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[mamculuna]

Interesting thought from yoga yesterday--space and time are things of the body. Your mind/heart/soul are free of those limitations. This means that your reincarnations aren't linear--the ultimate realized being you're headed to already exists. Ask her/him/it for help if you need it...

Sorry about the possible extra woo-woo-ness.

Comments

[joxn.livejournal.com]

I had this same thought a while ago. It lead me to a theological theory I call reincarnational solipsism: you are everyone, just not all at once.

Really, if you're going to believe in reincarnation at all, I think you have to take this seriously. It certainly is the most parsimonious theory. Why should there be more than one soul?

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, if your thinking is non-dualistic, there isn't but one.

[ngakmafaery.livejournal.com]

...technically, no there isn't one, *but we perceive that there is, until enlightenment*...you know?

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

o, true.

[ninerva.livejournal.com]

Thanks. You reminded me of something I wrote a while back that I'd forgotten. It's in relation to something quite different but I think it's fits nicely with your thoughts...

"...At our very core we exists as body and soul. The body, made from physical matter, cannot exist independantly of something external[ETA: space and time for instance]. However the soul exists self-contained in and within itself. It is independant, it knows itself, it has a consciousness of its own existance, its own nature. It exists therefore as an energy, enabling it to realise itself; to make itself actually that which it is potentially. I believe that the soul and it's consciousness of its own existance, trapped in duality with the physical, is the source of our deep understanding of the concept of freedom and it's potential is defined by a longing to return to that state of freedom. So in order to actualise its potential the soul will strive towards the goal of freedom, and resist all that stands in the way of that goal..."

How's that for some woo-woo-ness. ;-)

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I love it. I had said, in another discussion, that the mind (heart, soul, whatever) uses the body as a metaphor, which often leads us astray. I especially like: I believe that the soul and it's consciousness of its own existance, trapped in duality with the physical, is the source of our deep understanding of the concept of freedom and it's potential is defined by a longing to return to that state of freedom.

[ninerva.livejournal.com]

the mind (heart, soul, whatever) uses the body as a metaphor, which often leads us astray

I like that, it's so easy to get lost.

A while back I was really struggling with idea of free-will. My psychologist and philosopher friends insisted that it was an illusion but I just couldn't bring myself to believe that. In fact it was my inability to believe that, desite all logical arguments, that eventually helped me to find an understanding of freedom by looking for the origin of freedom. It's hard to express, but this universl, instinctual understanding of the concept of freedom that we all seem to be born with despite eductaion or background had to come from somewhere within. From that origin, I believe, comes free-will, imagination, morality, justice, knowledge, wisdom and all those things which make us more than just organic flotsam drifting in the currents of the universe. Whether freedom, or any expression of freedom, is realised in our lives is irrelevent in some ways, but for me it's existance and therefore potential realisation is self evident now. That gives me hope. And if freedom can not exist in the material world, then there must be a soul, and it must be conscious of its own existance. Okay, wooly I know, I hope that makes sense.

[ann1962]

You two are absolutely wonderful.

all those things which make us more than just organic flotsam drifting in the currents of the universe.

I think it is a cop out to believe anything less.

I don't think the soul is trapped. That lends negative connotations to the joy and all the ideas you list, that being alive in these bodies should be.

[ann1962]

Yes, and tangentially I think that when we reach the creative flow state, whether in yoga or physical activity or artistic pursuit/appreciation, that breaks down the wall that we feel/see to give us a glimpse of that unlimited place of space/time/being. That opening gives us inspiration because the knowledge is already there. We just need to be able to see it. I don't know why all souls wouldn't exist there too.

All the woo-woo-ness you can muster is welcome IMO!

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I think lots of ecstatic experiences break the barrier, too--childbirth and sex come to mind, and sometimes swimming in the ocean or doing yoga.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

The Buddhist idea is is that we have free will, but our choices are limited by the causes and conditions of the world--and yet sometimes we miss seeing the freedom we do have because of our fundamental ignorance.

[ngakmafaery.livejournal.com]

...good insight: they seem to be going around in this full moon! I figured out the one about embodying the buddhas as that energy, so like if you are genuinely manifesting compassion, you *are* being a form of Chenrezig, which means that the deity is there...well, it doesn't sound so good written down, but you know what I mean...and I got some insights about the body too...yay for everybody!

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. You know, when I went to see HH the Dalai Lama, he did a Chittamani Tara something (initiation, I think) and told those of us who hadn't had highest tantra initiations just to envision Tara, but I kept slipping into the embodiment thing--because of what you say there, I think.

I also had an interesting similar but less grand insight with someone at the retreat I went to last week--we were working on a Chenrezig sadhana that calls for visualizing Chenrezig on the crown of your head facing forward, and one person who'd never done that kind of visualization before was having trouble b/c he thought he couldn't see Chenrezig's face if the deity was above him, and that led to the discussion of how the mind doesn't have the body's spatial limitations. Fit neatly with the yoga talk about the mind not having the body's temporal limitations.