Are you back with us LionChild???
Would it be your place to tell a 3 year old suffering from cancer that it's some fault of his from past life? How does the innappropriateness of this analogy invalidate the reality of karma and past lives? It would be a cruelty to say such things to a child. But the reality may be different from human notions of cruelty. Perhaps, there really is truth that hidden causes bring about particular events, not for destruction, but for the advancement of the soul. How can a child suffering from cancer be an advancement? Well, for one thing, it teaches the atma, that dying doesn't extinguish who you are. And because life is inherently filled with suffering scenarios, it does cause people to want to find ways to be free.So much suffering that makes absolutely no sense that religions identify as a "karma" and other nonsense. "Previous life". I never had the guts to tell a 3 year old kid that he is suffering from cancer because of something he did in his past life.
Some of the greatest research was conducted by a medical doctor named Ian Stevenson. He spent decades carefully collecting evidence, thousands of cases all over the world, on reincarnation. Some of his most interesting work was on birth marks on children which corresponded to death injuries and other traumatic identifiers of the deceased personalities who the children claimed to be.Patton often claimed to behold visions of his ancestors. He was a staunch believer in reincarnation, and anecdotal evidence indicates that he held himself to be the reincarnation of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, or a Roman legionnaire, or a Napoleonic field marshal, etc.
George S. Patton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Much to his surprise, Weiss's work has been taken seriously by many in the medical community. Shortly after his first book was published, the former president of the Dade County Psychological Association said: "Those of us who do hypnosis are not all that shocked by Dr Weiss's book. Many have had patients who have gone back to something-I'm not prepared to say it was a previous life. I think we are very interested and very afraid to talk about it…"
Weiss says his work on past life therapy has helped not only his patients and readers, it has also helped him. It has led him to explore a great body of knowledge, and to look inward as well. The following has been excerpted from Nina Diamond's Voices of Truth-Conversations with Scientists, Thinkers and Healers. [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Are we just vessels that hold the soul? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Dr Brian Weiss: Yes, exactly. We are vessels, and we contain this eternal and immortal, much more knowledgeable part of ourselves. Now, probably as you get more mystical you find out that these souls, as well as the bodies, are connected to everyone else's, because really everything is of the same substance...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Physicists are now researching how one subatomic particle/wave in one location senses instantaneously what's happening to another one. Is it similar to psychic phenomena?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yes, and physicists have proof that these particles exist, that they travel at the speed of light, and time is relative, and can stop. It's just that we have difficulty in letting go (of our old concepts). [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If I told you that you're really, physically, a mass of electrons, protons and neutrons and energy, and wave/particle phenomena, you would say, "but I'm solid", and I would say, "yes, but that's not really true, because at a deeper level you're energy". [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Brian Weiss Speaks On Past-Life Therapy[/FONT]
I thought you'd went to the Bahai faith on us. Must be my mistake. Glad your still around.
BTW I agree that too much Panjabi culture is often tied to Sikhi. As a Panjabi, I look forward to the time that non Panjabis contribute to the movement.
Fateh
I've had to deal with the heartbreak of finding that my younger brother has cut his hair -- that leaves just this one unlikely Singh amongst us "kids." I look at my brothers and cousins and envy them for having such normal lives.
I turned out just like you, but as a Buddhist.Some great posts here. I forgot to thank you who took your time to reply. Thanks. As as update, the more things change, the more they stay the same. If I didnt care what others thought, it would be much simpler -- but alas what I do reflects on my loved ones. In the meantime, I've had to deal with the heartbreak of finding that my younger brother has cut his hair -- that leaves just this one unlikely Singh amongst us "kids." I look at my brothers and cousins and envy them for having such normal lives.
Why oh why did I choose this life? How could I have been short sighted? Why did grown men and women encourage me to pick this path when I was so naive and unfit to make such a choice? It was all me -- but all along I craved their love. I had looked around and realised that so few of us cared about Sikhi -- what would happen tomorrow when we in turn had children? I had seen it as my duty to carry that flame forward. Was I the right person for the role? I had plenty of heart but heart is not enough.
I wake up and feel like a failure -- I wanted to live up to this great ideal and I've fallen so short. Part of wanting to cut my hair and giving it all up is because I feel that i do not do justice to the Sikh myth. I had thought that in this day and age, I could live a different way -- be special the way you imagine the Sikhs from yesterday. God I wish I had pulled it off, but what if you can't? What if you're just plain ordinary and you're struggling with just getting by? I have too much respect for the Sikh ideal -- and do not feel worthy. Humbleness is fine, but ordinariness is not. Not to me.
I will go to sleep tonight and think, What if? Maybe tomorrow everything will be ok, and I will have thought it a mistake to ever doubt this thing. In the meantime I struggle to attain even a fraction of the promise I had shown in my youth.
Life will have its ups and downs. We will never know if we are in the mould of our great forefathers unless we are facing extinction and trials they did. This we ALL share.
Perhaps you are right.You talk of the promise of your youth, you still have a full life ahead of you to achieve it. These are your trials now, that will forge and strengthen you.
I did not mean myth as a pejorative. It doesn't have to have negative connotations. It was all real.There is no Sikh myth, our ancestors were great in their ambitions and fortitude against all odds. They broke moulds that plagued India and the skulls of the cruellest adversaries and made history without knowing it. It is we who are in amazement of their achievements.
I am glad I waited -- for after all that unhappiness things have brightened up for me. Thanks dalsingh and the others who posted on the first page of this discussion.We all face turbulent times, even when they stem from within and are not the result of external forces. Any decision you make should be made in equipoise not when in emotional turbulence. Wait and see....I think you know that.