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@aura If you said to me "I think I saw a Sasquatch. I saw it here, and it looked like this", then I would think about it and I might say, "Wow! That sounds like a Sasquatch to me. I really think you might have seen a Sasquatch. How lucky. I've never seen one." But then you say" oh, there are lots of sasquatches, I see them all the time." Now I'm thinking something is fishy. If there are so many why have I never seen one? In fact you are the only person I have ever encountered who says they have seen one and you are saying that you have seen plenty. Now, when I ask you about this you say " sasquatches only show themselves to people who have wisdom and compassion and who don' t disrespect them. You are obviously not the type of person who sees them." Now I'm thinking " When did I disrespect a Sasquatch? I've never even seen one." At this point I'm starting to think that you might be unbalanced and the compassionate thing to do is to not talk about sasquatches any more.
If you knew me you would know that I am a kind, generous person. I am a devoted, loving father. Children naturally take to me. And those adults who know me trust me with their children. Trust that I will speak to their children with kindness, respect and truthfulness. I am sure that you are the same way.
I'll gladly consider you a kind and generous person when you cease very rudely and crudely misquoting me and diverting this thread away from the issue of young children who evidence/claim memory of a former life in order to focus on your own personal issues with sasquatches.
I opened my Kundalini to early and now I am in pain>...:0(
I am so sorry that you are in pain, and that I did not see this post earlier. You raised the most important point of all about the phenomenon of children (and others) troubled by rebirth issues: the fact that they experience significant pain, grief, and confusion associated with those issues.
Their pain, grief, and confusion go far beyond any difficulties they may have with surrounding adults anxious to silence them, conduct "scientific research" on them, complaining that this phenomenon does not concur with their previous experience or personal dogmatic beliefs, or looking to either debunk or exploit the issue with a book or movie contract.
The pain, grief, and confusion are a reflection of the individual's personal karmic issues, and merit a general public service announcement:
If you or anyone you know evidences rebirth issues, please note the following: The seals between the consciousness of lifetimes are there for a reason. The seals provide protection for the present consciousness.
Longstanding meditative practice will naturally erode the seals where they are thin (i.e. around issues for which the individual consciously seeks resolution, healing, and release). The erosion of the seals is a gradual natural healing process. It is a gift of longstanding meditation with clear intention to seek resolution, healing, and release of one's karmic issues. Advanced meditators are well equipped to deal with the phenomenon with relative equanimity, as one life and its traumatic suffering is no more real nor illusory than the next for an advanced meditator.
Very young children (3-7) may also have a very thin seal or even a non-existent seal where they have a karmic issue for which they are intent on seeking resolution in this lifetime. Helping such children is a matter of respecting, hearing, honoring, and supporting the child gently and in whatever way the child seeks support for resolving his/her karmic issue. Generally the child simply has a need to talk about his/her karmic issue(s) and to be heard and acknowledged, just as any adult grieving a significant loss would need to be heard and acknowledged. If given that, most young children can deal with the phenomenon quite well. The child's need and interest in dealing with his/her karmic issues will come and go, diminishing over time as he/she finds resolution and release of old issues and finds new issues to deal with in the world. The child must determine whatever he/she may need to help resolve the karmic issue in this lifetime, not the adults. No child needs adults shoving a television camera in his face for a reaction shot while coming to terms with what he regards as personal traumatic memories.
In the modern world, we are increasingly seeing a whole new category of people with these issues. Often they are completely unprepared to deal with past life traumatic karmic issues as the phenomenon is not part of their belief system, but they are forced to deal with such issues nonetheless after prescription or nonprescription drugs/chemicals, extreme trauma, and/or externally or internally guided meditation/therapy/regression techniques have eroded the seals and/or otherwise unduly disrupted their customary flow of consciousness.
I believe Buddhist practice holds great promise for helping such individuals gently resolve, release, and heal such trauma and gently re-integrate their consciousness after such disruption.
But in all cases, if you or anyone you know evidences the phenomenon of past life issues, (irregardless of whether your personal belief system includes or dismisses past life phenomena) please endeavor to give that individual the respect he/she deserves by honoring his/her personal grief as you would honor the bereaved at a funeral.
I haven't discounted reincarnation altogether-- I'm definitely open to the idea of rebirth; but I tend to wonder how much of past-life recall is just really vivid genetic memory.
I haven't discounted reincarnation altogether-- I'm definitely open to the idea of rebirth; but I tend to wonder how much of past-life recall is just really vivid genetic memory.
Jung would say the person accidentally pulled scattered images from the Collective Unconsciousness, a vast psychic connective sea of experiences that everyone both feeds and derives meaning from. Using this model, there is no such thing as individual reincarnation, since everyone has the exact same connection to everyone else. Both you and I can pull memories from the same person who lived back on that Scottish island, for instance, and mistakes in the memories are simply memories from other past people getting mixed in.
So is this Buddhist reincarnation, if accurate? Well, Buddhism not only contains beliefs in reincarnation, it insists this is how past life karma works. A collective set of past experiences means nobody has individual karma that carries over to a future life.
And there is no way of telling if this is correct, or if individual reincarnation is the accurate picture, because neither can be disproved or proved. Both would look exactly the same to we, the living. It's simply a fascinating mental puzzle.
I haven't discounted reincarnation altogether-- I'm definitely open to the idea of rebirth; but I tend to wonder how much of past-life recall is just really vivid genetic memory.
According to science, is not the sum total of one's entire existence and consciousness only just a phenomenon of "really vivid genetic memory"? One evidences a particular unique pattern of energy in space/time, you see... and the expansion or contraction of space/time around that pattern does not change that pattern.
Comments
If you said to me "I think I saw a Sasquatch. I saw it here, and it looked like this", then I would think about it and I might say, "Wow! That sounds like a Sasquatch to me. I really think you might have seen a Sasquatch. How lucky. I've never seen one."
But then you say" oh, there are lots of sasquatches, I see them all the time."
Now I'm thinking something is fishy. If there are so many why have I never seen one? In fact you are the only person I have ever encountered who says they have seen one and you are saying that you have seen plenty.
Now, when I ask you about this you say " sasquatches only show themselves to people who have wisdom and compassion and who don' t disrespect them. You are obviously not the type of person who sees them."
Now I'm thinking " When did I disrespect a Sasquatch? I've never even seen one."
At this point I'm starting to think that you might be unbalanced and the compassionate thing to do is to not talk about sasquatches any more.
If you knew me you would know that I am a kind, generous person. I am a devoted, loving father. Children naturally take to me. And those adults who know me trust me with their children. Trust that I will speak to their children with kindness, respect and truthfulness. I am sure that you are the same way.
PS How come you don't like sasquatches?
You raised the most important point of all about the phenomenon of children (and others) troubled by rebirth issues:
the fact that they experience significant pain, grief, and confusion associated with those issues.
Their pain, grief, and confusion go far beyond any difficulties they may have with surrounding adults anxious to silence them, conduct "scientific research" on them, complaining that this phenomenon does not concur with their previous experience or personal dogmatic beliefs, or looking to either debunk or exploit the issue with a book or movie contract.
The pain, grief, and confusion are a reflection of the individual's personal karmic issues, and merit a general public service announcement:
If you or anyone you know evidences rebirth issues,
please note the following:
The seals between the consciousness of lifetimes are there for a reason.
The seals provide protection for the present consciousness.
Longstanding meditative practice will naturally erode the seals where they are thin (i.e. around issues for which the individual consciously seeks resolution, healing, and release).
The erosion of the seals is a gradual natural healing process. It is a gift of longstanding meditation with clear intention to seek resolution, healing, and release of one's karmic issues.
Advanced meditators are well equipped to deal with the phenomenon with relative equanimity, as one life and its traumatic suffering is no more real nor illusory than the next for an advanced meditator.
Very young children (3-7) may also have a very thin seal or even a non-existent seal where they have a karmic issue for which they are intent on seeking resolution in this lifetime. Helping such children is a matter of respecting, hearing, honoring, and supporting the child gently and in whatever way the child seeks support for resolving his/her karmic issue.
Generally the child simply has a need to talk about his/her karmic issue(s) and to be heard and acknowledged, just as any adult grieving a significant loss would need to be heard and acknowledged.
If given that, most young children can deal with the phenomenon quite well.
The child's need and interest in dealing with his/her karmic issues will come and go, diminishing over time as he/she finds resolution and release of old issues and finds new issues to deal with in the world.
The child must determine whatever he/she may need to help resolve the karmic issue in this lifetime, not the adults. No child needs adults shoving a television camera in his face for a reaction shot while coming to terms with what he regards as personal traumatic memories.
In the modern world, we are increasingly seeing a whole new category of people with these issues. Often they are completely unprepared to deal with past life traumatic karmic issues as the phenomenon is not part of their belief system, but they are forced to deal with such issues nonetheless after prescription or nonprescription drugs/chemicals, extreme trauma, and/or externally or internally guided meditation/therapy/regression techniques have eroded the seals and/or otherwise unduly disrupted their customary flow of consciousness.
I believe Buddhist practice holds great promise for helping such individuals gently resolve, release, and heal such trauma and gently re-integrate their consciousness after such disruption.
But in all cases, if you or anyone you know evidences the phenomenon of past life issues, (irregardless of whether your personal belief system includes or dismisses past life phenomena) please endeavor to give that individual the respect he/she deserves by honoring his/her personal grief as you would honor the bereaved at a funeral.
metta
Aura
So is this Buddhist reincarnation, if accurate? Well, Buddhism not only contains beliefs in reincarnation, it insists this is how past life karma works. A collective set of past experiences means nobody has individual karma that carries over to a future life.
And there is no way of telling if this is correct, or if individual reincarnation is the accurate picture, because neither can be disproved or proved. Both would look exactly the same to we, the living. It's simply a fascinating mental puzzle.
and the expansion or contraction of space/time around that pattern does not change that pattern.