Discovering past lives through meditation

Discovering past lives through meditation

“I am sure that there really is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead exist.” Socrates

Under the powerful and persistent influence of our ordinary human consciousness, we naturally experience ourselves as a single individual living alone within our physical body. From that experience, we can feel that our human self began with our birth into our current physical body, and that it will end with the death of that body.

Such a sentiment is reinforced by the observation that throughout history, countless numbers of people have been born, lived their lives, and then seemingly disappeared at death. All the billions of human beings who lived on earth in the past have died and seem to no longer exist. Therefore, with a normal human point of view that is rooted in such experience, it is not surprising that many people find it difficult to believe that they will continue to exist after the death of their physical body.

Through many years of research into human consciousness and numerous deep meditation experiences, I have come to see directly that our ordinary human experience is simply one aspect of our existence in general. As many spiritual seekers have discovered for themselves, woven into the very fabric of the physical world is an extraordinary non-physical spiritual realm. It is in that spiritual realm that your soul exists, and it is in that realm that you can discover your continued existence that is not limited by physical reality. However, his perception of that realm is obscured by his ordinary consciousness.

Through your ordinary consciousness you experience your daily inner thoughts, feelings, memories, and other experiences, as well as your perceptions of the outer physical world. However, you do not become aware of the spiritual realm through your ordinary perception.

Since the normal human perspective on life influences us to identify our human self with our physical body, many people find it difficult to experience a larger reality because they are unable to break the strong hold that their bodily experience has on their consciousness. Under the dominating influence of their bodily experience, they come to believe that what they experience in their life within their human body is the totality of reality.

If you want to clear the way to establish a conscious perception of the spiritual realm, it is advisable to look at some confused perceptions that arise from the normal human perspective on life: the perspective of a human being who lives inside a physical body. If you can understand how you are influenced by seeing his life from that ordinary perspective, then you can make some adjustments to overcome the limitations inherent in that point of view.

One of the confusions that arises from the ordinary view of life is that some people become so convinced that they are their body that they see all their subjective experience as a product of the body. It often takes many years to go beyond such a limited perspective. Dr. Wilder Penfield is one of those people who made breakthroughs.

Penfield, who is recognized as the father of modern neurosurgery, did extensive mapping of the human brain in the 1930s and 1940s. By probing the brains of patients on the operating table, he discovered specific areas of the brain that trigger certain human responses. From that research, Penfield came to believe that human consciousness is nothing more than a product of the brain, caused by the activity of neurons in the brain. Throughout his long career, he was convinced that human consciousness cannot exist apart from the brain.

However, after more than fifty years of research, he wrote in his latest book, The Mystery of the Mind: “I have come to take seriously, even to believe, that the consciousness of man, the mind, is not something that can be reduced to to brain mechanism. He added: “What a thrill it is to discover that the scientist too can legitimately believe in the existence of spirit.”

Another misunderstanding related to our ordinary consciousness stems from the creation of the belief that our life in our physical body is our only reality. This can lead to great discouragement because we can feel that what we do in this life will be wasted when we die.

In my early twenties, under the influence of a narrow scientific intellectualism that I had adopted, I was convinced that my own personal existence would end with my death. I believed that it would simply disappear from existence. The idea of ​​a soul, and of a continued life beyond the physical world, seemed absurd to my rigid intellect. As a result of adopting such a limited attitude, I became very discouraged about life. I struggled with the feeling that life was meaningless because everything I had achieved in this life would be lost in death. At times, under the influence of my gloomy outlook, I became so discouraged that I felt that there was really nothing important to base my life on.

When I finally came to a direct experience of my loving soul through a deep meditation practice, I was able to step out of that oppressive and hopeless vision to see through to a greater reality. My awakening to my soul allowed me to clearly experience the wonderful spiritual aspect of me that will pass through the door of my physical death into the next stage of my journey. Through numerous spiritual experiences in an expanded state of consciousness, I learned about my continued existence through many lifetimes on earth, and that gave me a deep sense of purpose and meaning in my current life. I was able to understand how my current achievements are important in the continuous purposes that I have been pursuing throughout many lives.

Many people have gone through a similar process to break through the limits of ordinary consciousness. The famous automobile manufacturer, Henry Ford, described his personal awakening in a newspaper interview in 1938. Ford said:

“When I was young, like so many others, I was baffled. I found myself asking the question: ‘What are we here for?’ I didn’t find an answer. Without some answer to that question, life is empty, useless. Then one day a friend handed me a book on reincarnation. That little book gave me the answer I was looking for. He changed my whole life. Of emptiness and uselessness. It changed my perspective on life on purpose and meaning. I think we are here now and we will come back again. Of this I am sure: that we are here for a purpose. And that we continue. Mind and memory-they are the eternal ones.”

Ford further clarified his point of view in another newspaper interview when he told the reporter:

“The work is useless if we cannot use the experience we accumulate in one life in the next. When I discovered reincarnation, it was as if I had found a universal plan. I realized that there was a possibility of developing my ideas. Time does not it was limited, it was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock.

If you keep a record of this conversation, write it down to reassure the men. I would like to communicate to others the tranquility that the long-term vision of life gives us. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or a talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives.”

To further clarify the relationship between you and your physical body, a simple image can be helpful. Imagine that you want to train dogs. You ask a friend who breeds dogs to help you learn how to train a dog. Your friend lends you a beautiful puppy so you can practice for a while. Every day you work training the dog, treating it very tenderly. As the dog grows, you become very fond of it. Eventually, you come to love that dog.

Then after a while, your friend comes back and says, “You did a good job training that dog. Now I can take it back to the person who bought it.” He is surprised that he should give up the dog. You became so caught up in your connection with the dog that you mistakenly believed that the dog’s purpose was simply to give you pleasure. You forgot that the dog was only yours temporarily, that you were simply using it to learn certain lessons, and that you would eventually have to give it up.

In this imagination, the dog represents your physical body. At times, he can become so attached to his body that he feels the whole purpose of life is simply to care for and enjoy his body, to raise his dog solely for the hell of it. With that attitude, you can come to believe that there is no greater purpose in your life beyond living pleasantly in your physical body. You never see that the true purpose of living in your body, like working with the dog, is to learn. You do not understand that you must eventually give up your body through death, just as you gave up the dog when you served your purpose with him.

As you discover more about your true existence, you will realize that your physical body is not an end in itself. It is simply a vehicle that is temporarily useful for a stage of an extraordinary journey you have embarked on, a journey that extends far beyond a human lifetime.

Through a deep meditation practice, you can learn to gain a broader experience of life that will allow you to go beyond the limits of your ordinary human consciousness. As your inner vision expands, you will be able to discover the following very important truths about your existence. Like many spiritual seekers, I have verified these truths through my ongoing spiritual experiences over the years.

An inspiring way to work with these truths is to say them to yourself as positive affirmations every day. Although you may not yet be able to directly experience the reality of these truths, telling yourself these affirmations will begin to loosen your beliefs, which is the first step in expanding your ordinary view of life that limits your vision.

1. My current human experience of life on earth is temporary. My existence as a soul is permanent.

2. While temporarily experiencing myself as a human being on earth, I simultaneously exist as a soul in a vast, perfect non-physical spiritual realm that is filled with extraordinary love.

3. As a soul, I have projected a human self into many lifetimes on earth through the ages.

You can work with these statements for a few minutes each day. That will help you use your thoughts as building blocks for growth as you establish a deep meditation practice. Building your meditation practice on these kinds of beliefs will be a solid foundation for your move toward an awareness of the spiritual realm, toward an experience of your loving soul, and ultimately toward an awareness of your past lives. In time, you will be able to directly experience the truth of these beliefs through your own inner experience.

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