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@m0hsen that's what "reincarnation" is Find out who dies n be eternally free now!

Leo, I think your face resembles one of the famous Indian Spiritual Masters- Shri Sai Baba, in one video (if those elf ears are not there).I felt very stark resemblence. I was wondering why the face looks familiar and then I remembered Sai Baba! (His statues are in various temples and worshiped). Are you his reincarnation!?Who knows!?

Past lives are an interesting thing because not many people have them - including people who do a lot of consciousness work. But some do, and those that do don't really describe them. It's sort of a strange concept. Why would past lives occur? Are you implying that we go through reincarnations? But if so how do you know that reincarnation exists? Well I just had an experience before going to bed. There's no real standardised way of classifying experiences, because everyone can literally call an experience whatever they want. But... After the experience, the first words, without a doubt, without any slight hesitation, was definitely "past life". What was it? Well we all have memories of our past. Some of the memories don't feel that real(can't tell whether it was a real memory or a memory from a dream) some are like that but not all. Some memories feel very real. They immerse entire consciousness, make you feel like you are literally going back in time. Almost as if it's happening right now. These real memories, make sense, they align with your ego structure, other past memories, basically all of the beliefs about your entire worldview. This memory I had just then was also very real, more real than the real memories. But strangely enough, it did not align with any other memories, my ego structure, or current beliefs. Funnily enough this experience does not directly imply reincarnations. Instead it sort of implies there are literally many lives all happening at once in the present moment. And I just got a quick view of one. But apart from that this experience did not imply that after we die we go to another life, or we have a soul or any crap you hear about past lives. In fact it was very metaphysical and not personal to me at all. Another interpretation was God's imagination had a bit of a hiccup and it made a completely unrelated event appear in consciousness. That's also what it felt like... like the world just randomly changed to a different movie for some reason lol, then went back to this one accidentally. Anyway if this is what they call past lives, this is very different to what they say.

@electroBeam Since it's all One, everyone had past lives, because everyone is the same being. I like assuming that with each reincarnation we move towards a higher consciousness life. But, what if God wants to move backwards? Will I live next a more delusional/hellish life? (I'd like to reincarnate into a Harry Potter universe lol, though it has greater possibility for suffering) Another thought. Low consciousness folk might be scared during death and quickly reincarnate back into illusion. What if the goal is to reincarnate/grow until you aren't scared of your true nature anymore?!

If the world we live in now is the real reality, then what about physical death? First we need to understand what physical reality is. The past is indestructible information in the now and only in the now. There is no past outside the present moment. So for example Elvis Presley exists as a person as information in the now. And Elvis Presley has an eternal, unique and individual soul in the form of a single point within the graph of difference. Reincarnation is as ACIM says ultimately impossible since there is only the present moment. Resurrection is theoretically possible since the individual soul is eternal and indestructible, And God is not some separate deity with free will. So Buddhism is correct about there not being a literal God as some big boss with free will but is wrong about reincarnation. And Christianity is correct about resurrection and actual miracles but wrong about there being a God able to send people to some actual hell.

I'm not kidding, I've only just started meditation and I'm already feeling different, more productive, more self-confident, etc.❤️ I've even miraculously stopped the wine just like that, which beggars belief. Huh, and that's only with a lousy 20 minutes every day. I hate that it has taken me this late in my life to discover it. Leo's a pretty persuasive guy! Nobody (including myself) has ever been able to convince or galvanize me enough to do meditation before. I've had this book on my bookshelf eyeballing me for donkey's years: "Peace of Mind" by Dr Ian Gawler. He actually has a website and does meditation retreats. He overcame terminal cancer through meditation and wrote about it. I had read the book, as you do. And then put it back on the shelf, as you do. And then the wasted years go by, as they do. So glad I came across Leo's videos and this site. I was just innocently googling "karma's a bitch" two Sundays ago, and there was Leo. I loved his explanation straight away. It seems Karma has more to do with the ego (who sounds like the real bitch around here!) than any "carrots and sticks". The only problem now is my addiction to this site. A site with all these resources pooled together and an active forum like this just doesn't exist anywhere else, it's unique. Now I wanna know everything. I understand though the need to vary one's sources and not just fetishly stay on this one site. I started reading some of your journals @zeroISinfinity, sorry I don't "get" them much yet. I'll probably understand them better when my "colour's changed". It looks like a great and crazy party though, haha!! It's actually starting to give me a bit of FOMO. Before coming to this site, I was kinda agnostic, even if my upbringing was solid catholic. I've always been afraid of ghosts and the paranormal so was perfectly happy deciding to just believe "what you see is what you get". You just die after three score years and ten, and kaput, you are no more. No reincarnation, no after-life, no hell nor heaven, nada. I was SO happy believing that. Ignorance is bliss as they say. So as you can imagine, I'm going through a major paradigm shift at the moment, lol. But it's all good. The Real Bliss will come later. Still scared of ghosts though. My dad frightened us when we were kids, threatening to lock us in the attic with the ghosts if we were naughty. Discovered years later that's where he'd kept all his porno mags. Go figure! No wonder he'd frightened everyone away from ever snooping around up there. Still the damage had been done, the phobias created. Since I've been on this site, I've had to put the light on again when I go for a pee in the middle of the night. In case I see or bump into something scary. I'm just going at my own pace right now. Slow and steady wins the race. And starting at the bottom of the heap dealing with the "easy stuff" (the physical stuff) first. My goals are more to do with the body at the moment. And yeah, I'm getting the meditation sessions in. Am even feeling optimistic I may really get a sense of "God" one day. Ha, I'll be able to join in the same "party" then, or at least understand some of the more "cryptic" posts here better. But if I don't, no pressure, maybe in my next life haha. I don't want to spook myself out by running before I can walk. Damn, if only I hadn't put that Meditation book back on the shelf all those years ago! I'd have been way more advanced by now. So yeah, feeling really indebted to Leo for all he's done and is doing!! ❤️ I'm going to honor his generosity by doing the Work.

@Esoteric Yeah, I agree that the West's LHP goes a bit far but the RHP does also. I wouldnt throw the baby out with the bathwater. I think the answer is the middle but there needs to be an understanding of the extremes to know where the middle is. I agree with your assessment about Tantra being a balanced LHP but keep in mind that most Tantric schools believe in the eternal Atman. Regarding eternal individuation, how do you know that "you" will ever merge and not be individuated? At minimum, near death experiences seem to indicate that subjective experience continues after the body dies. If "you" dont dissolve into nothing right after physical death, when would you dissolve into nothing? Why would you think that and what do you base that on? If you investigate this, you'll find it is just unsubstantiated sectarian dogma that contradicts Ian Stevenson's studies on reincarnation and studies on NDEs. Many people discover the truth of non-duality and forget that it doesnt mean that duality does not exist in consciousness, and consciousness is eternal. I see eternal evolution like dividing distance in half an infinite amount of times - you keep getting closer and closer to merging with the ALL but not quite there. We cannot say that is "bad" unless we fully understood it. The real importance of having the correct belief is that it affects how you choose to live your life. Someone that believes they came to this life to learn and grow in ways that will affect them for eternity is going to live a very different life than someone that believes they will die and dissolve into nothing. I also agree with your assessment on Crowley. I thought he was an egomaniac that did not resonate with my values. I was never a fan.

I have a question about reincarnation for you. I've had a few weird dreams that stuck to me since childhood and haven't change in memory at all. Is this some indication that I've once lived like this in a past life? The memory stayed exactly as it is.

Is there reincarnation if so is it illusory self reincarnating lets say Harikrsihnan reincarnating as someone or something else or is a new illusion alltogether.

See from those times when I did acid as a kid I figured out that it was all in my head. No duh? Seems sortof like when I realized that I didn't HAVE to get paranoid when I smoked pot. Having been a lifelong pot smoker (except when I was in one cult or another that insisted people face reality and not gum up their time tracks with LSD crystals or just plain glue out on marijuana) my jury is still out regarding substances 52 years later. Now nobody on actualized.org discusses pot and I'm not wanting discussion of pot, It's just that my best intuitive thinking is always done when I smoke it. So I'm intrigued by discussion of psychedelics and yes I wish I had some 5-MeO-DMT or something else (but not LSD bzzzzz). But I have this wonderment about what is the consciousness expansion that is enabled. Like should I maybe quick read a bunch of the books on your list first. I've read a lot of them which is maybe why It is like I am remembering most of the things I hear you discussing. These things are just plain part of my viewpoint and have been for years. Of course I was pretty busy with teaching and studying learning and brain functioning in the 80s and self development with all the Nightingale Conant CD sets in the 90s, but I stepped back from a lot of types of thinking until I dug into Sound Therapy 3 years ago. Since then it's been really interesting. Things keep UNFOLDING that have been here all along. But how did I KNOW all these years, with all that work that I was right all along? I don't know anybody remotely like me. There are 2 themes that are never far from my mind. One is autism and the other is many lives. Not reincarnation but what I used to call many past lives. Then the concept of future lives occurred which only makes sense if it's simultaneous lives. And that's the way it is. And who but God lives thousands of lives simultaneously? More than thousands. So maybe 5-MeO-DMT will clarify that for me. I'll know it in my cells. Right now I just know it in my analytical mind. Is there anybody out there that has read about simultaneous lives or experienced it? I never heard of it. And then I did hear of it from a regressionist who got really surprised by how this guy was remembering lives out of sequence. Her name is Mira Kelly. I found her right after I found Leo and right after I first thought about simultaneous lives. I'm going to listen to that video again right now. Oh! I just figured out what speaking in 2nd person voice is! It's when one is talking about oneself and they say "you" instead of "I". See I used the word "one" instead of "you". I have noticed for a long time the way people are using "I" and then they are suddenly using"you". For example, "I know that I would be in better shape if I walked as much as my friend does but you don't always do what you ought to do. See, it's a little distancing from the personal responsibility. It's really quite interesting to pay attention to. Now I need to figure out what 2nd world countries are. I said that to my husband and he said, "Greece"! I had already considered that. I'll google it.

Are there inconsistencies between ACIM and the Law of One? Maybe not. One seeming inconsistency is that the Law of One talks about reincarnation while ACIM says that even resurrection is a rebirth of the mind, not the body; from ACIM: "Very simply, the resurrection is the overcoming or surmounting of death. It is a reawakening or a rebirth; a change of mind about the meaning of the world." And about reincarnation ACIM says: "M-24.1. In the ultimate sense, reincarnation is impossible. 2 There is no past or future, and the idea of birth into a body has no meaning either once or many times. 3 Reincarnation cannot, then, be true in any real sense. 4 Our only question should be, "Is the concept helpful?" 5 And that depends, of course, on what it is used for. 6 If it is used to strengthen the recognition of the eternal nature of life, it is helpful indeed." So even if ACIM says that reincarnation is impossible it also says that it can be a very useful concept, and that could be how the Law of One uses it. In this way, then, ACIM and the Law of One are consistent even though seemingly inconsistent.

I don't know yet what the Law of One or ACIM say about reincarnation and resurrection, but I frankly don't care so much about what those texts say because it seems to me that fourth density and higher means that death has been transcended. The higher densities are like the different heavens in Christianity. And do people die in heaven? No, they don't. And the Pope was correct when he said something like how hell is not a place. I think it's obvious that what the Bible describes is a state of being stuck in third density forever, such as: Revelation 21:8 is about being stuck in sin forever, which can't happen since the One cannot fool itself forever (sin means missing the mark). And compare that Bible verse to the ones preceding it: Revelation 21:6-7 is about the first, second and third heaven and so on, meaning fourth, fifth and sixth density and so forth.

This is the mortal dream and all the nonsense going on will keep us dreaming longer and longer. The foolishness that´s going on, the fighting, the anger, and all the nonsense going on with every day, keep us bound to this mortal dream. • In other words, when you're sleeping, you're dreaming, and dreams seem real to you, then you awaken. So it is with this world. You're dreaming the mortal dream. You think it's real. You get involved in it, and you're caught up in it, and it gets worse and worse. You just have to realize it's a dream and wake up. And what happens when you wake up? You do not find yourself in a place called heaven, in a strange land. You'll be as you are. When you awaken, you will function as you do now. Except you'll know you're playing a part. That's the only difference.The only difference between you and an awakened person is that you figure the part you're playing is real. And to an awakened person it's a play, a show, a dream. Does an awakened person take a part in the dream? He plays the part that was given to him or her. But he is always happy, always peaceful. For it's all an act on the stage. He's playing a part. So why get angry, why get upset? As you get angry and upset, you know it's a part you are playing, it's a part that you choose. To be an angry person, an upset person, as long as you know the part that you're playing is not real, it's okay to be upset, it doesn't matter. For again you know it's only a part you're playing. But when you think it's real, then you get pulled back into the mire, and you have to start all over again. In other words if you want to become free and liberated in this life, you don't have anything to do with the part, the play, the movie. It’s all good indeed. But when you get caught up in it, then you have to play the part again and again and again. It is called karma and reincarnation. As long as you feel the world is real, people are real, things are real, you have to keep playing your part over and over again. But when you get to the point where you give up, and just focus on reality. You focus on reality when you realize it's all a dream. Then you become free and liberated. So freedom and liberation, it's not something foreign. It’s not far away from you. It’s right where you are, and where you see life. That's all awakening is. So you observe the life. How do you see your life right now? If what you can say about yourself, you feel bad, you feel limited, slighted, upset, then you have to turn around by realizing that you have chosen this world of play. You have chosen this world. It’s your play, and accept it. But do not react to it. It's reaction that causes the problem. We´ll keep on dreaming until we let go. Stop fighting. Become non-attached, then we´ll awaken and be free. Robert Adams, T245: Consciousness Is The Silence

Someone has asked me to speak about the dream state versus the waking state. So I'll mumble a few words about those things: First of all, to a Jnani, to a Sage, there's no dream state and there's no waking state. None of those exists for the Sage. But for the ajnani there appears to be a dream state and a waking state. And the remarks that are made is this: "The waking state appears to be long. It appears to go on forever. But the dream state ends." And as a matter of fact, you have about eight, nine dreams a night. You usually only remember the last one. So how can I say that the waking state is a dream state also? Well, let's look at it this way. In what you call the dream state, you were born, you go to school, you get older, time passes, you get married, you have a job, you grow older, you're eighty-five years old and you start declining. This is the dream that you're having. Now, if I came into your dream state and I told you, "You're dreaming. You're not really eighty-five years old and you were never born and none of this has ever happened." You would throw rocks at me. And you'd say, "What are you talking about? A century has nearly gone by. I remember when I was a little boy or a little girl and now I'm an old lady or an old man and I've got cancer. And you're telling me, this is a dream?" You wouldn't believe me. I tell you, do not concern yourself with your cancer or your state of eighty-five years old. Do not concern yourself with what's going on in your life. Rather, look within yourself for reality. Find reality and everything will take care of itself. Again you'll throw rocks at me. You don't want to hear anything like this. You say, "I've gone through all kinds of experiences in my life. And you're trying to tell me it's a dream? You can't fool me, this is not a dream, this is real!" Look I could even pinch you and you'll say, "Ow!" But then I say, "Remember, this is a dream pinch! It's all a dream." But you still won’t believe me. Then when I leave, you awaken. You awaken to this dream state. This state, what you call the waking state. And the dream is all gone, it's all finished, like it never existed. And you laugh. You were never born in the dream, you never went to school in the dream. You never got married in the dream. You never became eighty-five years old in the dream. You never had cancer in the dream. You've awakened to this state! Yet you say, "This state is longer." It's longer because you're having the dream, that's all! Remember when I was in your dream, when you were eighty-five years old? To you it was a long dream. You went through many experiences. You went through eighty-five years of experiences and they all seemed very valid to you. Yet it happened in a split second. It happened in a split second, all the years, the experi-ences, the cancer. It happened in a split second and you awake, you awaken to this state. This state is the same thing. This is also a dream state. Not any different than the dream state that you dream at night. Same thing! It's only another dream. And you will only understand this when you awaken! A person is no longer in the dream state, no longer in the waking state, they're in a state of sahaja samadhi between the waking and dream state. There is really no state for a person like that. But to the ajnani, he believes that a Sage is in the waking state like they are. How do you get out of this, the dream business? How do you transcend those both states? Simply by going beyond them, you go beyond the dream state by realizing that when you react to conditions, to person, place or thing, you are perpetuating the dream. You can tell where you are by the way you react to life. If you believe that your body's getting older, that you're a person, that you have problems, you react to life's conditionings, then you're caught up in the dream, just like any dream at night. All kinds of conditions befall you and you believe it's real and you react to them. As long as you react to them you will never get out of it. You feel angry, you feel fear, you believe something is wrong some place. Then you can never get out of the dream. In other words, you'll go from one dream to the next. This is called reincarnation. It's one dream after the other dream. It never ends. You take on body after body after body, always dreaming, always reacting, always believing something is wrong, something is right, something is good, something is bad. And again, as long as you believe this, you'll never get out of it. So the way to get out of it completely is to realize that there is an observer who observes both states. The observer observes both states, the dream state and the so called, waking state. Now remember this is for the ajnani. For the Sage nothing like this exists. For the ajnani, you have to think to yourself, "Who is the observer? Who created this?" in other words, "Who made all this up? Who created the so called dream state and the waking state?" And if you think real carefully, it's our old friend Ishvara, the god of karma. Ishvara has been playing with his leela again. You tell Ishvara to stop playing with his leela and he won't listen. He's feeling these states. Ishvara, for some of you who don't know who he is, he's a personal god that you have created out of your mind. When you believe that you are a body, then you created god in your own image, and we call this god, Ishvara, the god of karma. It is he who dictates all these things, what's going to happen, what karma you're going through, how many lives you're going to live. Now, here's the secret, if you get rid of Ishvara, it'll be finished. You'll be free!You've got to kill Ishvara. Ishvara has to be removed, totally and completely then you'll be totally and completely free! How do you kill Ishvara? By laughing in his face "Who are you? Where do you come from? You can't frighten me any longer. I no longer accept you. You're part of my mind, my imagination. You're part of my false imagination! You do not exist!"Now, I bet some of you here are afraid to do something like this because you think you are insulting god. What kind of god are you insulting? A god that you made up your-self! You created this god. Where else would he come from? Is there a god up in the sky looking down at you throwing lightening bolts, saying, "You're a good boy, you're a bad girl! I'm going to punish you. I'm going to reward you." Do you know some of you really believe this? Yes, while I'm talking to you, some of you really accept this. And you're afraid to get rid of this God. But can't you see this very god is keeping you in bondage! It's this very god that makes you take on new bodies, makes you believe that you're a person, with problems. It is this very god that makes you worry about your body or about your finances, concern yourself with the world situation. And this god laughs while you cry! You're concerned about this. You're concerned about that. You're concerned about everything. Only when the god is removed will you become free It's up to you to remove this god. You've got to do it, nobody can do it but you. This is not blasphemy. Blasphemy is when you're believ-ing that the Self that can hurt you. When you believe in problems, when you believe some-thing is wrong, that's blasphemy!But it is virtually impossible for anything to be wrong for this whole universe the whole world is consciousness. The whole universe is consciousness. It has absolutely noth-ing to do with gods or goddesses, or karma or reincarnation or dreams. These things are part of human thinking. When you realize you're no longer human, they disappear. You must become inhuman. It is up to you to do this.You have to ask yourself the right questions. Many of you are afraid to question yourself. You're afraid that god is watching you and you'll be punished. Yet, some of you actually believe this. But I say to you from direct experience, there's no god at all any-where in the universe that can punish you or wants to punish you or has tried to punish you. If there's a god that exists, he's too busy screwing up the world to think of you! (laughter) What big egos some of us have, we think god is looking at us, judging us. We're so important, we're being judged, by an anthropomorphic God some place up in the sky. We're so important, aren't we? That this mighty god is punishing us personally for being bad little boys and girls. Get rid of all this, once and for all! Remove it from your mind! Empty your mind totally of this kind of thinking.There is only pure awareness, absolute reality and that is you right now! Right this moment! Don't think about it, just be it! Do not attempt to analyze what I'm saying or try to figure it out in any way, just be it! What I'm talking about you can only be. You can't think about it. When you begin to think about it, the truth about the matter disappears. Then you get caught in the body, in a thinking body. Yet, there's no time or space for any thoughts to exist. For time and space themselves do not exist. So where can you think? There's no place for you to think. For the thoughts have to move. And there is no room for thoughts. But what I'm telling you is that you're absolutely free right now. Absolutely liberated right this minute. You are. You are the entire universe right now. You who was never born, can never die. You are the one, right now! This very moment! Feel it! There is nothing else. How wonderful it is to be totally free. Free of praying to gods for your salvation. Free of thinking of a body that needs care or you have lack or limitation some place in your life. Be free of this kind of thinking. I know some of you are saying, "Well, it's okay for him to say that. But the doctor told me I got cancer. I got AIDS. And I have no funds in the bank. My wife or husband left me." Who are you talking about? You're not talking about the real Self, that you are! You're talking about somebody who doesn't exist! You're speaking of a dream person! That's here today and gone tomorrow! You're not speaking of the Self. Wake up! Try to understand what I'm saying to you. You are the god! You are the Brahman. You are the Self. Stop thinking of yourself as a mortal being, once and for all. Stop it! Cut it out! Behave yourself! Wake Up! Know who you are. Change your mind. Lift it up from this nonsensical thinking, and allow the mind to think in the heart. The heart will open up as a rose does with its calyx to the sun. And you will begin to laugh in joy and ecstasy, that you are the one. The one that is beyond time and space The one that is beyond reality, beyond causation. You are that one. Awaken to it, now. Wake up! Don't just sit there like a lump of manure, wake up! Who do you think you are? You are the god, remember this always. The only god that exists! There is no other god but you. Robert Adams, T235: Get Out Of The Dream Business

I recently made a video about this...please check it out: https://youtu.be/y8lOCItMQB0 Nonduality does not exclude past lives and reincarnation, but often spiritual seekers build and reinforce the illusion of "me" through past lives. Ultimately, there is no "me"...the Self is all there is.

Every thought is an added layer. Layers implying twoness in a variety of ways. If you’re aim is nonduality, then weed out any and all twoness thought patterns, by scrutinizing them at more intense, and yet more subtle and loving, levels. If one has a soul, there are two. The one, and the would which it has. There was said to be electricity & magnetism, then electromagnetism. There was said to be space & time, then spacetime. Human thought makes twoness. Awareness of thought, scrutiny, and all is reducible. “I realize nonduality means all is one”...write different perspectives of this on your board, work it out, reduce it. What is that if there’s no I...if there’s no meaning...if there’s no nonduality...if there’s no all...if there’s no saying of this...if there’s no recipient...? Direct experience...you have it. Question it. Derive your answers from it. ?? You know thoughts about reincarnation. What else about it is in your direct experience, right now, here and now in this moment, not in a thought?

How about we stop with all that gibberish/pseudo-profundity and just give understandable/non-BS answers. Reincarnation is not a 100% proven thing, yet there is some really good evidence that indicates some kind of "thread" that goes through lifetimes. If you are interested in that, search for Dr. Ian Stevenson's lectures on youtube. Now lets come to your question: How is reincarnation compatible with non-duality. Again, there is no definite proof out there, in fact different traditions/teachers will tell you different stories about that. Yet there seems to be a middle ground where most traditions come together and it basically goes like this: When your body dies, your brain dies. When your brain dies, your personality/ego dies. So thats gone. Yet there is some kind of "karmic structure"(yogi-term) or "soul"(christian term) that "looks for a new body" after your current one bites the dust. In this structure, all your previous life experiences are perserved and this actually influences which "new body" "you" are choosing. Godhead is overflowing with creative energy, so it constantly spits out new "karmic structures" that go on their adventures through serveral lifetimes, until one day, they return by realizing their true nature. Its still all one thing, it just creates a cosmic dance out of itself. Again, I dont know if this is true - but it seems to be possible.

Hi @Nahm, thanks for your reply, yet I'm not sure what you're trying to say... I do realize nonduality means all is one, but reincarnation is still something we/I/God experience, or not? Could you please elaborate more on this? I'd really like to understand. Thanks!

Of course. . . Notice how you said "whether the concept of karma is true or not". This sets up a duality in which karma must be "true or false". The mind is conditioned to see in opposites and believes a "thing" like karma must be either "true" or "false". Yet it gets much more nuanced. Karma can have aspects of truth and falsity. Karma/reincarnation can be both true and false. . . As well, there are many ways that we can define karma and reincarnation. By holding a view that karma/reincarnation must be either true or false forces the mind into fully accepting or fully rejecting karma / reincarnation. This will prevent a mind from expanding and exploring nuances. I agree with you that there are stories of karma / reincarnation that egos use to rationalize their own devilish behavior. Yet this is true for everything - the ego will use stories of science, psychology, god, the weather, history etc. to further it's own selfish agenda. This gets into the relativity of meaning. All meaning is relative. Assigning meaning can provide grounding for a person and it can be helpful for the person to survive and live a healthy life. Yet at a deeper existential level, meaning is relative. The duality between meaning vs. meaningless breaks down. Meaning = Meaningless. . . This can seem very groundless to a person and cause distress - yet it is also liberating and beautiful.

@Serotoninluv I understand this is of a dualistic paradigm, but to the point of your second paragraph. It's easy to see how that perspective can lead to complacency in regards to activism and for those that could help, but don't. It also reminds me of how similar that perspective is to the misguided christian justification of slavery. That black people had to pay for the sins of their ancestors, etc. I will say , however, Leo says to be radically open-minded. And if something makes someone feel uncomfortable to analyze and look deeper in a non-judgmental manner. Which brings me to the concept of karma and reincarnation. I admit I am ignorant to this concept. I need to look deeper into the evidence of this via direct experience and knowledge. But, I do believe whether the concept of karma works in the described way or not, that it can be co-opted by the ego to justify devilry, as the example I provided regarding the misguided christian justification of slavery.

@WisdomSeeker There are many different ways to look at this is a relative context. The tendency is to try and find the one relative story that is objectively true. Imo, this will lead to a lot of confusion. If we look from different perspectives, contradictory stories will arise and there will be paradoxes. This used to frustrate me and I'd throw up my hands and say "Well, they both can't be true. Which story is true?". Yet as dualities dissolve, there is an ok-ness with contradiction and paradox. The frustration of paradox becomes beautiful freedom. One perspective to your question is the perspective of reincarnation and karma. Perhaps the people that are living in servitude and religious dogma are living out karmic pasts. Perhaps their purpose in this lifetime is not to fully awaken, yet rather to work through some karma such that in the next lifetime the being has a better chance of fully awakening. It is sorrowful that a person is living in such a negative karmic state and it is also beautiful that this being is so loving that they are working through this karmic resistance to pass on purer karmic energy to the future life. . . This is just one perspective. Perhaps it has some truth to it. Some beings might resonate with this perspective and explore it further. Other beings will not resonate with this perspective and will dismiss it.

@Serotoninluv It is getting complicated, so I will try and make it as simple as possible and cut out the complexity. We are all One. There is but Love in this world, everything else is illusion. It is Love that binds us together and connects us. Hate and mistrust, on the other hand, separates us. When we Love, we unite and become One. In Unity, there is diversity, yet, there is no separation, because we exist in a continuum, all unique in our own way, but we also have points of connection, where we merge into each other and it is no longer possible to tell where one of us starts and the other ends. It is at these connection points that various forms of love manifest, depending on the kind of relationship we have with one another. This could be friendship, neighbourliness, kindness, familial love, romantic love, etc... But, the highest form of love is divine love, which is love for all. All other forms of love are pale reflections of the real thing and in our lives, what we ultimately seek is divine love, expressed through unity consciousness. All throughout our lives, we seek connection and meaning. Even our various addictions are a desperate search to find, meaning, connection and unity. What we ultimately all want is to love and be loved. The forces inherent in the illusory mirror world that we're lost in pull us away from each other. Our memory of our divine nature and what it means to be ONE is what draws us closer together. When we serve the forces of Unity and Love, we move the whole world closer together to its ultimate source. Fear of unity and the insecurities that come with it are what fuel hate and separation. Our ultimate destiny is to regain unity consciousness and to reintegrate our souls into a greater whole, from which we consciously separate ourselves every waking moment of our lives, even in our sleep and as reincarnation proves, even in our death. We are consciously resisting drifting back into unity by constantly building and maintaining barriers between us and others. Reversing that requires letting go and not doing, in other words, stopping the conscious and constant sabotage of our own happiness and bliss. When we let go of the ego, our fears, insecurities, hatred and all other separational emotions and consciousness vehicles, that is when the bliss of infinity and nothingness, of unbound love and unadulterated joy becomes our reality. Because at this moment, we are filled with light, some refer to this re-emergence of unity consciousness as enlightenment.

@Dumuzzi I follow what you are saying, but I'm not sure if anyone can ever explain to me who or what gets reincarnated, and what it means to break that, as opposed to living out several more lifetimes. I don't remember other lifetimes anyway , unless you count the thousands I have in my dreams at night. Who is bound to the material world? Can @seeking_brilliance escape that, while @mandyjw remains? What's the difference? Who is tied down here? surely not absolute self, so who? @seeking_brilliance will die one day anyway, so what's it to him if he is reborn or not? He won't remember anyway. Or is this story about reincarnation just a fun theory to give us something to do? haha I'm just being obstinate this morning. It'll pass.

If you play into the story, then yes, it is exclusive and impossible for every human to be enlightened, at least in one lifetime. (that's another thing you have to consider, if you like the story of reincarnation, is that you are trying to have everyone saved in one lifetime). But if you step outside of the apparent story which has been playing out for millenia, there is no one to be enlightened, there are no one suffering, all is perfect and at peace. Also, don't forget that many of the unconscious stories playing out are catalysts for your own awakening. Everyone has their part in this Play. Many identify with the roles and feel suffering.

(June 2018 video) Here's the click bait story, the headline according to the Today how , Australia choose to headline it on their youtube site Dalai Lama starts eating pizza during interview When we look at the the interview in the beginning there was no pizza around. They brought out the pizza and asked him to try it but if you look at the headline they make it seem like it was his idea Then there is a break in the interview and they show another clip where they brought him a pizza and told him it was "one with everything". This is variation an old joke usually > Q. What did the Buddhist monk say to the hot dog vendor? A. Make me one with everything. He takes the hotdog and gives his money. When the vendor accepts his money without saying anything, the Buddhist asks about his change."Change comes from within," says the vendor. Would this same reporter be trying to joke around with props the pope? I doubt it. Then aft the Dalai Lama plays along and takes a bite out of it you here the reporter say "I wouldn' t eat it" (apparently turned off by the knowledge that it was a vegetarian pizza) Anyway the Dalai Lama does have a sense of humor. However despite the reporter says "one with everything" a few times hoping that the Dali Lama would get the joke he does not seem to. At the end of the interview the Dali Lama hugs him and whispers something in his ear. Later this reporter, Karl Stefanovic is sitting with his fellow anchors and one asks him what the Dali Lama said. He has to be asked twice and then he says the Dalai Lama said "we might be one with everything" . Do you believe that's what he said? I suspect it was something else and he still didn't get the joke and it was what it looked like a second fail. This same idiot reporter tried the exact same joke on him way back in 2011 and the Dai Lama didn't get it then either because he probably does not recognize "one with everything" as a stereotypical expression This is an entertaining thread but also irritating to see the lack of respect. Excuse my for the triviality of this yet even dumb mini interviews with fools, guards can go down and something heavier might skip in The reporter in his introduction says "he kindly agreed to sit down and have another chat with us and I thought I'd had a few things about him I found out he's got a fear of flying we found out his thoughts on women replacing him and how much he's enjoying his retirement from political life" In the interview Stefanovic brings up out of the blue to the Dali Lama "so you were a nervous flyer" the Dalai Lama says: (excerpts) > no, in early period yes there's some turbulence, then come some water here (points to palms referring to sweat) .... nowadays not much.... the other day other night from Singapore to Sydney on one occasion (with hands gesturing turbulent flapping motion of plane) quite serious over city< some people shouting but then O.K.... so that's good well I think (it's a ) reminder, our life is not very sure how long will remain, as a Buddhist practitioner it is important to think about impermanence every day every moment Stefanovic: especially on a plane, the worry is that if the Dali Lama is worried about flying on the plane then all of us should be worried. _________________________________________________ Interestingly the reporter, Karl Stefanovic instead of waiting for a reaction by the Dalai Lama to " all of us should be worried." he changes the topic. We can learn from fools he actually did ask a profound question here amidst the jokes and irreverence. I think he may have been wondering if the apparent "head" of Buddhism was afraid of death and if he wasn't maybe he could overcome his own fear of death and perhaps he also gets nervous on planes sometimes. And then when he found out that the Dali Lama himself was nervous on planes (at least used to be) he may have thought "I thought maybe meditation would help me overcome my fear of death but if the Dalai Lama has only become used to recently it is probably due to desensitization and not meditation and renunciation, what relief now I don't have to waste my time with that stuff" And as soon as he found out that the Dali Lama had had sweaty palms about flying he didn't want to hear anything further about how he might try to address the issue of "worry" . So you see the title of this mini interview is Dalai Lama starts eating pizza during interview but the real title would be if the Dali Lama is worried about flying on the plane then all of us should be worried (and Buddhism discredited) But is the Dalai Lama really the pinnacle of Buddhist practice? He was groomed to be a leader not specifically to be the foremost embodiment of the practice Sometimes people ask him if he is enlightened and he says he isn't. He was asked if he knew any enlightened people. He replied that he was not aware of anyone sufficiently advanced that could be referred to as enlightened. Whatever the case may be he seems to be a very nice person with a good sense of humor and advocate of compassion ________________________________________________ How was the Dalai Lama selected? The current Dalai Lama was enthroned when he was 4 ½ years old and renamed Tenzin Gyatso. The search for him began soon after the 13th Dalai Lama died. Disciples closest to the Dalai Lama set to identify signs indicating the location of his rebirth. There are usually predictions about where and when a Dalai Lama will be reborn, but further tests and signs are required to ensure the proper child is found. In the case of the 13th Dalai Lama, after his death, his body lay facing south. However, after a few days his head had tilted to the east, and a fungus, which was viewed as unusual, appeared on the northeastern side of the shrine containing the body. This was interpreted to mean that the next Dalai Lama could have been born somewhere in the northeastern part of Tibet. Disciples also checked Lhamoi Latso, a lake that is traditionally used to see visions of the location of the Dalai Lama’s rebirth. The district of Dokham, which is in the northeast of Tibet, matched all of these signs. A 2-year-old boy, named Lhamo Dhondup, was just the right age for a reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, based on the time of his death. When the search party, consisting of the 13th Dalai Lama’s closest monastic attendants, arrived at his house, there were immediate signs that this was the one they were looking for. Dalai Lama memoirs The 14th Dalai Lama recounts in his memoirs about his early life that he remembered recognizing one of the monks in the search party, even though he was dressed as a servant. The search party did not show who they were to the villagers, to prevent any manipulation of the process. As a little boy, he remembers asking for the rosary beads the monk wore around his neck. These beads were previously owned by the 13th Dalai Lama. After this meeting, the search party came back again to test the young boy with further objects of the previous Dalai Lama. He was able to correctly choose all items including a drum used for rituals and walking stick