7/3/11 Rev. David McArthur
Reincarnation. As we step beyond this life experience – as in life after death – what is important? What has meaning for me? For Charles Fillmore it is importance only so far as it touches our work here and now. Traditionally, Christianity taught we only live one life and then go on to our next level. Both reincarnation and “one life” are valid. God works with infinite paths and capacities to come forth. Perhaps some of us are slow learners and need to come into this world again. Not remembering our past experiences on Earth is a gift. It is so we might start anew to address what is here. That is why it is so difficult to remember.
“The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time nor does it come into being again when the body is created. The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed. Just as a man giving up old worn out garments accepts other new apparel, in the same way the embodied soul giving up old and worn out bodies verily accepts new bodies.” ~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Krishna to Arjuna
We create our life choices, “mathematically” taking ourselves to our next experience. We create our own worlds. The people in our worlds are there because we have made a commitment to each other to bring forth in each other what is meaningful and purposeful, so that beauty and magnificence that is Spirit might be fulfilled in each of us. Mahatma Gandhi was a “great soul” (mahatma) who brought out the magnificence of what a soul can be, to show others to create a life that is meaningful, that is commitment fulfilled.
Coming back in reincarnation is not punishment, but shows a great love which allows us to learn of our creation that we might choose the learning. Always there is the great love which lets us learn through experience. John 9:1-3, “As [Jesus] passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
It is not about karma (retribution or punishment), but bringing out the love.