50 questions
50 questions |
And reincarnation?
|
Today we are rediscovering reincarnation through various oriental religions. For instance, we can read in the song of the blessed Krishna (the Baghavad Gita): "As a man throws away his shabby clothes to put on brand-new ones, the soul, stripping its used-up bodies off, unites with new ones." (2,22).
According
to these religions, human life is an eternal rebirth where the soul is part
of the All and the body a mere transitory vehicle (yana).
This chain of lives is interpreted in a somewhat different manner depending
on whether one lives in the East or the West.
The wise men
and masters of the East wish to break that chain of rebirths to achieve a fusion
with the Absolute. It is the final stage: the "deliverance" (moksha) of the
Hindus, the "extinction" of the Buddhists, or the "final illumination" (satori)
of the Zen monks in Japan.
On the other
hand, those in the Occident who believe in reincarnation see this doctrine as
an opportunity to finalize what was left unfinished in a single lifetime. And
this opportunity goes on indefinitely: as if it was possible to get a second
chance over and over again.
To live by
this belief also implies a specific outlook on life, God, man and his freedom.
It is therefore crucial for us to understand what kind of ground we are going
to tread here.
The idea of reincarnation emphasizes two important yearnings: to be purified
from evil, and to live eternally in the presence of the divine. These are
beautiful aspirations. The question then becomes whether this doctrine can
provide a sound answer to these yearnings when it maintains that the personality
is ultimately to fade into oblivion. With respect to purification from evil,
we cannot see what better tools we could have in our hypothetical future
lives that would allow us to achieve it then rather than now.
The new life
as promised by Jesus is not one more life: it is an eternity of joy and love,
it is eternal meaning for ever! And Christ can free us from evil because he
is God: he can, if we want, create us anew through his mercy. We are all aware
of our inability to break off our chains on our own.
Human life does not consist in remaining oblivious to life and in doing nothing;
on the contrary, it is a search for what is beautiful, good and true. 
| Personal Experience
A few years ago, I read a book explaining that God was a great All and that we were connected to the Cosmos as a bottle thrown into the sea. We must break the glass of the bottle (our "ego", our pride, our selfishness) if we want to reach God, to melt in Him. Acting upon the advice of several wise people, I threw myself into each of the techniques they extolled: yoga, aikido, kendo then Hinduism, transcendental meditation, Zazen and finally Japanese Zen. In each instance, I was promised happiness, universal love, the power of the spirit over matter, (the "satori", the "nirvana") if I could reach the "awakening". The law of Karma was discussed in which our life's woes are thought to originate from our bad deeds from the past or from previous lives. For when we die, we are reincarnated according to the conduct of our life, into the body of a more or less wise person or into an animal. Coming out of painful trials, my Guru told me I probably was a great criminal in a previous life... The only way to break this vicious circle was to save myself by practising Japanese Zen, the so-called fastest and most radical technique but also the most painful. Two years later, I was doing eighteen hours of Zen a day! A few months later, I was getting ready to enter a monastery of Japanese Zen... Inner Torture My Guru who was well acquainted with a network of mediums, psychics, healers and so forth, and thinking I was predisposed to such practices, began to instruct me in the gifts of healing and clairvoyance. Thus, I discovered the world of the occult and the esoteric and was surprised to find that these men and women who sometimes showed spectacular gifts - which they obtained through occult prayers and often through a "consecration" of themselves to Satan - were tortured within themselves by anguish and the fear of death... They often conceal their occult games by using Christian words and go as far as to display statues of the Virgin Mary or various saints in the very room where they meet with their patients. If a physical healing does occur, it is at the expense of the patient's soul. Enlightened By Tragedy
One day, I was sitting in a bus right behind the driver. Suddenly, an old
lady who was crossing the street was hit by the bus. Right away, bystanders
and passengers rushed to help her. But I remained stuck to my seat trying
to control, as I had been taught, the motion of my diaphragm to ward off
any emotional involvement |