look back upon my experiences and mend my ways." By then it will be too late, you are setting the stage for your next life now! Even the thoughts you think today will in one way or another, becomes the fabric of your next existence.
When we are in between lives, we refer to this as being in Limbo. At this time, you can review your file of Karma and you know what you have done in previous lives. You, the entity, choose not only when you will return, but also what punishments or rewards you can expect in this next existence. We also choose to return at the same time and with the same group of entities we have known previously. Sometimes as friends, other times as relatives. Fathers and Mothers in this life could have previously been the children of the children they have in this life. Father and son could have been brothers in a previous life or the roles could have been reversed, or the son could have been the sister or mother to his present father.
And to give you an example of the meaningless of time, a Father and Son in this life, could have been brothers during the time of Ramses in Egypt. Now the father dies and soon after, the son’s wife gives birth to a baby and the same entity is in the baby. The two entities were related over two thousand years ago. Now within a period of just a few months, the entity that was the father, is now the son of his son.
How many times have you met someone with whom you have an immediate rapport with and you feel like you have known this person for years. Then, you may meet someone that you have an immediate dislike for even though this person has done nothing to you. The person you like may have been very close to you in a previous existence. The person you have a dislike for, you have built up a karmic relationship with. Now you have been given a chance to work out some ‘unfinished’ business. If you fail in this encounter, you can be certain there will be a future one.
