Archive for September, 2008

Programming your next life

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

QUESTION: Masters, many spiritual teachers, especially in Buddhism, speak of the importance of those thoughts that occupy the last days, hours, and moments of your physical life. We are told the more pure, positive, and focused one’s thoughts are, the better one’s next reincarnation will be. Information from life-between-life experiences implies that the life you choose for subsequent existences deals more with the lessons you need to learn for your spiritual evolution. How do our last thoughts change the quality or circumstances of our next life?

ANSWER: While you are reading a conflict into these two concepts they are actually part of the same principle. The soul comes to planet Earth to learn lessons, gain knowledge, and become enlightened with the wisdom thus available.

As each lesson is completed, the wisdom is not released until the entire lesson is understood. If people do not fully understand the purpose for which they chose to undertake a particular lesson, they fixate upon it and rethink the event repeatedly. If the lesson is understood, it is put aside and the soul prepares for the next step in life.

In the Buddha’s teachings he is commenting upon the soul’s not completely understanding what it has just experienced, or not being able to let go of an experience because the ego thinks it defines the importance of that lifetime. If you have learned the lesson, you can let it go and ego is held in check. You have come to know your true essence and are not trying to figure out just what it is you are supposed to know.

Spending your last conscious moments knowing you are unconditional love is to be as much in purity and light as is possible in a human form. You have achieved the wisdom you wished for and will not have to repeat the same lessons again. This makes for a better reincarnation—you move forward rather than backward.

Life-between-life work allows you to see the process of setting up for the next life experience. The soul quizzes itself: “Have you completed all of the past chosen lessons? Or do you have some phases that were incomplete and need to be revisited to fully get the benefit of them?”

The soul’s reason to return to physical form is always personal growth. For the aware soul, the evaluation process for progressing takes place during the previous experiences but is reiterated before the next journey begins. Buddha seeks to get the soul to be always cognizant of the reason for life, and yet to seek the energy of eternity.

The search for fuels

Friday, September 19th, 2008

QUESTION: Masters, in the frantic world-wide search for oil it seems as if wildlife is going to suffer through pollution. Should we hold off drilling and use corn and sugar to produce ethanol, or should we drill in nature reserves until the cost of wind and solar alternatives comes below the cost of oil? Please tell us if there is a balance that human beings can achieve.

ANSWER: The population upon your planet is split at present between the “me-first” and the “watch-your-footprint” groups. The me-first people believe that they have the right to consume anything that they can get their hands on. The footprint-conscious ones are mindful of the minutest impact that their actions have upon the planet.

From a spiritual perspective, as with all lessons in human form, there are no right or wrong answers or approaches. Natural resources have the ability to be harvested in non-disruptive ways as well as destructive ones.

Drilling for oil does not have to be harmful to the surrounding environment. What must be considered with oil is the transportation and processing of the crude oil to make it usable in the current internal combustion engines where the majority of the pollution occurs. Some of the same pollution may result from the processing of corn, sugar, and soybeans, depending upon the process used.

Wind and solar alternatives, a least on an individual basis, are cost-effective now. The main problem with their use invokes the “not in my neighborhood” syndrome of those who believe they are ugly and they don’t want to look at them. While it is possible to get assistance to install recognized means of heating a residence, the unusual leaves the conservationists on their own to foot the bill.

Balance is in the eye of the beholder.

American presidential campaign

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

QUESTION: Masters, the American presidential election is news all over the world. Is it the best policy for so much power to be given to one man or woman?  As things are at present, what personal qualities are most needed by candidates for this office?

ANSWER: Americans have a way of entertaining the world with a lot of the things in which they engage, not the least of which is their entire election process. They appear to give power to each of their citizens but then have checks and balances placed to ensure that the will of the powerful is exercised. The political parties determine who will be their candidate supposedly after giving the little people a voice, and it might seem as if that is what happened this year. In one party, even amid threats of not seating delegates at the nominating convention, and super delegates not being responsive to the popular vote, the candidate with the majority of votes in the primaries won the nominations.

The first exercise of power by the presidential candidates is the selection of their running mates, the vice presidential nominees. This is basically a do-nothing position, unless the President transitions (dies) while in office. This year it is being used as a smoke screen to create further diversion away from what might be thought of as the more important policy positions of the parties. By the date of the election the public will know far more about the personal lives of the four candidates than they will ever learn about what they each claim they will do if sworn into office.

After the public votes, the “popular vote” as they call it, the representatives then determine the President by the number of electoral votes garnered, even at the expense of the individual votes. Are you beginning to see a pattern? So busy are you watching the right hand that the left hand may be controlled by someone else or may do anything that it pleases.

As the power that is perceived to be solely in the hands of one man or woman is also an illusion, what personal qualities are best? Any typical human strength will do. There is no unique mould for the job—it varies with the time. The thing that makes this process entertaining is an interesting personal story, a pleasant facial appearance, and a voice of good timbre.

Spiritually they, you, and everyone are just fulfilling life’s journey.