Re-Engineering Re-Incarnation

Re-EngineeringRe-Incarnation

The Reality of Rebirth and How It Might Be Managed

Michael LaTorraAssociate Professor of English [Retired]

New Mexico State University

Religion & Science

• Re-incarnation is a part of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and many shamanic religions

• Scientific research into re-incarnation by professor of psychiatry Ian Stevenson during 40 years investigated 3,000 cases of children around the world who recalled having past lives

The Process

• In most cases, re-incarnation happens in an almost mechanical fashion

• The desires and aversions of one life cause re-birth in a subsequent life

• Highly spiritually advanced beings re-incarnate by choice, not by chance

• Tibetan Buddhist tradition depends on re-incarnation for its top religious leaders

Models of the Cosmic Domain

Buddhist Cosmology

• Divided into 3 broad realms: the sense-sphere realm, the fine-material realm and the immaterial realm

• Each of the 3 realms is divided into several subsidiary planes, for a total of 31 planes of existence

Buddhist Cosmology

• Sense-Sphere Realm = 11 planes• Sensual desires predominate• 7 planes of better sensual experience: human realm plus the 6

“heavenly” planes = the gods under the Four Great Kings; the Gods of the Thirty-Three, presided over by Sakka, a good-hearted deity but prone to negligence; the Yama Gods; the gods of the Tusita heaven, where future Buddhas await their final rebirth; the gods who delight in creating; and the gods who wield power over the creations of other gods, including Mara who tempted the Buddha.

• 4 planes of deprivation: the animal kingdom; the sphere of ghosts afflicted by incessant hunger and thirst; the sphere of the titans characterized by constant combat; and the hells characterized by torment.

Buddhist Cosmology

• Fine-Material Realm = 16 planes• Gross matter is absent, only finer material forms exist• Denizens of this realm enjoy greater bliss, power, luminosity, and vitality

than do denizens of the sense-sphere realm• Experience of these planes corresponds to the Buddhist meditative

attainment of the first four jhanas• Planes = Brahma's Assembly; the Ministers of Brahma; the Maha Brahmas;

the gods of Limited Radiance; the gods of Immeasurable Radiance; the gods of Streaming Radiance; the gods of Limited Glory; the gods of Immeasurable Glory; the gods of Refulgent Glory; the gods of Great Benefit; the gods of Immeasurable Benefit; the gods of Refulgent Benefit; the Pure Abode of Aviha; the Pure Abode of Atappa; the Pure Abode of Sudassa; the Pure Abode of Akanittha.

Buddhist Cosmology

• Immaterial Realm = 4 planes• Mind only; no materiality• Denizens of these 4 planes enjoy enormous lifespans,

extending for 20,000, 40,000, 60,000 and 80,000 great eons (exact duration of an “eon” is not specified)

• Experience of these planes corresponds to the four immaterial meditative jhana attainments and share the same names

• 4 planes = Infinite Space; Infinite Mind; Nothingness; and Neither-Perception-nor-yet-Non-Perception.

Buddhist Cosmology• Why none of the worlds in the Buddhist

cosmos is true “heaven”• Life in the cosmic worlds arises due to

conditional factors• When those conditions no longer obtain, life

ceases• Life experience in the cosmic domain is

impermanent, not fully satisfactory, and lacks essential Being

Buddhist Cosmology• "In Buddhist cosmology existence in every realm, being the product of a

kamma [karma] with a finite potency, is necessarily impermanent. Beings take rebirth in accordance with their deeds, experience the good or bad results, and then, when the generative kamma has spent its force, they pass away to take rebirth elsewhere, as determined by still another kamma that has found the opportunity to ripen. Hence the torments of hell as well as the bliss of heaven, no matter how long they may last, are bound to pass. For this reason, the Buddha does not locate the final goal of his teaching anywhere in the conditioned world. He guides those who are still tender to aspire for a heavenly rebirth and teaches them the lines of conduct that conduce to the fulfillment of their aspirations. But for those whose faculties are mature and who can grasp the unsatisfactory nature of everything conditioned, he urges determined effort to put an end to wandering in samsara and to reach Nibbana [Nirvana], which transcends all planes of being." ~ Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Introduction", The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, 3rd edition, 2005, p. 48.

Cosmos of Avatar Adi Da Samraj

(1939-2008)

Adi Da: Seven Stages of Life

Cosmos of Adi Da Samraj

The Cosmic MandalaA series of concentric planes or spheres seen during the death transition or in visionary experiences


RED = Realms of existence lower or more gross than the human


GOLDEN YELLOW = The plane of human embodiment and the lower etheric or astral realms


SILVERY WHITE = The highest astral realm


DARK BLUE/ BLACK = The "empty space" between the higher astral planes and the subtle realms


BRILLIANT BLUE = The subtle or mental planes

Cosmos of Adi Da SamrajAvatar Adi Da has spoken about the subtle realms as benign places or dimensions of existence where the sense of separate self is hardly noticed, thus they are “places” of apparently limitless joy and bliss. Experience in them is typically free of fear. One is freer to notice and participate in the inherent nature of Existence Itself — Self-Radiant Love-Bliss, Consciousness and Light. The experience of pervasive and indescribable Joy, Love, Radiance, and Awareness is characteristic of the subtle realms.Even in the midst of such potentially magnificent experience, however, from the “perspective” of the highest Realization, even this most refined state of existence, as full of joy and bliss as it may be, is still a condition of suffering, of non-Realization.

Cosmos of Adi Da SamrajCLEAR WHITE = The radiant core of all light frequencies, often manifesting as a 5-pointed Star, the gateway between the subtle realms and the Radiant Transcendental Being, or

Divine Domain = true Heaven

Adi Da Samraj

"While you are alive, you make the mind, and when you die, the mind makes you. By your action, all the while now, you are putting things, so to speak, in this unconscious, this deeper personality, which is outside the brain. You are enforcing and reinforcing patterns. You are patterning it. You are (in some sense) indulging in what is there in the unconscious, but you are also adding to it."

Adi Da Samraj

"Death is by no means simply a doorway to ‘heaven’. What is on your mind now when you lose physical attention? What kinds of thoughts do you have, what kinds of dreams do you have, what kinds of fears do you have? That makes your ‘experience’ after death."

Adi Da Samraj

"Then, when you die, the conscious part falls off, the physical falls off, and that which was unconscious before, which is outside the brain, is now ‘who’ you are — and ‘where’ you are. It is a place. It is the mind-realm. This is what follows life."

Adi Da SamrajInstructions for the Death Process

"There is a strong Attractive Force felt Upwards. Let yourself feel That Force.

There is also an Upward-Moving Sound. It is an intense Vibration That can be heard and That Moves High Above.Let yourself be Drawn Upward by that Sound and be Moved by That.

There is also a profound Bliss felt Above.

Let yourself be Attracted Upward by that Feeling of Bliss.Eventually, you will see that Attractive Light Above, the Brilliant White Light. [con’t]

Adi Da SamrajInstructions for the Death Process

"Hold to the Center, hold to the Upward Attraction.Let go of everything.

Allow yourself to be Attracted and Drawn—straight, like an arrow—into That White "Brightness". That Bliss, That Vibratory Force (or Sound).

Allow all sense of separateness and otherness to be Dissolved Above, in the Un-conditional Force of Being Itself, the Divine Self-Domain."

Why re-engineer re-incarnation?

• Help the re-incarnated being to avoid repeating past mistakes

• Help the re-incarnated being to resume creative endeavors

• Help the re-incarnated being to reconnect with spiritual community

How to re-engineer re-incarnation?

• Create a centralized clearinghouse for reports from families with children who remember past lives

• Develop counseling techniques to help these children to uncover the karmic reasons for their current re-birth

• Connect children and families to spiritual community for ongoing growth

How to re-engineer re-incarnation?

• Overcome our present social taboos about discussing re-incarnation and spirituality

• Learn more about the subtle processes that occur after death and before re-birth

• Guide the one who is to be re-born towards an auspicious body-vehicle

• Use future science & technology to create new types of incarnation vehicles

"You are not Consciously a separate entity, even though you may presume yourself to be such an entity through your usual association with ‘experience’. Conventionally, you believe that the realm wherein you are one with God is somewhere other than your present circumstance. You believe that the Divine is some ‘One’ else or ‘Other’. You think that the Divine is so profound you could not Realize God except in a totally different state, circumstance, and dimension than this present one. But God is simply the Shining, Conscious Being That Is your Nature at all times and under all circumstances." ~ Adi Da Samraj

Re-Engineering Re-Incarnation

Spiritual

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