People say to me: “If we have past lives, why can we not remember them?” The answer has many levels but here are two factors for contemplation.
The first factor has to do with the nature of our memory. We cannot remember everything. Most people do not remember much about their first year or two of life. If you are anything like me, we forget lots of things that only happened yesterday! There is a part of the brain that selectively sorts and chooses what stimuli goes into our conscious memory banks and what is filed as an unconscious record. So, memory is not really an ideal mechanism for knowing the answers to these questions. The fact that we cannot remember past lives does not mean that they did not occur.
The second factor has to do with the fact that each body, and each personality that is created (our Egoic being) is unique for each and every incarnation. The soul holds the master records of who, what, when and where we have been previously, but if we don’t know how to access our souls then how do we find this information?
Clues can be obtained from our natural tendencies, interests, likes and dislikes. Some people have irrational fears of drowning, or falling or being killed, even though no event even remotely like that has occurred in this life. However perhaps they have drowned, fallen or been attacked in other lives and the memory was so traumatic that it lodged as a ‘blob’ of energy that was so strong we can sense it still even though we are in another incarnation.
Have you ever had an instant liking, or instant animosity with a person? I think this is soul recognition from other lives, when we have either loved or been betrayed by this soul and we know it deep down inside of ourselves.
Some people have incredible talents that they seem to be born with. How could this be, if their soul had not become accomplished to a high degree in this before? Here I am thinking about child protégés like Mozart.
Jesus says in the scriptures that if we live by the sword we will die by the sword. Clearly not everyone who lives by the sword dies by the sword in the same incarnation, so was Jesus wrong, or was he referring to the balancing of all these factors over the many lives of the soul? He also says that John the Baptist was Elijah, and so it would seem that the great Jewish mystical Avatar, Lord Jesus, gave some teachings on this subject, which have not been carried down through the lineage of Greek and Roman influenced Christian theology. More people in the world believe in re-incarnation than do not, and in Eastern countries as well as in Western Kabalistic and alchemy mystical teachings, this belief is normal.
My own transcendent explorations as a healer and spiritual teacher have shown me again and again the profound relationships and circumstances giving rise to issues, challenges and problems in this life that can be alleviated through past life awareness, forgiveness and understanding. Lives turn around when very old issues are put to rest, and the changes are often dramatic and long lasting.
As well as all this, my belief in past and future lives gives me a great sense of justice and peace. I have an unshakeable belief that those who harm others will experience that same energy frequency of harm themselves in the future, and that the justice of the Divine is incredibly fair. Knowing that, I can let it go, have forgiveness and cultivate compassion for the wrongdoer.
Whatever is going on for us now, perhaps it is either a form of grace from earlier times, or a clearing of some earlier karma. Either way we can meet our destiny with composure, and learn the best ways to manage ourselves through it.
Without a spiritual path, we are lost, depressed, devastated and crushed by the adversities of life. With a spiritual path, we are shown how to deal with the situation so as to create a better future. By learning spiritual tools and practices, we can heal, take a massive problem and reduce it, or we can learn to live with it, growing in happiness, illumination and joy at the same time. Truly, it is how we meet our obstacles that creates either ugliness, or beauty and greatness within a soul.
I think that the road to enlightenment is long, winding and gets narrower the further we go. Whatever our beliefs, we are all going to the same place eventually. I believe that those who strive to make the world a better place, who are peacemakers even in situations of great challenge and adversity, who are capable of noble actions, humanitarian compassion and personal sacrifice, really do get rewarded down the track.
Om Shanti.
Shakti Durga