REINCARNATION

Reincarnation.(Biblical Resurrection.)

I cannot talk about reincarnation without talking about karma, which is the cause; past, present and future karmas. I like to think of lives as spokes on a wheel, they are there all at once, but we concentrate our consciousness on one spoke at a time.

It is the Ego that takes rebirth, which is an aspect of mind, and brings with it all its tendencies from previous existances. These tendencies are in the form of karmic memories.

From the point of view of the Divine, there is no free will, for all is God, but from the Ego view point of the individual there is the illusion of free will. There is General law (God's Law) and then the individual and society. The individual acts in a society according to his free will, but all conforms to the general law. The individual must act and his action is a function of his mind. There are thoughts, which function as seeds and they sprout and become actions. The actions then appear to be free will to the concerned individual.

There is a concept in Yoga of three bodies and five sheaths or koshas. The physical, the subtle, and the causal bodies. The body, or food sheath, the energy sheath, the mind sheath, the intellectual awareness sheath and the bliss sheath.

It seems when we die that we move through these sheaths one at a time. Associated with the body is an etheric energy sheath, which is part of the larger energy sheath. This looks like the body and survives for sometime after death. When the entity drops this sheath it is called the "second death". The personality then progressively withdraws through the other sheaths depending on one's level of awareness and spirituality. The Mind Sheath dissolves and goes back to the Universal Mind. After dropping the mind, one then moves into the Intellectual Sheath. This is where the greatest manifestation of the ego is and also awareness. The Causal is the last sheath and is the deep sleep sheath. It seems these movements are very subjective and some people stay in the sheaths longer than others. Moving up the planes requires swooning or a death in order to progress. This is where the expression "second death", comes from.

So basically it seems that what takes rebirth is the Intellectual Sheath and Causal Sheath, picking up new bodies and a mind on the way, and bringing previous tendencies with it.

So it seems that Liberation is actually realising that the ego is just an aspect of mind and intellect, and then rising above our karmas. That is allowing them to dissolve back into the primal energy or "Shakti". This allows our consciousness to merge back into The Universal and escape the illusory dream.

Sometimes an advanced soul may keep a thought so preventing final dissolution. This thought is a pure desire to help humanity. So we have Masters, and Avatars, like Jesus or Bodhisattvas like Siddartha Buddha. It seems this thought is aware of unity and has no sense of individuality, it just creates an Ego to help humanity. So in actual fact the Ego is the Mind. Divine descents are Karana Janimas or a causal births not due to karma.

So the cause of rebirth for ordinary people is desire and tendencies, or karmic memories. Depending on our karmic vibrations we take birth in a family and life suitable to these vibrations. It is not usually possible to expiate all our karma in one lifetime so the The Universal Mind allocates a portion to be experienced. Of course at the same time we are creating new bad and good karmas. It is interesting to note that good karma caused rebirth as well. For one must return to receive the fruits of our actions.

So in order to prevent rebirth we have to eliminate all karmas, the tree has to be uprooted completely not just pruned. There are three types of Karma: past, present and future. We can do a lot with the present so influencing the future. Even the effects of past karma can be alleviated by doing good works. We can bury the effects of our past karma under good works. Prana is stronger than Karma, so past Karma can be burned up and not sprout. Prema or Divine Love and Shakti cannot be stopped, it is the essence of our being, but we have to earn Grace to alleviate Karma.

During this learning process we continue being born, not only on the physical plane but also in the Heaven Planes. Depending on our karmas we take birth on different planes, the higher being the more blissful. However after our resting time we have to be reborn again to expiate our karma,and progress towards Liberation. Some higher beings like Devas may take birth so that they may be liberated from their "Happiness." Some of the lower beings are hardly conscious at all between lives. They just die and reincarnate without any time on the Heaven Planes. This situation probably applies to the majority of the population, hence the massive overpopulation of the planet. Also population is added to by animals becoming human and taking birth. In fact we are sending billions of animals, from the slaughter houses, to the subtle plane, where many take rebirth as humans. Unfortunately they bring their resentment of humans with them, hence massacres and the like.

So one has to develop the Awareness Sheath, this is done with Devotion to Divinity and directing our thoughts away from this illusory world.

It is also difficult for the ordinary person to distinguish good from bad karma. Some is obviously bad or good but if other karmas lead to spirituality how can that be bad even if painful?

The most effective way to avoid creating future karmas is by surrendering to God. By surrendering the fruits of our actions to God we incurr no karma,"nishkarma karma. "This is easier said than done and one needs to be vigilant, otherwise the Ego and all its desires gets entangled in the action and we don't surrender properly. We are still not detached from the fruits of our actions. This is why it is so important to have a habit of devotion and prayer, so that our minds are full of good vibrations.

The mind has six mental states; subconscious, conscious, super-conscious, higher mind, illuminated mind, and intuitive mind.

What I have been able to glean from experience and all the teachings is that there are various conceptual divisions in the mind. Some people have different names for these concepts but that isn't important. There are seven Lokas, or planes, up and seven lower.

1.) There is the gross material body and the etheric body together, on the lowest plane.

2.) Next there is what I will call "the Astral," which has seven subdivisions,4 lower (pretlokas) and 3 higher heavens. The heavens are learning planes with astral schools and libraries.

3.) Next is the Mental which has seven sub-planes, consisting of 4 lower planes of form (Rupa), and 3 higher planes that are formless or Arupa colours and energies.

4.) Finally there are the Spiritual Planes, Buddhic and Atmic and obove this Divinity, Anupadika and Adi.

This is all conceptual and a mental construct of course but let it be said there are lower and higher planes, and different groups have different names for the same thing.