zengriff-v2

Latest Posts by zengriff-v2

As people, do we have the choice to finish our lives out without reincarnating, after death? Is it possible to clear our karma to the point where that’s an option?

Awesome question, thanks for this!

I think the first important thing to address is the notion of karma. Often we imagine that it is like our cosmic bank account balance. Then our understanding is something along the lines of good deeds and bad deeds of various magnitudes factoring together to determine what happens after death (or even in life).

In actuality, the concept of karma is more nuanced than this. It is better to imagine karma as the imprints we take on due to our judgments (fixed perceptions), traumas (triggers), fears (rejections), and desires (attractions). I think a pragmatic understanding of it would be like this:

Imagine you developed complete amnesia and were dropped into an environment that knew nothing about you. How would you act and react? What kinds of insights and conclusions would you draw? What kinds of motives would arise? All of that is karmic stuff.

In life, thanks to our wonderful human brains, we have the ability to recognize these imprints in ourselves. We can choose to act counter to those reactions and instincts. Unlike most animals, which are innocent beings but they do not have the executive function to choose to go against their instincts--although there are of course exceptions to this.

In death, we no longer have the power of the human brain and therefore the karmas take over. It is then said that we experience a heaven or hell accordingly. If we lived violently and animalistically, thats the kind of after-death experience we have. If we behaved with love and kindness and wisdom, then that is the after-death experience.

But either way, once enough of that karma is exhausted during the after-death experience, we are pulled back to physical incarnation.

How much of this is real and true? I can't say from direct experience. But right now its part of my own modeled understanding derived from my direct experiences in meditation as well as the teachings of my Guru and many traditions.

So now to your question: Can we finish our lives out without reincarnating, after death? Is it possible to clear our karma to the point where that’s an option?

There are two perspectives from which to answer this question. One, which will be relatable and intuitive, and another, which may be a little abstract.

The first perspective is this--the only beings who never incarnate again are those who attain self-realization, complete enlightenment. Those are the beings for whom nothing remains to reincarnate after physical death. And it is said that no matter how those beings appear outwardly--angry, amused, etc--their minds never take on any imprints ever again. It's like drawing on the surface of water.

The second perspective is that of no-creation, which is nonduality or advaita. It kind of turns the question on its head. If you ask "is it possible to never incarnate again", it will answer your question with a question, "can you be certain you ever incarnated in the first place?".

From a non-dual perspective, nothing has ever happened. The universe was never created and will never be destroyed, just as the world you experience in your dreams has no real beginning or end. And just as the dream self you have experienced in dreams has no birth or death, neither have you ever truly incarnated or died.

Because ultimately, all of this is an illusion. BUT this doesn't mean it isn't Real! An illusion is defined as a misperception of something real--like mistaking a coil of rope to be a snake. It does not mean a hallucination, such as suddenly seeing a snake appear in an empty room.

All of This is Reality, Consciousness, the Self, Emptiness, The Divine, The Indescribable, etc. It is only due to our misperception (illusion) that it appears to be anything other than That.

I know 😅 wtf, right? That's...a lot.

I hope this at least gave you something to explore a bit more but in the end there's one thing I always recommend: daily meditation.

May you know peace, freedom, and happiness without exception.

Much love!

LY

Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God. It is this screen of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion that there is you and a totally separate “other.” You then forget the essential fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you are one with all that is. By “forget,” I mean that you can no longer feel this oneness as self-evident reality. You may believe it to be true, but you no longer know it to be true. A belief may be comforting. Only through your own experience, however, does it become liberating.

Eckhart Tolle

“When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”

— Ram Dass

“I can disagree with a political leader’s actions. I can legislate. I can do civil disobedience if I think what they support is wrong. I can disagree with actions that are not compassionate. But I want to keep my heart open. If I don’t, I am part of the problem, not part of the solution. And that’s just not interesting enough. That’s what the inner work is—to become part of the solution.

You don’t have to act out of anger in order to oppose something. You can act to oppose something because it creates suffering. You can become an instrument of that which relieves suffering, but you don’t have to get angry about it.

Social action does not have to be pumped up by righteous indignation or anger. That’s working with the dark forces. That’s working with fear. You can work with love. You can oppose somebody out of love. You can do social action out of love. And that’s the way you win the whole war, not just the battle..."

~ Ram Dass

“Free yourself from the illusion of good and bad days. Labeling time makes us nostalgic of the past and demanding of the future. There is only here and now. Let it be.”

— Ram Dass

The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life’s challenges when they come. Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious. You can use a challenge to awaken you, or you can allow it to pull you into even deeper sleep.

Eckhart Tolle

“Educate yourself. When a question about a certain topic pops up, google it. Watch movies and documentaries. When something sparks your interest, read about it. Read read read. Study, learn, stimulate your brain. Don’t just rely on the school system, educate that beautiful mind of yours.”

— Unknown

How do you let go of attachment to things? Don’t even try. It’s impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.

Eckhart Tolle

Joan Didion, from Blue Nights

Forget about your life situation and pay attention to your life. Your life situation exists in time.

Your life is now. Your life situation is mind-stuff.

Your life is real.

— Eckhart Tolle

No thought has any power. You have power. And when you identify and believe in the thought you give power to the thought.

Mooji

"The practitioner should be at peace within. Do not seek tranquility outside. There is nothing that can be taken away from a person who is at peace within. " Buddha (Sutta Nipata 919)

Funda-in ‘芬陀院’ Kyoto, Japan.

Tofuku-ji Hojo ‘東福寺方丈’ (the Garden of Eight Views) Kyoto, Japan built by Mirei Shigemori (1939)

Japanese Imperial Palace photos: Sam Abell

"Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not."

Eckhart Tolle

We search for everything we believe we don't have, not knowing that everything we are looking for is already inside us. We are born with it. Miguel Angel Ruiz