Let’s assume for a moment that reincarnation is not just a theory, but actually happens.
This means that whether we believe in reincarnation or not becomes irrelevant.
Reincarnation is then regarded simply as a universal principle relating to life, birth and death — a principle much the same as the law of gravity or the law of the conservation of energy. This being the case, would we live our lives differently?
What if we are all spiritually connected?
One thing is certain. If reincarnation is true and we are all interconnected at a universal spiritual level, any harm or misfortune we bring into the world is ultimately directed also at ourselves.
The Dalai Lama offers some fascinating insights on how we should live our lives in relation to reincarnation, especially in terms of the need for tolerance and compassion in our dealings with other people. In his view, we should extend the instinctive bond we feel with members of our own immediate family to the broad sweep of humanity, because through our numerous lifetimes on this Earth — experienced through the endless cycles of rebirth — we are actually all related to each other. Our father or mother in this lifetime may have been our son or daughter in an earlier life. Our friend, neighbor or antagonist this time around may have been someone we knew in an earlier period.
Similarly, the sense of trust, closeness, enmity or resentment we experience now may be the karmic consequence of something which happened a long time ago.
According to the Dalai Lama, we are all one family — one collective consciousness — whether we choose to recognize it or not. This means that we have to learn to work through our countless interactions with each other —in love or war, in friendship or compassion, or hostility, resentment, jealousy or envy — until we finally realize that all our challenges and battles are really with ourselves. This is certainly a powerful message for the troubled times in which we now live.
Leave a Reply