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Forward thinking, proactive, balanced, witty, mysterious, passionate, simple, caring
James 1:27 - Pure and undefiled religion is to remain unspotted from the world and help widows and orphans in their destress
If you can keep your head
when all about you men are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowances for their doubting, too.
If you can wait but not be tired of waiting, or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating, and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise,
If you can dream but not make dreams your master, if you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same,
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, and stoop and build them up with worn-out tools, If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, and lose and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss,
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and to hold on when there is nothing in you but the will that says to them "hold on," If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you but none too much, If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, and which is more, youll be a man my son.
Love is an art that can be trampled on
Let me desire and want for the art of true love Love isnt love, when we fault each others faults And changes when faults lay fault line above When love harbours no longer in loveless vaults
Love is that rock foundation where we build castles upon It is that beacon where dreams are made from Love hopes all, believes all and is depended on It endures endlessly and is trampled on
Love is that mark where deceit cant hinder Whats this love if love cant be fluent It holds firm like a cedar in winter It is not love when we play love truant
For those of you that loved not but love did boast Vanity is yours whenst you break ceremonial toast
TEN FACTS ABOUT LIFE:
1. YOU WILL RECEIVE A BODY. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.
2. YOU WILL LEARN LESSONS. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
3. THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS. Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."
4. A LESSON IS REPEATED UNTIL LEARNED. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
5. LEARNING LESSONS DOES NOT END. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
6. "THERE" IS NO BETTER THAN "HERE." When your "there" has become a "here," you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7. OTHERS ARE MERELY MIRRORS OF YOU. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
8. WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOUR LIFE IS UP TO YOU. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. YOUR ANSWERS LIE INSIDE YOU. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. YOU WILL FORGET ALL THIS.
My friends and I agree that 7 is interesting but not entirely correct. We have some pretty good talks and frequently hear interesting opinions.
Who Should Paint You: Salvador Dali
You're a complex, intense creature who displays many layers.
There's no way a traditional portrait could ever capture you! **Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening,
terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in
this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the
religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by
giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their
view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and
learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness;
chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself. Think for yourself.
Question authority.
The Fourth Amendment:The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
religion is for the lazy...the blind obedience to rules may be grueling; but, the intellectual inaction necessary to succumb to them is a symptom of cognitive laziness
INTEREST:
Age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius : The Age of Aquarius can mean the end of an era, (age of Pisces) and the beginning of another. Many feel the Age of Aquarius heralds the coming of the "end of times" as written in the Bible, others feel it is the dawning of the "new world order". Whatever it means it is still mysterious, and opinions differ widely in the Astrology community.
"The Age of Aquarius is one of 12 successive 2150-year periods, each of which corresponds with one of the 12 signs of the zodiac. In the same manner in which individuals born at different times of the year are thought to be dominated by different astrological signs, astrologers also tend to view different historical periods as being dominated by the influence of particular signs. For the past several thousand years, Earth, according to this view, has been passing through a period dominated by the sign Pisces (the Age of Pisces). This succession of ages is based on a phenomenon known as the precession of equinoxes.
Due to the precession of equinoxes, the spring equinox moves slowly backward through the constellations of the Zodiac, so that approximately every 2000 years the equinox begins taking place in an earlier constellation. Thus, the spring equinox has been occurring in Pisces for the past several thousand years and will begin to occur in the constellation Aquarius in the near future. This is the background for current speculations about the so-called Age of Aquarius. The phenomenon of the precession of equinoxes also means that the spring equinox occurred in the sign Aries during the Hellenistic period (the period of Ptolemy), in Taurus several thousand years prior to the Hellenistic period, and so forth backward through the zodiac.
Because of the space between different constellations, it is difficult if not impossible to determine precisely when one age ends and another one begins, although this has not prevented many practitioners of traditional astrology as well as esoteric astrology from asserting that the Aquarian Age has already begun. A popular date for the beginning of the Age of Aquarius is the year 2000. If, however, the Age of Pisces began with the ministry of Jesus (as many claim), and if each age is 2150 years in duration, then we clearly have a long way to go before we pass into the Age of Aquarius.
The contemporary notion of the Age of Aquarius, developed in occult and theosophical circles in the last century, was mediated to the larger society by the counterculture of the 1960s (as in the well-known song "Age of Aquarius" that was featured in the rock musical Hair). The metaphysical subculture that emerged as a successor to the counterculture in the early to middle 1970s eventually dropped the appellation Aquarian Age in favor of New Age. Most popular accounts of the difference between the Piscean Age and the Aquarian Age emphasize the negative traits of Pisces and the positive traits of Aquarius. Thus, attention is called to the negative Piscean tendency to adopt an attitude of blind faith, and to the positive Aquarian tendency to adopt a more empirical attitude. The limits of this approach–which often ignores positive Pisces traits as well as negative Aquarius characteristics–should be clear.
A comprehensive critique of the Aquarian Age notion can be found in Nicholas Campion's important treatment, "The Age of Aquarius: A Modern Myth" (In "The Astrology of the Macrocosm" by Joan McEvers pp. 195-231). Although this work is useful, contrary to Campion's argument, the ancients did put forward a theory of successive astrological ages based on the precession of equinoxes."
Bermuda Triangle Bermuda Triangle : is also known as the "Devil's Triangle". It is an imaginary geographical area, which is located off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States, and bears some resemblance to a triangle. A Bermuda Triangle Fact Sheet which was prepared by the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters and Naval Historical Centre, states that:"The U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name and does not maintain an official file on the area".The apexes of the triangle are generally accepted to be Bermuda, Miami, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The area became infamous because of ' a high incidence of unexplained losses of ships, small boats, and aircraft'. Some of the more famous cases of loss over the area include:1). The disappearance of an entire squadron of TBM Avengers shortly after take off from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 2). The traceless sinking of USS Cyclops and the Marine Sulphur Queen.Similar, extensive and futile search and rescue cases have since led to a popular belief that the area known as the "Bermuda Triangle" exhibits mysterious and supernatural qualities. However, the Coast Guard is reported as being not particularly impressed with such supernatural explanations of disasters at sea. 'It has been their experience that the combined forces of nature and unpredictability of mankind outdo even the most far fetched science fiction many times each year'.The Bermuda Triangle Fact Sheet goes on to suggest that environmental factors may have an important part to play in the loss of vessels:'The majority of disappearances can be attributed to the area's unique environmental features. First, the "Devil's Triangle" is one of the two places on earth that a magnetic compass does point towards true north. Normally it points toward magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of variation changes by as much as 20 degrees as one circumnavigates the earth. If this compass variation or error is not compensated for, a navigator could find himself far off course and in deep trouble.An area called the "Devil's Sea" by Japanese and Filipino seamen, located off the east coast of Japan, also exhibits the same magnetic characteristics. It is also known for its mysterious disappearances.Another environmental factor is the character of the Gulf Stream. It is extremely swift and turbulent and can quickly erase any evidence of a disaster. The unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic weather pattern also plays its role. Sudden local thunder storms and water spouts often spell disaster for pilots and mariners. Finally, the topography of the ocean floor varies from extensive shoals around the islands to some of the deepest marine trenches in the world. With the interaction of the strong currents over the many reefs the topography is in a state of constant flux and development of new navigational hazards is swift.Not to be under estimated is the human error factor. A large number of pleasure boats travel the waters between Florida's Gold Coast and the Bahamas. All too often, crossings are attempted with too small a boat, insufficient knowledge of the area's hazards, and a lack of good seamanship'.Although the fact sheet does not pertain to know of any maps that delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle; it does point out that there are general area maps available through the Distribution Control Department, U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, Washington, D.C. 20390. It goes on to suggest that the "Aeromagnetic Charts of the U.S. Coastal Region," H.O. Series 17507, 15 sheets. Numbers 9 through 15 which cover the "Bermuda Triangle", may be of use to those interested in the more mysterious aspect of the area.
Bible Code
Bible Code : a computer program that is designed to look for key words in the Bible that are hidden in a form of code. Since it's discovery by an Israeli mathematician Dr Eliyahu Rips, a leading expert in 'Group Theory' namely the underlying branch of mathematics to 'Quantum Physics'; the Bible Code has attracted much interest. Details about the Bible Code hit the headlines when a book was first published about it in Great Britain, by Weidenfeld and Nicholson in 1997. The author of the book titled 'The Bible Code' is Michael Drosnin, a reporter who was formerly at the 'Washington Post' and the 'Wall Street Journal'. Michael Drosnin lives and works in New York City and he is also the author of the 'New York Times' bestseller 'Citizen Hughes'.
Since it's publication in 1997 'The Bible Code' has gone on to become a number one bestseller with the sequel the 'Bible Code II' following shortly after.
In his book 'The Bible Code' Michael Drosnin puts forward the theory that for 3000 years there has remained a hidden code in the Bible. Today, since the code has been unlocked by computer, it has been shown that certain major world events were predicted to happen thousands of years before they actually did. The hidden code in the Bible is said to have predicted:
"Rise of Hitler, man landing on the moon, the Kennedy assassinations and the Gulf War".
Indeed, according to Michael Drosnin:
"In a few dramatic cases, detailed predictions were found in advance - and then happened exactly as predicted."
Possibly two of the factors which helped in the success of the book by Drosnin is that it:
"Is the first full account of a scientific discovery that may change the world, and it is also told by sceptical secular reporter."
The fact that the code has also been verified by a number of famous mathematicians at Harvard, Yale and Hebrew University, has all helped to add weight to it's credibility.
In the book, it is stated that the code has been: "replicated by a senior code-breaker at the US Department of Defense. It has passed three levels of secular peer review at a leading US math journal."
The whole idea that there may be a special hidden code somewhere in the text of the bible is by no means a new one. Isaac Newton was still searching for the Bible code when he died. Indeed he is said to have likened the Bible to: "a cryptogram set by the almighty". Sadly for him the code continued to elude him right up until his death.
Dr Eli Rips believes that he has succeeded where Isaac Newton failed. His success has been mainly due to modern technology, or more specifically the computer. Drosnin even goes one step further and suggests that perhaps to code was deliberately coded in such a way that it would not be possible to crack it until the dawn of the computer age. He likens the code to a 'time lock'; namely the type of time lock that could not be opened until modern technology and the advent of the computer provided the key. It would have taken Newton more years than he had to process all of the numbers to read the code. Today, however, with the processing power of computers; what would have been a long arduous task is now greatly reduced.
Dr Rips utilised the computer in a way that allowed him to develop a sophisticated mathematical model. This when implemented by computer, confirmed what Newton had suspected all along, i.e. the Bible is encoded. The name of the original experiment conducted by Dr Rips was called "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis". The abstract on the cover page read:
"Randomization Analysis indicates that hidden information is woven into the text of Genesis in the form of equidistant letter sequences. The effect is significant at the level of 99.998%."
What Dr Rips had in fact done was to eliminate all of the spaces between the words of the Bible, thus turning the book into 304,805 letter. By doing this Dr Rips was restoring the Torah to what legend says was the way that Moses originally received the Bible from God, 'continuous and without break of words'. The way in which the code works is very similar to that of a crossword puzzle. A more detailed explanation of how it actually works is quoted in the book as follows:
"Star at the first letter of the paragraph below, skip every three letters and the code is explained"
"Rips ExplAineD thaT eacH codE is a Case Of adDing Every - fourth, twelfth or fiftieth letter to form a word."
By looking at the capital letters which are spaced three letters apart it is possible to see the hidden message which in fact is READ THE CODE.
The use of a computer enabled Dr Rips to run searches of the letter string for words and phrases which were hidden by the skip code. A more comprehensive explanation appears on page 14 of the Bible Code book.
"The computer searches that strand of letters for names, words and phrases hidden by the skip code. It starts with the first letter of the Bible, and looks for every possible skip sequence - words spelled out with skips of 1,2,3, all the way up to several thousand. It then repeats the search starting from the second letter, and does it over and over again until it reaches the last letter of the Bible. After it finds a keyword, the computer can look for related information. Time after time it finds connected names, dates and places encoded together - Rabin, Amir, Tel Aviv, the year of his assassination, all in the same place in the Bible.
The computer scores the matches between words, using two tests - how closely they appear together and whether the skips that spell out the search words are the shortest in the Bible.
Rips explained how it works using the Gulf war as an example. 'We asked the computer to search for Saddam Hussein,' he said. 'Then we looked for related words to see if they came together in a way that was mathematically significant. With the Gulf War we found Scuds with Russian missiles, and the date the war would begin encoded with the name Hussein.
The words formed a crossword puzzle. Consistently, the Bible code brings together interlocking words that reveal related information. With Bill Clinton, President. With the Moon landing, spaceship and Apollo 11. With Hitler, Nazi. With Kennedy, Dallas.
In experiment after experiment, the crossword puzzles were found only in the Bible. Not in 'War and Peace', not in any other book, and not in ten million computer generated test cases.
According to Rips, there is an infinite amount of information encoded in the Bible. Each time a new name or crossword puzzle is formed. Related words cross vertically, horizontally and diagonally."
One of the most dramatic examples in the book is that of the aforementioned predicted assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. On running the program it was found that the words ASSASSIN, WILL ASSASSINATE crossed Rabin's name. Drosnin states that he tried to warn Rabin, but the predicted event came to pass. The book contains numerous similar examples, relating to predictions about a possible world war III, President Kennedy's assassination, the fall of communism and much more. According to Drosnin the code was tried as already noted on large texts including 'War and Peace', but the results could not be replicated in the same way. This in turn added more weight to the argument that the Bible may in fact be encoded.
The original experiment conducted by Dr Rips can be found in the back of the Bible Code book and it also appears in 'Statistical Science 1994, Vol 9, No 3, 429-438.
Michael Drosnin has written about the Bible Code in a very straight forward and easy to read way, and the theories expressed are forwarded in a highly plausible manner. Following the success of the 'Bible Code' Michael Drosnin produced the sequel 'The Bible Code II', which like its predecessor makes also for highly interesting reading, certainly giving rise for food for thought.
However as with all theories there are always opponents and it would be unfair to say that the book has not had its fair share of critics.
Indeed an extract from CNN Interactive June 4, 1997 Web posted at: 11:55 p.m. EDT (0355 GMT), reported that:
"some of the book's conclusions are being challenged by the Israeli mathematician who led a research team that discovered what he says is the hidden code in the Hebrew Bible, or Torah, on which the book is based.
Orthodox Jews call the first five books of the Bible the Torah.
Eliyahu Rips of Hebrew University says it is true that the Bible has predicted various historical events that have come to pass. But he disagrees that the code can be used to predict future events. "The central claim that you will find in Michael Drosnin's book, and really the whole basis for the book, is ... the idea of him predicting Yitzhak Rabin's assassination and the implication is that you can use this idea, the hidden code in the Torah, to make predictions of the future," Rips said Wednesday through a translator.
"It is literally impossible to make future predictions based on codes. Mr. Drosnin's book does have some examples of codes that are statistically significant, and some that aren't, and the problem is that any layman reading that book will have no way of making a distinction."
Drosnin, speaking on CNN, defended his work.
"I am not saying that 'The Bible Code' is a crystal ball. You can not say 'Bible, please tell me the future' and find out anything. You have to know what you are looking for to find anything at all.
"And none of us, neither Dr. Rips nor his colleagues, would claim to know the code well enough, to understand it completely enough, that we can be certain about what it says about the future."
Whether or not their is a code in the Bible or just a set of amazing coincidences. Michael Drosnin puts his case in a convincing way. At the very least the Bible Code phenomena is one that warrants further inspection.
Chakras
Chakras : are energy centres in every human being. There are seven in all situated in the sacrum, naval, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow and crown of the head.
COLOUR CHAKRA RELATED INFLUENCES
Violet Crown For and of the spirit Indigo Brow For inspiration and intuition Blue Throat For inner communication Green Heart For harmonising, understanding & compassion Yellow Solar Plexus For wisdom and cleansing Orange Navel For psychological vitality Red Sacrum For physical vitality
When you have some successful experience with Shared Lucid Dreaming you can give Precognitive Lucid Dreams a try. Intent is also an important key to have Precognitive Lucid Dreams. When you lie in bed trying to fall asleep you need to program this intent to have a Precognitive Dream, and when your Dream starts do you have to recall that intent. You should give yourself appropriate affirmations while you are waiting for the hypnagogic imagery to start. When the dream starts do you need to check your level of consciousness. Do all the tests and make sure your logical mind is working ...
Nasca Lines Nasca Lines : are a lines which were constructed in southwestern Peru by the Nasca culture around 1,500 - 2000 years ago. The lines depict a number of mammals and birds including: a monkey, hummingbird, and a man. There are also many other geometric figures called 'geoglyphs' which include, spirals and zigzags. The lines were made by etching the surface of the dessert by the removal of surface pebbles to reveal the much lighter sand beneath. The figures measure up to 1.2 miles in length and can be found around 250 miles to the south of Lima. Their actual meaning has caused speculation for centuries. Some experts have suggested that the figures served a ceremonial or religious function, others suggested the lines may be some form of astronomical calendar. However, recently, a team from UMass (The University of Massachusetts), after performing some scientific tests, have begun to theorize that some of the lines at least mark the location of underground water.
"Ancient inhabitants may have marked the location of their groundwater supply distribution system with geoglyphs because the springs and seeps associated with the faults provided a more reliable and, in some instances, a better-quality water source than the rivers. We're testing this scientifically." said Stephen B. Mabee (hydrogeologist with the team of scientists from UMass). "The spatial coincidence between the geoglyphs and groundwater associated with underground faults in the bedrock offers an intriguing alternative to explain the function of some of the geoglyphs."
Occult
Occult : this is something that either deals with or relates to supernatural influences or phenomena. It is can be something that is only available to those persons that have been initiated and it is usually something that is hidden away or concealed. Often it is something that lies beyond the realm of human comprehension and is inscrutable and mysterious. When thinking of the occult it tends to conjure up images of priests hidden away practicing some form of black art or black magic. The occult is definitely synonymous with the supernatural, mysterious and mystical.
Parallel Universes Parallel Universes : are thought to be universes that exist alongside that of our own. They could be very similar in nature to our universe or they could in fact be very different. In his book, The Universe Next Door: Twelve Mind Blowing Ideas From The Cutting Edge of Science, Marcus Chown illustrates that the fiction of a parallel universe may indeed be closer to fact.
There is some speculation that our universe may have been created by superior beings in another universe. The reason that this theory arises, is because there is a belief among cosmologists that the universe began initially with a tiny speck of matter - weighing in at possibly only a thousandth of a gram. This particle then underwent a strange process known as inflation. As the mechanics of the process are already known, this has led to the notion that perhaps the whole process could indeed be recreated in a laboratory. In other words the manufacture of a whole new universe done by scientists in their labs. Currently this is beyond our present technical capabilities, because the pressures involved to squeeze the matter to an extraordinarily high density are too great.
However this does not exclude the possibility that an alien civilization some few hundred or thousand of years ahead of us could be engaging in universe manufacture as we speak. This notion has led to the British physicist Edward Harrison to speculate that, perhaps our own universe was made by intelligent beings living in another universe.
On taking this idea further, try to image that the reality that is currently being experienced by everyone is only one of numerous realities. For example somewhere out there in a different time, place or space, Germany won the second world war or the North Pole was hot! Although it may appear to be a curious notion, there is some scientific evidence to suggest that the idea may be closer to fact. Quantum Theory, which successfully describes the world of the atom, shows us that everything may not be as it first seems. A nice example of this, is when one single atom has been shown to exist in many places at once! This phenomenon has been shown in experiments, but it doesn't explain why the stuff we are all made of can be in more than one place at any given time, but we apparently cannot. More and more scientists are becoming convinced that the world of atoms is the same as our own. Should this prove to be true then indeed there must be alternative realities in alternative universes that exist alongside our own.
The consequences and implications for us are quite amazing; just because you may die in this universe does not necessarily mean that you have died in another. The only versions of you that continue to perceive the world are those that remain alive. Could this be the closest thing thing that we will get to immortality?
Reincarnation Reincarnation : is a doctrine that rests on the belief that after the death of the physical body, there is some element left of each person that then goes on to survive bodily death. This element is independent of a person's physical being, and after death goes on to be reborn into another physical body.
The idea of reincarnation has been well established in Eastern religion, although it has appeared all over the globe. Indeed there is some evidence to suggest that reincarnation could be as old as religion itself as it has appeared in the beliefs of many primitive cultures as well as in some of the more highly developed religions.
Currently, reincarnation is experiencing an increase in popularity in the West, as some Christians find the reincarnation of the soul a more attractive proposition. Reincarnation is becoming the alternative to the orthodox Christian view that the soul passes into heaven, purgatory or hell after physical death. Should the Christian view be correct then the soul has but once chance to reach the goal of heaven and determine it's fate. Reincarnation however offers the chance of the soul to be reborn and work it's way forwards or perhaps backwards. A good comparison is like moving up or down on the rungs of a ladder. A well lived previous life would enable the soul to advance upwards on the ladder, whereas a life badly lived would cause the reverse and the soul to move downwards. One of the particular attractions of reincarnation is that it helps to account for many of life's misfortunes and help to answer the question as to why some people are ultimately much more fortunate than others.
Reincarnation plays a major role in Hinduism, a religion from the East. Within the Hindu religion are some sacred writings known as the Upanishads. The Upanishads state that even if the soul does enter a hell or heaven after death, this will be a temporary arrangement only, because the soul will then return to earth. in association with this idea is the doctrine of Karma. In its basic form this is an idea that asserts that at the birth of an individual there are a series of balance sheets full of liabilities and assets accumulated from the previous life.
The Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad, speaking about man's soul, states that:
"According as were his works and walks in (another) life, so he becomes. He that does righteously becomes righteous. He that does evil, becomes evil. He becomes holy through holy works and evil through evil.
The Bhagavad Gita is possibly one of the most widely known of Indian religious writings and this also affirms the doctrine of reincarnation.
"Worn-out garments Are shed by the body: Worn out bodies Are shed by the dweller Within the body; New bodies are donned By the dweller, like garments (430)"
One perhaps less desirable effect of the doctrine of reincarnation was to assert the idea that one could also pass to much lower states than the human form. Indeed one could be born regressively into an animal form or into a lower caste. This has helped to reinforce the caste system.
Both of the Hindu theories of Karma and reincarnation have passed into Buddhism. Indirectly the name Buddha itself implies reincarnation because the term Buddha does not refer to an individual but to a type. The word Buddha itself comes from Sanskritt and means 'one who is fully enlightened'. Siddartha Gautama, often known as the historical Buddha lived in Northern India about 500 B.C. and it is believed that he was only one of a succession of Buddhas who had prepared for their reincarnation as a Buddha and supremely enlightened teacher. Before becoming a Buddha it was necessary to pass through a stage of being a Bodhisattva. It is said that Siddartha Gautama's preparation for Buddhahood began under the previous Buddha Dipankara many eons ago. In the distant future another Buddha, Maitreya, is due to appear.
For Buddhists, rebirth is not so desirable unless you are destined for Buddhahood including the ultimate aim for a state of such perfect enlightenment that the whole process of reincarnation is no longer necessary.
"The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes how after death, the consciousness: 'having no object on which to rest, will be tossed about by the wind, riding on the horse of breath. At about that time the fierce wind of karma, terrific and hard to bear, will drive you onwards, from behind in dreadful gusts. And after a while the thought will occur to you: 'Oh what would I not give to possess a body' After a time the soul will be enticed with visions of humans and animals copulating and will feel a compulsion to take the place of one of the parties. 'Do not try to take the place of one of them!' The Book of the Dead counsels. 'The feeling which you would experience would make you faint away, just at the moment when egg and sperm are about to unite. And afterwards you will have been conceived as a human being or as an animal' (62)."
Although the doctrine of reincarnation is slowly becoming more popular in the West, traditionally it has experienced quite a hard passage there. In the period known as the Hermetica which is the time immediately before and immediately after the birth of Christ; reincarnation appears in the Graeco-Egyptian esoteric writings and Plato. In a fragment translated by GRS Mead, in his Thrice Greatest Hermes, it is stated:
"From one Soul of the universe are all Souls derived...Of these Souls are there many changes, some into a more fortunate estate, and some quite contrary. And they which are creeping things are changed into those of watery things living on the land; and airy ones into men. Human souls that lay hold of immortality are changed into holy powers. And so they go into the sphere of the Gods...And this is the most perfect glory of the soul...
Not all human souls but only the pious ones are divine. Once separated from the body and after the struggle to acquire piety, which consists of knowing God and injuring none, such a soul becomes all intelligence. The impious soul, however, punishes itself by seeking a human body to enter into, for no other body can receive a human soul; it cannot enter the body of an animal devoid of reason. Divine law preserves the human soul from such infamy.' (321)."
Of course the latter is in conflict with the Hindu and Buddhist belief that it is possible to regress into an animal state. However the Hermetic writings did hold some influence over the early Church Fathers. Possibly one of the most influential of the fathers was a man called Origen, who did teach a form of reincarnation. There is some debate about whether or not he taught that the soul could pass into the present world. However he taught that souls that existed in previous worlds would be reborn into future worlds. It wasn't long before Origen's teachings were condemned by the church and eventually the Second Council of Constantinople in A.D. 553 'anathermatized' the theory of reincarnation.
The theory at this point may have disappeared completely had it not been for various underground Gnostic sects who continued the theory sometimes even above ground in open defiance of the Church.
Some of these sects included: the Balkan Bogomils and the Albigenses who flourished for a while in Southern France both being catharist sects of the middle ages. Unfortunately for them they were eventually crushed by the Church in the 13th century, leaving reincarnation a matter of heresay.
In the West the theory now played little part, although some traces of it did appear among the writings of various esoteric schools of thought including: Renaissance Hermetists, Rosicrucians and Cabalists. Slowly the theory of reincarnation began to emerge again under these schools. The idea of reincarnation has held appeal for many philosophers including: Goethe, Heine, Shopenhauer and Thoreau. Clifford Bax's The Traveller's Tale is an astounding 20th century literary work about reincarnation, which details the story of a soul that is reincarnated successively as:
"a Stone Age savage, a Babylonian, a Greek scribe, a Roman soldier, a medieval bishop, a modern English vicar and lastly a spiritual teacher."
At each stage the soul learnt a different lesson until finally reaching enlightenment and it's final release from earthly life. 'When the teacher is murdered by a jealous cynic his soul has a vision of all his previous lives and then suddenly feels itself free.'
"The brilliant crystal bursts; A crash of thunder booms along my brain, And the vast sea of life laps me no more.
The universe without and I within Burn into one soul diamond-point of light, Not great nor small but measureless and the sum of what ever shall be, is or was."
Under normal circumstances it is very difficult to prove whether or not there is a strong case for the theory of reincarnation. In a normal life it would probably be very difficult to function normally if past lives were constantly being remembered. However some interesting cases of alleged reincarnation have emerged over recent years. Recently it has been found that through the use of hypnosis and altered states of consciousness, there is a growing body of evidence, that suggests that the whole concept of reincarnation merits careful and thorough investigation.
Research, Theory of Evolution, Galaxy, ...Almost Anything!
MUSIC:
Middle Eastern, Didjereedo, Tribal and Techno, Tool
MOVIES:
BOOKS:
HEROES:
the Dalai Lama
Che Guevarra
Maynard James Keenan
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