moksha

August 17, 2021 by admin 1 Comment

Avowed atheist, the late Christopher Hitchens, often accused theists of wanting to believe in a Heaven because they want “the party to go on”. (Christopher Hitchens was this scary man with a deep voice who always reminded me of my Dad when he gets really angry and I am in big trouble.)

Hitchens compared religious references of Heaven to a never-ending party because he felt that people were afraid of no longer existing after they die, of losing their identity or connection to loved ones. They want to imagine some kind of world where they will once again be alive and able to experience all the fun they had while on earth, but this time without any of the sorrows or negatives. They want to know that they will once again be reunited with Mom, Uncle Charlie, and their hamster Gerald.

It’s interesting to note that this idea of existing after death is a relatively Western concept. Eastern philosophy is a bit different. We do not want the party to go on. Especially one that involves grey hairs, cellulite craters, saggy skin, saggier body parts, and general old age as the night grows longer. (Not that I have real experience with any of these myself yet, but theoretically speaking!)

Instead we wish for jeevan mukti or moksha which is a release from reincarnation, or the cycle of rebirth. Our goal is ceasing to exist as a constantly suffering, vulnerable, and transitory lifeform. The final resting state is simply imagined to be one with no hardships or even existence, as opposed to a fun, colorful, heavenly party with harps and angels. The Eastern vision of Heaven may sound a bit drab at first, but think of it as a dreamless sleep where you get to nap for as long as you want. On gazillion-thread-count sheets. Not so bad now, is it?

In Hindu teachings, it is thought that both Heaven and Hell are accessible to us in our current state as humans. The idea of a separate Heaven or Hell, after this life, does not really exist – except, as just discussed, the heavenly feeling of liberation from reincarnation. But it is believed that one can be free from one’s physical body even now, in our current life, simply through the use of the mind. Detachment of one’s expectation of a permanent happiness from temporary, worldly pleasures is supposedly the key to bliss on earth. Perhaps comparable to the old Native Indian way of living – one of community, sharing, harmony with nature, simplicity, respect for young and old, and minimal material comforts – which was considered a sustainable, loving way to live together during our short time here. Or maybe it is possible to have another kind of Utopia, one where we can still have our chocolate and Mc-80-inch-TVs. (I own the former and am addicted to the latter. Yeah, yeah, I know I don’t come across as completely enlightened yet, but I’m WORKING ON IT!)

Meanwhile, it is believed that Hell on earth can also be experienced. Many years ago I visited a company in Bombay to look into the creation of a green eco bag with my company logo that I wanted to gift to clients in the US. After some initial small talk, the shrewd, money-minded owner took me to the inner chambers of his factory, to show me where the work was being done. I will never forget what happened next. When he opened the door to a small room with about twenty women and children inside, the heat and stench hit me squarely in the face. It comprised the most horrific working conditions I had ever seen, a dark, humid, airless room with no human comforts, just a concrete floor and frail women and children hand stitching garment after garment. Not even sewing machines were visible, it was a simple line of humans crouched on the floor with needle, thread, and nothing else. Not even a window.

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To me, this scenario was the quintessential example of Hell on earth. The devil, fire, and forced labor was all here, in a small sweatshop in Bombay. Hell can also be seen in refugee camps, crowded jails, ISIS videos, battle sites, domestic abuse shelters, slums or simply in ordinary, everyday life.

The reality of the atrocities actually suffered on Earth can be far more horrendous than the flimsy scare tactics dreamt up by religious books and leaders. So to the atheists who believe that theists and agnostics are desperately clinging to the idea of a higher power because they wish to remain eternal – I would like to emphatically and clearly say that this is not true.

There are many of us, like myself, who have no need to continue existing as an identity or as anything at all. We are happy enough to have an end to our suffering, whether that happens within the framework of a random or planned design. If our suffering ends simply because we are a random product of the Big Bang and we will cease to exist once our bodies break down – we are okay with that. There is no need to believe in a planned or intelligent design or a God or Heaven simply for the hope that we continue to enjoy the party. The goal is an end to suffering, not a continuation of fun times.

So on behalf of all party poopers who prefer an eternal nap to an eternal dance floor — let the party go on without us!

March 20, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

In the last posting, we took a closer look at the popular Eastern concept of Reincarnation, where a soul may be born again and again, in various sentient forms, trying to earn enough good Karma points and the wisdom to achieve MOKSHA, or liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Reincarnation would offer an explanation for the numerous discrepancies we see in this world, like a cosmic checkbook being balanced. (And as a nerdy financial planner by day, the idea of a balanced checkbook disproportionately excites me.)

However like any spiritual topic, the existence of Reincarnation is yet unproven and always very debatable. In part 1 of this article, I pointed out four contradictions that could be cited to form a case against it – 1) an increasing human population, 2) the ongoing extinction of various species, 3) babies and children dying young, and 4) a potential endless cycle of Karma with repeated mistakes over many lifetimes.

As an annoyingly indecisive and single agnostic who can’t commit to a man, much less an existential belief, it’s no surprise that I have four COUNTER arguments that could be made in FAVOR of the plausibility of rebirth, such as:

1) Child prodigies – We all know that child prodigies are these pre-pubescent geniuses who exhibit an absurd amount of talent which normally would be attributed to a lifetime of learning, practice, and experience. Instead, these half-pints gallivant around the world with their adorable cherubic faces and freak the bejesus out of us with their unexplainable skills in composition, painting, math, memory, dance, chess, or overall learning.

True, Mozart was born into a musical family and could have been nurtured by his environment to develop his abilities at an early age. And yes, sometimes prodigies have exhibited irregular neurological configurations that could account for their brilliance as well. But not all cases can be explained by upbringing or biology or other such logic. Is it possible that these are old souls carrying with them the knowledge of a past life into a new one?

2) Past life memories and regression – There are enough detailed anecdotes of past life regression and memories that – at least in my mind – cannot be fully disregarded. There are many thundering Atheists I know and fear who will angrily swat away these “anecdotes or examples” because they have not been proven under laboratory conditions, with James Randi, blah blah blah million dollars, and all that jazz.

But on my end, I am open-minded to reading about the studies of a prominent psychiatrist like Dr. Ian Stevenson who spent a huge part of his career researching and documenting past life memories, especially in children. In his interviews, children who were born with certain physical or mental issues were able to explain how they incurred those injuries in a past life, and their stories and details were astonishingly confirmed by the family of the deceased person in question, sometimes from another part of the world entirely.

I also read with skeptic but respectful fascination the descriptions of past-life regression Dr. Brian Weiss had noted with his patients during sessions of hypnosis. His book was riveting, although I’m not even sure I believe in hypnosis, much less going back to a past life while under its spell. Hypnosis stage shows I’ve seen on YouTube have me partially convinced – watching germophobe Howie Mandel shake hands on AGT was quite persuasive – but I’m not fully there yet.

Could Dr. Ian and Dr. Weiss be quacks looking to fool all of us with their “woo-woo” theories? (insert magic finger gesture here) Sure … no doubt … entirely possible … I give it 50-50 odds. But I can’t snobbishly and utterly dismiss such meticulously documented cases outright.

3) Energy cannot be destroyed – If there is indeed a consciousness or soul energy that we possess (see Is Free Will the Property of Soul Energy?) that has the same traditional properties as other energies, then it would continue to exist once the human form disintegrates. Because energy can neither be created nor destroyed. So if we do have something akin to soul energy, it cannot dissolve or disappear once we die.

Another property of energy is that it is the ability to transform from one type to another. In fact, this transformation is constantly happening, electric energy powering a microwave generates heat energy to warm a cup of tea. Laser light or solar energy can also generate heat. Kinetic wind energy can propel a windmill and circle back to producing electricity. (My caloric food energy could transform to kinetic if I would move instead of flopping on the couch after brunch. Instead I store up alot of potential energy. )

Couch potato potential aside, energy is hardly ever static. So it seems logical that soul energy – if it exists – would transform from one sentient type to another, whether human soul energy, animal soul energy, ghostly soul energy, or other, thus involving a constant cycle of rebirth.

4) The eternity of time – Even if the Angry Atheists are right and it turns out there is no intelligence or plan behind the design of the universe and we are simply random products of the Big Bang, it stands to reason that whatever caused us to be born here in the first place would cause us to eventually be born again. It might take a billion or many-illion years for the same random chemical reactions to reoccur, but if time is infinite and there is no end to the universe, then the odds are that we will one day spontaneously reignite or regenerate again. So we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t – i.e. we’re probably going to be reborn whether there is a higher power or whether there isn’t one. In one situation, we may be able to determine our next avatar through our own free will and karmic earnings, in the other, we’re flotsam periodically being reborn into jetsam.

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This is why I am perpetually confused – there are too many arguments to be made for and against the idea of Reincarnation. I know that one can dismiss these theories as far-fetched and involving hypothesis upon hypothesis – or a tower of turtles. We can also attempt to offer scientific explanations for certain phenomenon that don’t involve the supernatural.

But if it exists, Reincarnation would help make sense of the discrepancies we see in the world. It might give more meaning or at least longevity value to the struggles we face if they teach us wisdom that can be carried with us to other lifetimes. It might give those who are attached to this world and their human avatar hope that the party will go on in some shape or manner.

But to be honest, despite my inability to dismiss it completely, I would be perfectly okay with Reincarnation not existing. In fact I would prefer it. I don’t like parties – an eternal dreamless nap in its place doesn’t sound too bad to me. I don’t want to come back. And I am especially not keen on being reborn as the chickens I consume for lunch for my own selfish pleasure. I would probably have alot of bad karma to burn off and need to start all the way at the bottom of the totem pole as a type of mold. I don’t want to be a fungus. I don’t want to live my best fungus life.

Uninspiring and depressing I know – its soooooo not OpraChopra – but to each their own. On my end, I’m perfectly okay with this life being my first, last, or only. I don’t need a do over. Unless I could come back as George Clooney. Or at least Bo Obama. Then maybe I’d think about it.

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We are Soul, divine units of consciousness. Atoms of God, in a sense, with the attributes of God within us. Our purpose, over our many lifetimes, is to recognize and manifest these God like qualities so that we can achieve God realization which is our destiny. Jesus did this. We are the "fallen angels" referred to in the bible. God created all the universes and tossed us down here to learn our lessons. We quite often started out in a plant or animal body, learning lessons in these bodies, although at a lower consciousness level than human. Then we move up to human bodies where we begin the purification process in earnest, struggling and suffering through many many lifetimes. We go to one of the lower heavens between lifetimes. These heavens are not of this physical plane but on adjacent parallel dimensions. Because we don't occupy these planes in our physical bodies.

it get s funnier each time a religious post comes on my feed ! If I'd said half of this I'd be put in a sanatorium!

There is no evidence of any supernatural or spiritual being. There is plenty evidence that primitive men who did not understand the world around them made this shit up. So sad that people still believe this crap and ignore the overwhelming science and history that show their stories to be bullshit.

No. Our kind of spirit only ever incarnates as human.

If you read in depth SCIENTIFIC review of bang theory you will understand the tremendous odds of creating ANY life. Therefore is it more rational to think the billion to one odd of male female zygote finding each other or a Devine being created us? Most people will not read a deep scientific analysis. They go for the synopsis. Chaotic evolution statistics can not possibly be true. There are many scientists who favor creation but grants are non existent to these men and women. True the is not lucrative. You can see this in the current gender debate. Scientificly there are two sexes anything else is a mental choice. The human form is in a three month embryo and it feels pain. There are many other scientific truths but we must READ, DIG, and cross check .

Just started your book. Very much enjoying it.

And she's buying a stairway to heaven...

There always seems to be one more rung of the ladder of success.

False prophets. There is no reincarnation. There are no different orbits. I know truth. I am happy to share it with others FOR FREE! Even to false prophets like yourself.

So, is the Sun Hell?

The Brothers Grimm had some pretty cool fairy tales too.

Read God Speaks by MeherBaba ,a book the biography of the soul from Nothing to Everything.

Thank god i'm an athiest

🤣

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrjdaghBgjQ

psycho..😱🤡

March 6, 2021 by admin 1 Comment

I have to admit, Reincarnation scares me as much as the prospect of having to give up carbs. It’s frightening.

Now I wouldn’t mind being reborn as a movie star or even Paris Hilton’s spoiled pooch – talk about luxury! But if I didn’t get to choose my avatar, I think the prospect of being randomly born again is spooky. Who knows where I’d end up?

In some ways, I do think Reincarnation may be a possibility, otherwise how would one explain the discrepancies that seem to appear in one lifetime between the haves and the have nots? Between the refugee and the billionaire? Between the healthy and the disabled? Between a dying child and a 100 year old smoker?

Karma doesn’t seem to right itself in just one lifetime. If it did, a certain orange narcissist would choke on his fast food. So if there is a planned design to the universe, then it makes sense that Reincarnation would be part of that design and help smooth out these imbalances over time.

On the other hand, I often doubt its existence at all. As logical a system as Reincarnation might seem for checks and balances amongst souls, it doesn’t seem to quite execute in a way that follows that same logic. In other words, the idea of Reincarnation makes sense to me, but if I look around, our daily world seems to be a stark contradiction of it. There are a few major reasons for my confusion:

1) Population Growth – the concept of Reincarnation, at least as explained by some Eastern religions, posits the idea that the soul has to go through a chain of plant and animal life forms before it can reach the human form, where it has its one chance to progress spiritually and achieve moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth). If the goal is not achieved, then the soul is sent back down the chain to start the climb again, from amoeba – to tumbleweed – to snake – to Joe the Plumber. Perhaps not all the way from the beginning, but from a point that reflects the spiritual wisdom it has attained and the good or bad karma it has earned.

Hinduism puts estimates at 8.4 million life forms that need to be traversed before one finally reaches its human avatar. The human stage is said to be the main platform where a soul gets to further its spiritual progress due to its new ability to think beyond basic animal instincts. Human birth is considered the pinnacle of the earthly chain of Reincarnation and therefore the most precious and important life form we can achieve.

If this were true, then how is it that the homo sapien population is increasing over time? Instead our numbers should go up or down every year, i.e. sometimes there would be more of us and sometimes less, depending on how many souls happen to be passing through the top of the chain before falling back down again. Why is the number simply going in one direction?

With billions of additional humans coming into the world every few decades, it implies new souls are being injected into the system – which doesn’t really make sense. What are they doing in the meantime, waiting somewhere on a cosmic playground for their turn on the slide into our world? The increasing population number seems to contradict the premise of Reincarnation.

2) Extinction – Similarly, the fact that certain species have gone extinct – dinosaurs, Tasmanian tigers, bipartisan politicians – doesn’t make sense either within a system of Reincarnation. If each of us has to experience the same test as other souls – perhaps modified by our own good or bad karma points and earned trajectory – but still similar in structure – why would certain species, or tests go missing? Shouldn’t all of us be going through the same life forms in order to experience the same challenges?

Of course if one wanted to, one could conveniently theorize that the test remains the same no matter which life form we take on, and it doesn’t matter whether we’re a dinosaur or platypus, we still have to learn to pee in the forest. But to me it seems that a Reincarnation exam room such as the world would be designed a little more consistently if an SST – Standardized Soul Test – was the goal.

3) Dying Young – A third contradiction I find is the death of children and babies. I understand the possibility that certain life forms may be cut short because the work they were assigned is complete. But if the human avatar is our most important one for intellectual and emotional growth, then what sense does it make for a baby to die after just a few days in the hospital intensive care? What kind of spiritual growth could the poor thing have possibly attained in that blip of time? If it had any bad karma to work off, the soul could have done it in another way, it seems vastly inefficient to be born human and leave so quickly.

4) Endless cycle of Karma – And lastly, I don’t understand why a system was designed to almost force us to repeat our mistakes. We supposedly take our spiritual growth with us as we progress through our journey, but there seems to be too much opportunity for us to generate more bad Karma for ourselves. Because even if we bring some wisdom with us, surely we have to make SOME mistakes in our next human or sentient life in order to acquire new knowledge and wisdom? We are not allowed to remember exactly what we did wrong in past lives, so it’s almost like a harried, hopeless hopscotch where we might take two steps back in order to move one step forward. (I was never good at hopscotch – butterscotch is more my thing.)

Why not just give us one lifetime in which to build upon our knowledge and experience and rid ourselves of any bad Karma in one efficient run? Why create an inefficient, mysterious, complicated system like Reincarnation when there could be so many simpler paths instead?

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