Here & Now

Before I begin, I want to thank all of you who have commented publicly or privately on my posts. I'm overwhelmed by the generosity of spirit I'm being shown in my first week with this blog! Thank you.

I'm a fairly flexible person and not married to many unchangeable opinions, but when I learned that Bahai's do not believe in reincarnation, I'll admit my heart sank. I've always believed and in fact...it's one of the few unwavering beliefs I've had in my life.

I decided to set it aside for awhile. To not look at it too closely and to focus on other aspects of the faith. To focus more on what resonates and to take a little attention off of what doesn't...just for awhile.

After all, I feel at home learning about this religion for a reason...the draw is there and the peace that comes with the discoveries is there too, so why start pulling it all apart?

This worked for a few weeks, but over the course of the past few days I've found myself wondering more about it. I went to the resource library and found this. I understand it (to a point), but found myself becoming defensive while reading it.

When I was a trainer in a customer service call center, I worked with many people who learned in just as many ways. I remember comforting nervous new employees who feared they weren't catching on as fast as their classmates by sharing with them my belief that if they weren't getting the material, that it was my responsibility to find a way to reach them differently...to find a way to speak their individual learning language. I'd try different things and eventually most of them made it through just fine. It made me feel good, they felt understood (and less nervous about losing a much needed job) and the company benefited as well. A win for all of us.

I decided to set aside my defensiveness and I prayed that I'd be shown another way of looking at this. Another way of learning. I wanted to give myself and the faith a break by being open to the fact that there had to be a different way to approach this. Suddenly, I remembered Eckhart Tolle.

A few years ago, I read some of his books and realized I had a real problem (and still do to a lessor degree) staying in the present moment. Being in the "Now" is a fairly foreign concept to me. I'm always fantasizing about the future and reliving the past. I recognize this and do try to nip it in the bud when I'm imagining the dress I'll wear when I win my Tony award or lose a lot of weight, but let's just say I have a wild imagination and well, I go there...a lot. Not as much as I used to, but still...a lot.

I decided to see what Eckhart has to say in the subject of reincarnation and did a little searching. How surprised I was to find that he believes that our most important reincarnations happen now...in this life. And that we can get stuck in them or evolve with them. In fact, he doesn't believe that spending much time contemplating what happens after we die is all that beneficial.

Here is a quote:

"When you think, feel, perceive, and experience, consciousness is born into form. It is reincarnating - into a thought, a feeling, a sense perception, an experience. The cycle of rebirths that Buddhists hope to get out of eventually is happening continuously, and it is only at this moment - through the power of Now (being present)-that you can get out of it."
Eckhart Tolle

I looked at my habit of not staying in the present moment and of how I've long wanted to change this so that I can immerse myself more fully in this realm and not miss out on my real life because I've spent it off in an imaginary town in France opening a little chocolate shop Vianne Rocher style! (You have to admit it isn't a bad fantasy!)

I also realized that while I've always believed in reincarnation, I've never placed much importance on getting to know my past lives, so it's not as if I have to give up my identity as an Irish fisherman or a Messai warrior. There's no real attachment to the idea of who I was or will be.

I then did some reading and found this:

"To consider that after the death of the body the spirit perishes, is like imagining that a bird in a cage will be destroyed if the cage is broken, though the bird has nothing to fear from the destruction of the cage. Our body is like the cage, and the spirit is like the bird. We see that without the cage, this bird flies in the world of sleep; therefore if the cage becomes broken, the bird will continue and exist: its feelings will be even more powerful, its perceptions greater, and its happiness increased. In truth, from hell it reaches a paradise of delights, because for the thankful birds there is no paradise greater than freedom from the cage."
Abdu'l Baha

I have no problem believing that our spirits can evolve in joyful ways unimaginable to us after we die. In fact, I already believe this, so really, my only conflicting belief is that some of us reincarnate into human bodies instead of staying in the spirit realm. Yet, if I desire to be a present person and live this life fully, then in way, it doesn't matter, because it isn't my desire or goal to lose time speculating about what happens in the distant future.

This isn't to say that the Bahai belief or the words of Baha'u'llah don't matter, they do, but my point is that the issue matters less to me. I know over time and as I learn more, I may develop other feelings about the subject, but for now I feel remarkably peaceful about the whole thing.

I'm redefining some of my beliefs and finding that in the whole big scheme of things, some are less important than I thought. And, I love getting out my magnifying glass and having a good look around, so it's all fun anyway!

p.s. the picture above is from this site.