concerning article about reincarnation

[Shawn McCaffrey]

You have misunderstood nothing.  But, our lives are everything but meaningless.  Think of the top as no time, so how can you say that it was allready determined, as in the past, if there was no past.  Equal and opposite questions.  Think of it as not being, but knowing what will happen rather than it's determined.  And the part about our individuality.  Think, is that you thinking.  Yes. Can anyone steal your mind?  No.  YOu are individual, your genes came from a long line of ancestors, are the genes you have now yours and no one elses though.  Yes they are.  I hope that might help you some.  []

~Shawn

[Tom]

While it is true that the separation we experience between past, present, and future is not real, there are in fact past, present, and future. The future has not happened yet and the best we can do is to predict what will happen based on information from the past and present. There are only strong possibilities and weak possibilities until they actually happen.

There is an explanation for the one returning to the many of a drop of water returning to the ocean. It was modified some because that image was disturbing to many. Instead of considering the drop returning to the ocean we can see the entire ocean as entering the drop. It is not that we lose something by merging so much as that we gain everything.

As to what use life has, it is only by splitting up into many pieces that we the Oversoul can study ourself. We as little pieces are mirrors for each other.

[Spirit_Gurl]

what if i want to stay an individual? i understand completly what his post was about at the begining and i agree.

[jilola]

The Now that is described as the now that encompasses all time is not a separate moment from time. This is where thinking about it will land you in a mire.
Thye Now is not a single moment in time but time and existence itself. It encompasses all possible pasts, presents and futures. Time is a series of transient existencies that can be caused by and followed by the momentary instance of the all-encompassing Now.

I tend to think us as individuals as waves in the sea.  While each wave is individual and different they still are the sea and from the sea's point of view there are no separateness nor waves. The waves ar the sea and the sea is the waves. You can choose your viewpoint as either of the whole or the individual. Bu the viewpoint doesn't change the essence of your existence which is both the whole and a reflection of it.

The only thing we can affect is the now. The past is past and the future is dependent, at least apparently, upon our choices in the now.
This is illustrated by a koan sort of thingbased on the old "journey of a 1000 miles" proverb.
"Each journey is either  repetition of the first step, indefinite number of middle steps or rehearsing the last step. But what can be said about a journey of one step?"

Hope that made sense.

2cents & L&L
jouni

[SpiritPathwalker]

Being part of something bigger doesn't rob the indiviudal of any meaning.  I'd like to see an old clock tick without it's gears, or my computer run without RAM.  A clock needs all of it's gears, just like the universe needs every soul for it to exist itself.  Each person grows and learns, so does the universe as a whole.  I think life started because the universe wanted to exist, rather then just be there.

[Nightfall]

Stephen Hawking was asked if we are predetermined. His answer was "yes we are predetermined. But since we don't know what we're predetermined to, we might as well not be".

So, can you get comfort from either if a) you don't know what you're predetermined to or b) you face the idea of the meaningless chaos of the universe with no purpose or goal for existence?

[PeacefulWarrior]

Hello!  I am so grateful that you read and pondered that article, it's a fabulous one with a lot of really important information within.

There is just one problem with it though: it's not complete.

I believe that the Eternal Now is where God is, or what God is, depending on how much you understand the nature of God...anyway, I believe that we are all individuals and God created us by (and forgive the simple way I am going to say this) "splitting" off a spark of himself and endowing our intelligence with that spark...

Eventually we can be like God, or in other words, have our own universe and be that Eternal Now and create infinite lives and glory like God...that way our "life," ie. learning and loving, etc. will continue one forever.  

By looking at the way that families are organized here, and how our posterity continues to live and have part of our genes, etc,  we get an idea of how God, the Eternal Now, works.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but it does to me.  I need to write a lengthy article about this.

[Lysear]

Yes, I like this topic it really makes you think and gets you twisted up like the chicken-egg question. I believe that we all have free choice because if I didnt I would probably break down! can you imagine thinking that whatever you do you were supposed to do? Ouch! that would kill me

[mikji]

I read Robert Bruce's article Re-Incarnation (Not So Simple), and for me, at least, it raised some very disturbing questions, all the more so because of my respect for Mr. Bruce, and my general trust in his accuracy in such matters.

In this article, unless I've misread it, Robert describes the universe as one large consciousness split into many different parts, similar to the mind-body split during astral projection, but on an infinitely larger scale. He says that at the top there isn't any time, but one NOW moment that encompasses everything that ever has, is, or will happen. The Oversoul, as he calls it, splits itself into many parts, each with its own consciousness, and those parts themselves split, and so on.

Now my confusion is this: if it is possible to have an eternal NOW moment at the top of the hierarchy, doesn't this imply that everything is already determined? In other words, in order for a NOW moment to exist, that encompasses all time, all time will have had to already been determined. Wouldn't that mean that the universe is deterministic in the most complete and total way possible, and that free will is an absolute illusion? If so, doesn't that render our lives meaningless, since everything we do has already happened at the top of the hierarchy?

Secondly, doesn't being a mere part of some larger soul, which is a part of a larger soul, etc etc etc up to the Oversoul, rob us of any individual purpose or meaning? What is the use of life, if all of us are just small small small fractions of a great Oversoul, in a universe where everything that will happen already has?

Hopefully I've misunderstood something...