SOUL IMMORTALITY KARMA REINCARNATION part 1

“The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and as it goes out of it anew it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Know, therefore, that from the greater silence I shall return... Forget not that I shall come back to you... A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.” Khalil Gibran

“You could say that the soul level part of us is the wise eternal part that sees the big picture. The ego level is the finite part of us. The ego self, when disconnected from the soul, does not have a long-term understanding of soul development.” Edgar Cayce

“As we live through thousands of dreams in our present life, so is our present life only one of many thousands of such lives which we enter from the other, more real life and then return after death. Our life is but one of the dreams of that more real life, and so it is, endlessly, until the very last one, the very real, the life of God.” Leo Tolstoy

“As long as you are not aware of the continual law of Die and Be Again, you are merely a vague guest on a dark Earth. The soul of man is like to water; from Heaven it comes, to Heaven it rises, and then returning to earth, forever alternating.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I believe there are two sides to the phenomenon of death; this side where we live, and the other side where we shall continue to live. Eternity does not start with death. We are in eternity now.” Norman Vincent Peale

“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.” Paolo Coelho

“Reincarnation is the law of spiritual evolution. It gives everything a chance to work out its karma (law of action). Evolution and reincarnation are methods of propelling all creation toward final freedom in spirit, held no longer under the natural law of death.” Paramahansa Yogananda

“The soul of a man is immortal and imperishable.” Plato

"I believe... that the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life, respecting its conduct in this… I look upon death to be as necessary to the constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning." Benjamin Franklin

"Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives." Henry Ford

“Our self (Soul), as a form of God's joy, is deathless. For his joy is eternal bliss. We know that the life of a Soul, which is finite in its expression and infinite in its principle, must go through the portals of death in its journey to realize the infinite.” Rabindranath Tagore

“You are the Universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.” Eckhart Tolle

"I think immortality is the passing of a soul through many lives... such as are truly lived, used, and learned, help on to the next, each growing richer, happier, and higher, carrying with it only the real memories that have gone before." Louisa May Alcott

“The mechanism which ties souls to their incarnations is karma; roughly, the moral law of cause and effect… which means that the career of a Soul as it threads its way thru innumerable bodies is guided by its choices, which are controlled by what the soul wants and wills at each stage of the journey.” Huston Smith

“This is what it means to be a mystic without a monastery. You make a commitment to your own interior illumination and through that discover the ‘sacred’ part of your ‘contract and the true meaning of your highest potential… Our sacred contract is not a literal document. We could think of our sacred contract as a spiritual document that our soul recognizes.” Caroline Myss

“Man’s greatness is not in what he is, but in what he makes possible. An immortal soul is within him, even if seldom active in most people… there is a great divine plan in motion, even if the evidence of the outer senses seems to contradict it.” Sri Aurobindo

“I have been born more times than anybody except Krishna.” Mark Twain

"The souls must reenter the absolute substance whence they have emerged. But to accomplish this, they must develop all the perfections, the germ of which is planted in them; and if they have not fulfilled this condition during one life, they must commence another, a third, and so forth, until they have acquired the condition which fits them for reunion with God." Zohar, Kabballah text

"And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" John 9:2

“Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he… For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Matthew 11:11, 13-15

"No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or wife or children or land for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age - homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields... and in the age to come, eternal life." Mark 10:29-30

"And you were dead, and He brought you back to life. And He shall cause you to die, and shall bring you back to life, and in the end shall gather you unto Himself." Qur’an 2:28

As I recall, my belief in reincarnation began when I was 19. A year into college, where I juggled four majors – sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll and sports, and three minors – bridge, poker and word games – it’s a wonder I made it to any classes at all! And cannabis and psychedelics lavishly illustrated my internal canvas and my views of the world and the cosmos. And being 1964 in NYC, plenty of kindred spirits dotted the landscape.

My reading branched out into some of the major influences of ‘underground’ movements: a little ‘beat’ stuff - Ginsburg, Burroughs et al; some existentialists - Sartre, Kafka, Dostoevsky, philosopher William Kaufmann; and the likes of Aldous Huxley and spiritual guru Alan Watts, my first foray into Eastern religions and their insights about reincarnation.

Recently, while reading some thoughts about reincarnation, I came upon a quote by an 18thc. philologist, quite philosophical, named William Jones. His quote seemed to draw parallels to the feelings I had back in the 60’s concerning doubts about the Bible alongside my newfound belief in karma and reincarnation:

"I am no Hindu, but I hold the doctrine of the Hindus concerning a future state (rebirth) to be incomparably more rational, more pious, and more likely to deter men from vice than the horrid opinions inculcated by Christians on punishments without end."

Back then, the basic sense of ‘karma’ in use connected the deeds and misdeeds of one incarnation with the setting and requisites of the next. Still, it was understood to mean ‘cause and effect’ or ‘you reap what you sow’, even within this lifetime.

So, let’s head back to historic monotheism for a very brief look at its take on death, heaven and hell, and the immortal? Soul.

First, on souls entering the body:

Rabbi Allen S Maller, fluent in the languages, scriptures and religions of monotheism, writes on the Islamicity web site, 5/23/19

“The rabbis in the Talmud all agree that ensoulment does not begin at conception. In Nida 8:2, the fetus is recognized as a human soul from the second trimester, 13 weeks into the pregnancy.

“In the Middle Ages, Catholic theologians taught that ensoulment occurred about 3 months after conception, perhaps influenced by superior Muslim medical knowledge at that time during the Christian dark ages.

In a description of conception in the Qur’an, “Then of that clot We made a (embryo) lump. Then We made out of that embryo/lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh. Then (finally) We developed out of it another creature (by breathing a human soul into it).” S23:13 (bones and flesh start after 3 months or so.)

Rabbi Maller points out another intriguing tidbit concerning incoming souls:

“Exodus 21:22-23 states that if two men are fighting and injure a pregnant woman, causing her to miscarry, and if no other harm is done, the person who caused the damage must pay compensatory damages. The rabbinic interpretation is that if the only harm to the woman is the loss of her fetus, it is treated as a civil tort, and not a criminal case. So, abortion is not a prohibited crime, but it is damaging and thus discouraged.”

So, once again, Jesus believed this verse, certainly never spoke against abortion, and is simply another law invented by Catholics and sheepishly accepted in Christianity.

Judaism

There is no real attempt at description of the afterlife in the Old Testament; statements abound, though, of rewards for righteous actions in this life and punishment for negative actions. And there appears to be widespread belief in the immortality of the soul after it leaves our body.

For many, the afterlife of souls of the righteous or repentant deceased consists of entrance to Sheol, (heaven), where they believe in a reunion with other deceased family members.

Most believe in a judgment by God, for heaven or hell, with some believing that the final disbursement of souls will occur only in a later 'Messianic Age’, with resurrection for the righteous.

Many believe as well that unrighteous souls are sent to Genion, (perhaps more like purgatory that hell) for an attempt at repentance through purification, after which, the soul is either admitted to Sheol or obliterated. I find obliteration of souls to be drastic, but, as they say, ‘who am I to judge?’ And besides, at least there’s no mention whatever of eternal torment.

Christianity

Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” This judgment rewards those who believe in Jesus as their Savior, as their soul immediately departs the body for heaven, and is thus, immortal. Witness Jesus making an instant judgment, per Luke, ‘Jesus said to the thief on the cross’, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43

One Christianity website says that Jesus speaks about hell more than any other subject. Here’s one of his numerous warnings:

“The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:41- 2

I can say with certainty that Jesus never said those words, for at least three reasons: firstly, it doesn’t sound remotely like something this gentle soul would say. Secondly, two thousand years later, what is he waiting for… in the weeding-out-of-evil arena? And thirdly, it feels like it knocks free will right out of the equation.

And here, we see another familiar epithet of hell: "… and He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone.” Revelation 14:10

Dwelling a bit further on the subject of Jesus and hell: We know that Jesus was brought up and lived his whole life as a pious Jew. So, his beliefs about Genion, hell/purgatory, should be, as noted above, that unrighteous souls are remanded there for purification and admittance to Sheol, heaven, except for those few? who remain unrepentant and are utterly destroyed.

However, as I see it, ‘hell’, as described above, begins its very existence in the NT. So, somewhere in his ministry, Jesus invents the hell that informs the New Testament, and subsequently, Christianity. Forever. Nowhere do we get the sense from Jesus that 'our Father’ revealed to him the existence of the Lake of Fire or brimstone, or any of the above epithets of Hell. So, whence? Good question, methinks.

Islam

“And they ask you about the soul. Say: The soul is one of the commands of my Lord, and you are not given aught of knowledge but a little.” S17:85

Many versions of this surah use 'spirit’ rather than 'soul’; in reading through numerous Islamic sites, I’m still not sure if these are identical.

In any case, Muslims believe in the continued existence of the soul after death, and that the body remains in the grave until Judgment Day. Like Christianity, Islam teaches that there is a Heaven and Hell, and that on Judgment Day, Allah will make all the final determinations as to how the deceased will be divided between the two eternal destinations.

At death, there is what I would call a 'pretrial’, where the deceased go before two angels, who question them about their life and how closely they followed the Five Pillars of Islam.

When a righteous believer dies, after answering these questions satisfactorily, angels descend from heaven to perfume and wrap the soul and gently remove it from the body. Then the believer’s soul is granted a preview taste of what paradise will be like for them, and then returned to their body in the grave, to await Judgment Day in peace.

When a sinner or disbeliever dies, having failed the test, they are confronted by angels of death, who beat the soul and brutally extract it from the body. The soul of the sinner is then wrapped in a foul-smelling cloth, then carried to heaven, where it is, of course, rejected summarily; lastly, it is sent hurtling into hell, to be punished until Judgment Day.

On the Day of Judgement, Allah will raise all people from the dead to be judged according to their deeds. Eternal heaven or hell to be determined for every soul.

If you believe, as I do, in the immensity and grandeur of Souls, as described earlier by Gary Zukav and others, it becomes impossible to believe that GodSpirit would choose to imprison them with their decaying bodies until Judgment Day. We are talking about immortal beings, as cherished by God as Angels and Archangels. Just not possible!

In another skewed scenario, among people who believe in monotheism’s ‘Heaven and Hell’, truly misguided souls might presume the Rump, et al, are going to Heaven, cuz they’re the good guys. Uhhhh, no. The Lyin’ King goin’ no such place.

Other monotheists might be satisfied that the Rump tribe will end up quite prominently in Dante’s Inferno, perhaps only debating where each might land, from among successively more brutal levels seven, eight and nine of Hell.

Sorry. I don’t personally believe that any of it happens either way. Read on:

Samsara is the Sanskrit word, literally ‘flowing around’, used to describe the continuous cycle of birth, death and rebirth that all persons ‘endure’ as long as they still have unsettled karma remaining at the end of a lifetime. That’s at least 99.9% of us at any given time, my friends. The only way out of samsara is the achievement of enlightenment – the familiar Sanskrit term 'nirvana’.

So, our ego-ridden lives, riding the illusions of the material world into the sunset, keep us bound to samsara til we snap out of it, find the true essence of our being, be true helpmates for others, balance our karma, and grab the brass ring – enlightenment – on our way outta Dodge. That’s the core of the Universe’s system, mirroring the phases of birth, death, and rebirth that we see everywhere else in nature.

We will next examine this more closely.

NAMASTE