Reincarnation

Karma/Determinism

These terms describe the general tendency/pattern for a person,family,country,etc. The film Sliding Doors illustrates this idea. In the movie the protagonist’s life unfolds in two directions based on whether or not she catches a certain tube. The two lives have different developments based in part on the subtle change in timing. The underlying karmic or deterministic thread weaves itself through each lifetime as shown by the important events of each lifetime. For example in both lives, she has an unfaithful boyfriend, a great love, and a trauma induced miscarriage. However, other entities’ karma, and free will interact in each life to bring about different manifestations of the karmic or deterministic thread. In one lifetime she finds rather immediate professional success, great love, and a pregnancy with the new lover ,but an early death. In the other lifetime, she hangs out with the cheating boyfriend, becomes pregnant with his baby, and survives a trauma induced miscarriage, meeting the great love upon discharge from the hospital. The karmic thread involves similar events with changes due to the factors of other entity karma, personal karma(past,present,and future), and free will.

More information about determinism and karma can be gleaned from the "Bhagavad Gita." The issue of karma/determinism is dealt with throughout this epic poem. However, one chapter,12 in the version translated by Goswami Kriyananda, deals specifically with karma. This karma chapter indicates that your reincarnated lifetimes are manifestations of our personal history,group history, and the eternal rhythm(this could represent a higher power, total unification of sentient beings,elimination of scattering dissention,old soul existence,etc.). As we become more aware of the rhythm our karma eases and our lifetimes become more similiar or attuned to the balanced existence.

Free will

This term describes our decision-making ability. In Sliding Doors the cleanest example of this is her termination of the cheating boyfriend. In one lifetime she catches him cheating, She lets go rather quickly and cleanly(had she done it even more solidly ,she might not have had the confusion fire in her life that caused her death). Her life is short but fulfilled in that she had professional success, a great love, a pregnancy that was evidence of a loving union. In another lifetime she is not as true to herself,perhaps, and does not as cleanly cut things. Here she has more suffering but the life is longer and there is the promise of the other lover helping her to manifest happiness.

The Gita distinctly states that our decisions move us closer to or farther from the ultimate balanced lifetime. It is reasonable to infer that a balanced attempt at a free will decision moves up forward on the Earth plane as well as spiritually.

Summary

As Sliding Doors and the Gita indicate each of us is generally regulated by an overall tendency toward certain events. This tendency is guided by our personal and group actions(past,present future). But free will can adjust this karmic/deterministic tendency to bring about different aspects and timing of the main events. And finally, earnest attempts at softening karma are respected by the basic rhythm. So, a loving, honest attitude alone can work to soften the edges of our lives.

Reincarnation, as a general concept, refers to the cycle of lifetimes each human experiences. Overall, reincarnation is the process of each human becoming physically present in this physical Earth plane repeatedly. Most cultures and religions incorporate reincarnation into their belief system(even Christianity-for a description of varying planes of existence from a Christian perspective see Mystic Christianity(1907) by Yogi Ramacharaka).Each person has the free will to determine the timing, the placement, and the character of each lifetime. Some philosophies indicate that a person can elect to occupy more than one physical body at one time.

Reincarnation ties each person to his or her family/community in that frequently entities choose to continue to work on their lessons together. However, usually these roles differ from lifetime to lifetime. For example, a spouse may have been your sibling or parent in a previous lifetime(does this explain idiosyncrasies of your relationships?). As each relationship provides unique lessons, it is helpful for the spiritual journey to alternate these roles.

A significant purpose of reincarnation is the development of knowledge. In this way each of us (or each sentient being) can break free of desires and karmic scars to move to perfect balance.

Basic definition

The term, "soulmate" brings to most of us the idea of halves being brought together. The definition is often similar to the following. A soulmate is one of 2 persons who provides for the other a sense of instant understanding or unification. The individual is not complete until he or she is united with this other individual. Once this unification takes place, all things are possible.

Yogic perspective

Those who we feel are soulmates are those soul entities with whom we have much unfinished work. They are reincarnations of family members or close friends who have been taken away abruptly in past lives. So, yes, there is work to do ,but you can move forward in this life without these "soulmates" as your lifetime romantic partners. The affinity between the soul energies is high, so the tendency to repeat the karmic patterns, both easeful and difficult, is strong. When you encounter this energy it usually helps you to move forward and cleanse difficult karma, if you can take time to meditate and strengthen your chakric energy. Then you and the soulmate energy entity can move most easily forward, whether or not that means romantic pairing in this Earth plane lifetime.

Summary

The meeting of the soulmate and the sense of instant understanding is an opportunity for karmic advancement, not your only chance for romantic happiness. The soulmate meeting allows you to move forward spiritually but also has a high risk of creating more karmic scarring due to the ease of simply repeating last lifetime rhythms. You do not have one soulmate as your only possibility for romantic fulfillment. Your chances for romantic happiness are endless and are maximized by your sense of being complete within yourself.

I hope this has been helpful and offers a sense of optimism to your approach in finding romantic love.

Souls are often grouped according to an approximation of the number of lived lifetimes(number of times around the wheel as you may see it).The rationale for the groupings is complex and, perhaps contradictory. This feature will introduce the characteristics of young, old, and middle-aged entities.

Young souls incarnate as involved, excited, and interested persons. All is a wonder to them. They are similar to entities who are in their first incarnation of an ascendancy cycle. With this excitement, comes the capacity to be easily scattered(their energy fields are very friable). The sense of amazement can easily turn to a sense of being overwhelmed with a then probable dissipation of function. Any roles which require curiosity are very suitable(scientist, technologist, artist) are very suitable.Physically, they usually have smooth finger and toe joints.They age either very prematurely or not at all.

Old souls have traveled the Earth plane extensively. Understandably the role of the old soul is leader. Often, they lead in quiet ways(writers, artist,etc.), as the public leadership roles contain too much attachment to be tolerable for the old soul. The main problem area for the old soul is boredom that then can lead to impatience and irritability. Generally, because the old soul has begun to let go of desire, the lifetime of an old soul is fairly even(although it may not appear so, outwardly).Physically, the old soul will have knotty fingers and toes. They also age either very prematurely or not at all.

Middle-aged souls ideally strike a balance between curiosity and the old soul’s wisdom to help us all forward on our journey. This group presently comprises the bulk of our Earth population. They are our workers. They are our public leaders. They experience extremes of emotion because they have the strongest attachment to desire. They are the most flexible. Any job experience is appropriate for this group. Souls take the longest time to move out of this category, because the entities are so busy on the Earth plane that focused spiritual forward movement is difficult. This category does not have any special physical characteristics.

Determining the soul category of yourself and others works to provide perspectives, which can help you increase tolerance of different approaches. With this greater understanding we can then more easily move forward on our journeys.

One answer to the question,” Why bother with the study of reincarnation?” is to help you feel better in this lifetime. Each lifetime has learning objectives. We choose at one level our present situations to expose ourselves to different experiences. It seems reasonable that understanding our various lifetimes would assist us in improving our present lifetime. At the very least the energy action of visiting the lifetime changes to a degree the karmic pattern, thereby changing our present experiences.

If you work thoughtfully to visit these lifetimes, you can accomplish great things for the present lifetime. Dr. Bruce Goldberg in his book, Past Lives Future Lives(1982), New York: Ballantine Books) presents hypnotherapeutic case histories which present evidence for this idea. I urge you to check out his book for some incredible anecdotal histories.

I caution you to approach other lifetime visitations thoughtfully. Please research, ask questions,etc. A good beginning technique is the dream journal which is described in my article on dreams on my Dreams Features page.

Email: yogini98@comcast.net