The Reincarnation

Let's talk about reincarnation – the idea that we are born again and again. It's a big deal in Eastern philosophies, and we'll look at how it can add a whole new dimension to our understanding of what it means to grow spiritually.

• What is reincarnation?

• What carries on after death?

• How can this empower your spiritual practice?

Reincarnation is a central feature in many schools of Eastern Philosophy. It's even prominent in Christian mysticism and many other cultures around the world.

We'll try to focus on these key questions:

• What is reincarnation?
• What is it exactly that continues or carries on after death?
• How can this theory empower your spiritual practice?

It's important to remember that this is a theory - a concept. Yoga is not about concepts. While we've gotten together to discuss concepts and theories, ultimately yoga is not about that. We must be careful not to become overly impressed or attached to concepts.

Remember: the map is not the territory. The concept is not the experience.

The concept of biting a strawberry is nowhere near the actual, immediate experience of tasting the strawberry explode upon the tongue.

There is a huge gap between our thoughts, our thought forms, or our concepts and that to which they point. The Buddha used to say, "Do not confuse the finger pointing at the moon with the moon itself."

Concepts: Splinters of Wrong (and Right) Knowledge

Sri Ramakrishna, the great Indian saint, always talked about concepts as splinters. We have a splinter in our arm - the splinter of wrong knowledge. We’ve inherited a set of beliefs, concepts, and ways of viewing the world that don’t really serve us, that perpetuate suffering.

So what do we do? We look for spiritual solutions.

When we come into spirituality, we are given more concepts. New ways to think about ourselves and the world. Dangerously, some of these concepts switch out your old ones without ever transformatively affecting you on any level. So, where before you were amassing wealth, chasing Ferraris, now you're amassing spiritual wealth: looking for new beads, new teachers, new Reiki certifications.

At its best, you go and get a bunch of new concepts—let’s call them “right knowledge.” You now have a more accurate or realistic perception of who you are, who the world is. These are good concepts. So what do you do? You take the splinter of right knowledge and you get rid of the splinter of wrong knowledge.

What do you do with the splinter of right knowledge, once you’ve gotten rid of the wrong?

You throw that one away as well.

Ultimately, all concepts must move you beyond the need for concepts. The goal of yoga is to give you a first-hand, direct experience of reality.

Reincarnation: The Story of Dorothy Eady (Omm Sety)

Let’s talk about the concept of reincarnation.

I want to start with a story. It takes place in 1904 England. A woman was born into an Irish family. Her name is Dorothy Eady.

Dorothy Eady

This is a fascinating story. Dorothy Eady, from birth, was always a very peculiar child. It is said that one day she fell down the stairs and suffered a brain injury. From that point onward, she started to have weird memories—very intrusive thoughts of Egypt, of a different life, of being a priestess in a temple.

She developed foreign accent syndrome. They have head injuries, head traumas, and they suddenly start speaking an accent. It’s not unknown that people have a head injury and start speaking an entirely different language that they didn't know before. This phenomenon is documented in cases like 'Man Wakes Up from Coma and Speaks Mandarin.' There’s a case in Australia.

What happened to Dorothy?

When she fell down the stairs, she had these memories of Egypt. She would have nightmares. She would sleepwalk. People were very concerned about her.

One day, her parents took her to the British National Museum. She saw a picture of the Temple of Abydos and she went, “Oh, my home!” She was like, "Where are all the trees? Where’s the grass? What happened to it?"

She was horrified to see in a room where all the pharaohs and Egyptian people were—the wax figures—and she started to kiss their feet. She was so excited. She was like, “Oh, my, my people.”

From that point on, she kept pestering her parents. “Take me home! Take me home!”

She became so interested in Egypt that she would spend hours at the British National Museum looking at all this stuff.

Meeting E.A. Wallis Budge

One day at the museum, she met the famous archaeologist, E.A. Wallis Budge.

E.A. Wallis Budge

Some people think he was a rascal because he stole a lot of artifacts from Egypt and brought them to England. He was a real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones.

He used to wear a hat, go to Egypt, break into tombs, suffer the pharaoh’s curse, and work with bandits so he could acquire these artifacts. He had a real love for antiquity. The British Museum owes a lot to E.A. Wallis Budge. Egypt is very angry at him.

Back to Dorothy

Anyway, he meets Dorothy Eady and he’s so inspired by her enthusiasm and her love for Egypt that he starts encouraging her to study more. Eventually, she finds her way to Egypt.

Dorothy’s Return “Home”

Here's the interesting thing—she eventually found her way into the Temple of Abydos. Archaeologists started to test her. They’d put her in a dark room and she could identify what paintings were where, what hieroglyphs were where, which room was where.

It was very eerie, because there's no reason why this early 20th century, Sussex-born Londoner should have such intimate knowledge of the temple that archaeologists didn’t even know.

She would say, “Dig here.” They would find something. It wasn’t like she was reading this stuff. This stuff wasn’t even published yet! She just had such an intimate recollection of that lifetime.

She finally started to say, “Okay. I was a priestess in the Temple of Abydos. I remember the little pharaoh. He was a nasty little boy running around, mischievous.”

She had all these very humanistic memories. Eventually, they started calling her Omm Sety.

Omm Sety seems to be someone who remembered her past life. These stories are not few or far between. There are plentiful accounts of people who have strong memories of past lives—who they were, what they were doing. Sometimes, they go out and seek the associates they had in their past life.

The Dalai Lama, as we discussed last week, is often selected based on this reincarnation theory.

How do you identify the Avatar? The same thing.

It seems like not all of us have the privilege of remembering our past lives. In today’s talk, I’m actually going to argue for the contrary. I’m going to argue that you have a more intimate understanding of your past life than you might presuppose.

Some people, though, seem to have a very obvious experience of their past life. They have memories. They remember their name. In Dorothy Eady’s case, she was able to actually prove to researchers her actual memories of her life as a priestess in the Temple of Abydos.

Not all of us have that.

What Exactly Reincarnates?

To understand what reincarnates, we need to explore the concept of yogic anatomy. What are the parts that make you, you? What are the layers of your being and which of those layers continues? Which of those layers sees?

Yogic Systems of Anatomy

1. The Yogic System

   The outermost layer of the body is known as annamaya kosha. In direct translation, it’s “food body”. This is the body made of physical materials. Literally, the food you eat is what builds this body. That’s your outermost, physical body.

   Underneath that body is the pranamaya kosha, which is your etheric double, or energy body. This is the body that people talk about having, you know, leaving the body and going on astral adventures. Subtle body work.

   Deeper than that is the manomaya kosha, which is your mental body. This is the world of your thoughts, your mind. Your emotions.

   Remember: in Indian philosophy, thoughts and emotions have the same word, which is chitta. If they were different things, you wouldn’t be able to have thoughts about emotions, nor would you be able to feel things about your thoughts. They exist on a spectrum.

   Underneath that is the vijnanamaya kosha, which is called the higher mind or the deeper mind. Maybe what Carl Jung would call the unconscious, or Freud would call the subconscious—but a little deeper than that. This is the realm of archetypes. It's the realm in which gods live. A very poetic and mysterious realm that you can only access through meditation.

   Deeper than that is the anandamaya kosha, which is the bliss body.

   It works this way. If you’re able to still your body—maybe still it—then you can access your energy. If you’re able to work intelligently with your energy—through pranayama, or breathing techniques—then you'll be able to control your mind. You'll be able to move mental energy, which, for a lot of us, just happens to us. We don't choose our thoughts, they just come and go, and we're at the mercy of our minds—and our patterns.

   So when we work with our body and we work with our energy, we’re able to work with our mind. Then comes meditation. Through meditation, through working with the body—that is, posture—energy, that is breath—and mind, that is through focus. In meditation, you access vijnanamaya kosha. And, when you work with that—your mind—then you access anandamaya kosha, and that translates to your bliss body. These are states of ecstasy far deeper than any emotional highs that you’ve experienced from external events.

   Now, that’s not the last layer! If you’re able to work with that, you go even deeper to your true anatomy.

   You are not the body. You are not your energy. You are not your mind, nor are you your higher mind, nor are you your bliss. You are deeper than all those layers. You are the point from which all these states emanate.

   It’s like a Matryoshka, the Russian doll. You open the door, and there’s another one inside. That's basically what it looks like in yogic anatomy. You open, open, open. You are the space inside, actually, is what it turns turns out to be. But of course, don’t take my word for it. This is something we must all experience for ourselves.

2. The Tantric System

   In the Tantric System, your outermost layer is vastu: your stuff, your material acquisitions. Underneath that is your body, your deha. Underneath that is your chitta, your thoughts and emotions. So, in Tantra, your thoughts and emotions are underneath the body.

   What’s underneath the thoughts and emotions? Prana, energy.

   Underneath that is, well, deeper stuff, like space. It's just called shunyum, space. That's the bliss body. Deeper than that is your true self.

   I like the Tantric system because it has energy a little deeper than thoughts, emotions, and physical life. It’s really a chicken and the egg problem: which came first, energy or thoughts?

   You know that certain thoughts change your energy. And you know that being in a certain energetic state changes your thoughts. When you're feeling a very purified, rarified form of energy—we call that sattva—naturally, you think sacred, philosophical thoughts.

   But if you sit here and we have this philosophical discussion, it doesn't matter what your mood was coming in—likely, these thought forms (because the vibration of these thought forms are so rarified) will transmit that prana to you.

   Tantric system says:

   Everything is just a sheet of energy vibrating at different frequencies.

   Your body is a specific vibration of energy. It's a gross or dense vibration. Einstein talks about this unified field theory. To Einstein, matter is nothing more than dense parts of the field.

   We can say Einstein’s “field” is a sheet of pure energy. Your body is vibrating in that—let’s say, I don't know, frequency X Hertz. It's very subtle.

   More, a higher frequency than your body, is your thoughts and emotions. That frequency is determined by the quality—or the frequency—of energy expressing itself in that moment.

   We call this your energy body. Your energy body affects your mind, your emotions, your physical body, and, to a large degree, your actual life. How much money you're going to have, what health you're going to enjoy, who you're going to meet and who you're going to fall in love with. All of that, in a way, is determined—not in a way, but directly is determined by what frequency you're carrying energetically.

   That frequency, that emission, is the etheric body. All of us have this etheric body. This is what the yogis say reincarnates. You can think of the etheric body as a kind of database. It stores stuff. It’s like a storehouse. It stores the code of your life and this continues to express itself in new life.

Karma: Causes & Effects

Now that we know what carries forward, we can start intelligently talking about karma.

Choosing Your Reincarnation?

There are Buddhist schools of thought—Northern Buddhist, Mahayana Buddhist—they are called Vajrayana Buddhist. They say when you come into this life, you chose your parents. You chose where you were going to be born, what part of the world. You chose how healthy, how attractive you were going to be. You chose at which point in your life you would have which diseases. You chose at which point in your life you would encounter certain teachers and when you would die.

What Happens When You Die?

In the Buddhist school, there's a degree of agency here. When you die, you leave your body, you leave your stuff, you leave your thoughts and emotions, and all that's left is you, as a spirit or energy body.

Even deeper than that, you kind of step outside of your energy body and look at the energy body and see what's going on. You go, “Ah, okay, that's there. That needs to express itself. There is a desire to become a rock star there. Let's take a body that will enable that desire to find expression.”

In the Buddhist school, some Buddhist schools, there is agency. You are consciously choosing your reincarnations based on certain needs and desires that your spirit has.

A Less Intentional Perspective

In the yogic schools, there is a little bit less agency. You're not really choosing; rather, you are just living out the effects of causes that you started at some point. It’s not to say it’s deterministic, but it’s a little bit more—let’s say—mechanistic. When there is a cause, there must be an effect.

Reincarnation, then, is just the process whereby causes consummate themselves in their necessary effects.

Example: If I were to kick a ball off the top of this building, the effect is the ball landing on the ground. The process through which the ball goes from the top of the building to the ground is gravity. Call it gravity, reincarnation. The cause has to find its effect.

The Universe’s Purpose: From Primal Cause to Ultimate Effect

Let’s back up a little bit.

Why Was the Universe Created?

Why is it that this world has come into being?

People call this consciousness "that", you can give any name—Purusha, Atman—so many! It's this consciousness of bliss.

Why is it that the universe spawned?

It wanted to experience itself in form, or, the unity of consciousness in diversity. It's kind of boring just to be one. It sucks to be many.

When you can recognize yourself, then you consummate the purpose of the universe.

Without a universe, without a manifest world of form, we sit in pure bliss. The universe can look at the universe in a variety of different forms. They're all the same being, but they're vibrating in an individual way that allows us to self-explore.

When I talk, it's the universe exploring itself. It's the universe, exploring you, the universe, and vice versa. That's the ultimate.

The Desire to Experience Ourselves

It is the desire to experience ourselves in embodiment, in materiality.

What is the final effect, then?

No matter what you do in this life, you cannot prevent the effect of this primal cause. And that effect is—not just humans—but animals, plants, beings in different realms, angels, gods, demons, everywhere will become enlightened.

What does it mean to become enlightened?

To realize their true identity, or, being consciousness bliss. And when they do that, the universe—every set of eyes that She has created—will be able to see Herself. Because certain eyes are closed up, so to speak.

That's the final effect. But in this macro cause and macro effect...

I'll always ask, “Why was the universe created?”

The yogis will give you, perhaps, the most profoundly disappointing answer, which is: “For no reason.”

We call this creation Shiva lila. Shiva being the name of the divine; lila, you know what that word means, it means play. Some people actually call it Shiva kripa, or krita, and that name—that means game.

Art for Art’s Sake

It’s a beautiful reason. It’s entirely aesthetic—philosophy, art for art’s sake, beauty for beauty’s sake.

Some people ask, “Is this universe art?”

Art might not be an accurate word because art is usually representational. Art is when we use symbol, um, sound, or some medium to express something else. Art usually points to something beyond itself.

So art’s not a very accurate word for this universe. Instead, maybe artful play is better.

Play is also a difficult word, because, you know that animals—like wolves, or whatever—they play, but they they play functionally, right? They play fight, so when they get older, they can actually fight. There are all these behavioral theorists that talk about play as a part of…

We don't want any of that nonsense! Functionalism—means to an end—[expletive] that. We just want play for its own sake. So, play might not be the right word.

Dance. It's still an art, so it's kind of hard.

If we just call this the “play of God,” the “dance of God,” there's no reason to it other than for its own enjoyment.

And to perfect that enjoyment, all beings must wake up, because, until that point, there is suffering.

The Root of Suffering

The root of suffering was not knowing who you are, really. As long as you, the part, think that that's all there is to it—that you, as the part, consider yourself to be the whole—then you feel the limitations of your contracted form. You feel the fear of death, the fear of…

All that stuff comes in so far as you do not recognize your purñata (in Sanskrit), meaning “wholeness.” Once you meditate deeply and touch upon that wholeness, then there is no more suffering.

The Necessity of Suffering

The ultimate point of the universe is to finish with suffering. But suffering was necessary. Suffering was kind of the price we paid to become form.

Ultimately, you're there doing what the your vibration wants to do. And it's exactly what the universe is here to do!

It's beautiful to think that, among the infinite possibilities that the universe had—infinite creative capability—it chose to vibrate uniquely as you and i. Isn't that beautiful?

There's some grandness and profundity to this specific form.

The Ego’s Aggrandizement

The crux of the issue lies in identifying solely with this form, with our physical and mental self. This can lead to ego aggrandizement, where individuals begin to believe they are "Jesus Christ," "awakened." This messianic complex arises, and the situation becomes quite complex and problematic.

Infinite Happenings Between Cause & Effect

Anyway, that’s the ultimate cause and that's the ultimate effect. As we go from the ball falling to the ball landing—or, I should say, the ball bouncing back up, right? Because it's a return journey, too.

But, as we go from this process, infinite [expletive] happens, right? You get a body, you lose a body, you're you're incarnated in different worlds. Here we are in the physical realm, and then there are astral realms. In yoga, they're called lokas. Planets.

Don’t Get Caught Up in Metaphysical Speculation

The Buddha (Shakyamuni Buddha) cautioned against getting caught up in astral exploration and endless debate about the nature of different realms.

The Buddha said, “Your only job is to become enlightened in this life.” Don't even worry about reincarnation. Don’t even put any stock in another life. Make this life the life that you become enlightened.

The Parable of the Poisoned Arrow

His metaphor was, if you were shot by an arrow and brought to a doctor, you'd want the doctor to remove the arrow. Imagine if the doctor, as she was removing the arrow, the patient suddenly said:

“Wait, doctor, before you remove the poisoned arrow from my flesh, I have a few questions. What is the nature of this poison? How quick-acting is this poison? Who shot the arrow? What angle did the arrow pierce my flesh?”

All these theoretical questions have nothing to do with the actual removal of the arrow. In fact, they even delay the doctor’s removal of the arrow.

The Buddha said, “Don't concern yourself with all this—all this metaphysical speculation. Just meditate, practice the Eightfold Path (the path to enlightenment). Realize yourself now and achieve the ultimate effect, which is your awakening.”

Nirvana: Extinguishing Suffering to Experience What’s Real

For the Buddha, that awakening—he called it nirvana. By the way, nirvana is a negative statement. It means “blowing out”. Nirvana doesn't define itself. It just tells you what it isn’t. It isn’t your mind. It isn’t your suffering. It isn’t everything that you've taken to be real. It’s extinguishing that, in order to give you something more real, something more beautiful.

For the Buddha, that—nirvana—was where your journey actually began.

The Line for the Ride Has Begun!

You can think of this as the line to get into the line, at Disneyland, to ride your ride. For the Buddha, you—you don't even get on the ride, actually! You just get into the line for the ride, once you become enlightened. So, that's the beginning, according to the Buddha.

A lot of Buddhist schools—especially Southern Buddhist schools, like Hinayana Buddhist traditions—don't like to have this conversation of reincarnation. But still, it's an important part of Eastern philosophy in a lot of Buddhist schools.

Tendencies: Glimpses into Past Lives

Let's just take, for our data, our life now. Some of you, I don't want to presuppose… Some of you probably—maybe from your meditation—have past life memories. Maybe you know who you were in your past lives.

It's not necessary to have memories of past lives to understand their influence.

Why Don’t We Remember Our Past Lives?

Maybe you don't have memories of your past lives. Why don’t you? It’s not your mind and thoughts that carry over. It’s not your body that carries over.

Unless you've been practicing hatha yoga—and it's true, in hatha yoga, there are saints who can preserve the body for an incredibly long period of time. They call it the Adamantine Body, divya deha, or vajra deha, and they have the same body for eons.

For most of us, you know, we got some new hardware. We got new bodies. We got new parents. In a way, we got new circumstances, and we got new thoughts and emotions.

All of this seems like it's just in this life. It's not coming from a previous life. To an extent, that’s true.

What Carries Over?

Earlier, we said, what is it that carries over? Not your body, not your mind, not your thoughts. What carries over is your prana, your etheric body, your code.

Even earlier, I explained how, in yoga, you don't access a deeper layer of your being until the layer above it has become still. You're not going to be able to interact with your thoughts unless your body is calm and still. You're not going to be able to interact with your energy until your thoughts are calm and still.

How many of us can say that, in meditation, our thoughts are calm and still? There's still a lot of ripples in the pond. A lot of fluctuating.

Meditation: A Promise

You have to go and find out, but my promise to you is that if you perfect your meditation, you will become aware of your past lives. You will start to have smatterings, you know, memories. And they won't feel like flights of fancy.

Why is it that your dreams feel different from your waking memory? And why is it that some memories feel more real than others? You know? There's something in you that is able to recognize the quality of certain thoughts. Dream quality. Flight of fancy quality.

“I'm imagining myself in a hot tub… somewhere in the Bahamas right now” versus an actual memory of being in a hot tub, somewhere in the Bahamas. There's a different quality.

Like that, when you start meditating, you will start to have memories that carry the quality of authentic memories. And you'll get glimpses. At first, it'll just be glimpses of your past life, and then it will become full-blown knowledge of your past lives.

Suddenly, It All Makes Sense

This realization can be profoundly insightful, offering a sense of understanding about one's life path—why you're here, why you chose these parents, why you're choosing to have certain diseases at certain times. You start to see cause and effect in a little bigger picture.

Right now, maybe the picture is a little contracted.

The Pool Table of Consciousness

Let's take the metaphor of the pool table. Somebody struck the pool table and now all the balls are flying. As a particular ball, you're only, you know, seeing the next ball in front of you. So you can only see one cause and one effect. It's kind of a contracted, tunnel-vision form of consciousness.

As you meditate, and you step back from your own individual ball, you get a bigger glimpse of the pool table. And you start to see yourself as a confluence of causes and effects from different lives. And, you know, often in this life, too.

So, you become a better psychoanalyst, in a way. You know, why is this happening? You know why it's really happening. Meditation, in that way, can give you that glimpse.

Your Tendencies are the Clues

It's not necessary to be a master meditator to gain insights into past lives.

The reason is: in this moment, your tendencies, in this moment, your inclinations, are glimpses into who you are.

• The very fact that you are sitting here, engaging in this philosophical discussion…
• The fact that there was something in you that nudged you towards yoga, philosophy, in any capacity of the word…
• The fact that there's something in you that craves spirituality…

…is a sign that, in a previous life, you either already were that and you're just coming back to re-experience it, or, you have already been on the journey—and this is the joke, right? It's like, you wouldn't see any value to spirituality if someone, at some point, didn't take off the blinders to give you a view of reality, and then they put the blinders back on. And now you know it's out there, you just don't know how to get back to it.

So you try it with the shrooms, you try it with the LSD, you try it with the yoga, and you're trying to get… The reason you try so hard is because, deep down, you remember the validity of that experience. You've, in a sense, fallen from it, but the memory is strong enough to draw you towards these practices.

A Unique Way of Pursuing Spirituality

It’s not just that you have a spiritual urge. All of us will start to feel this growing pain—the desire to grow and learn. But it's not just that you feel spiritual. You each have a unique way of pursuing your spirituality.

• Some of you are bhakti yogis, drawn to the musicality of chanting and singing Hare Krishna or mantra. This resonates with you on a spiritual level
• Some of you are jnana yogis. It’s all about philosophy and Vedantic meditation—very fierce path.
• Some of you are hatha yogis. Raja yogis.
• Some of you are Sufis. Some of you are Christian mystics.

What turns you on has a large part to do with what you’ve experienced in a previous life.

If you're reading, like, Saint John of the Cross, and you suddenly feel a strange recognition, “Oh, I've heard this stuff before,” it's probably because you have. if I’m spouting yogic philosophy to you, I talk about the anandamaya kosha and it makes sense, for some reason, it's probably because this is not your first pass at this material. You’ve heard it before.

This is a clear indication, or at least a clue, into the patterns of your past lives.

Inclinations: A Confluence of Past Lives

You can see how there are certain tendencies that develop in you that have nothing to do with your parents, nothing to do with your geographical, sociopolitical climate. Some of you are interested in poetry from the 16th century. I don't know why—probably because that's where your last life was! Some of you are a little ahead of your time—that’s probably because your last life was in the future!

Here’s another curveball…

Now, here's a mind-bending thought - your past life might not be in the past at all! In higher realms, time is non-linear. We are, in essence, experiencing a confluence of moments from different timelines.

B Theory of Time

In quantum mechanics, it's called B Theory of Time, where past, present, and future exist in one block of time. Mathematically, this is a common interpretation of reality. It explains things like backward causality in quantum mechanics.

The beauty of this is that it’s atemporal. It doesn’t follow past, present, future in the A series, or A Theory of Time.

You Are Both a Cause & an Effect

From a certain perspective, there's no 'after' enlightenment, because the future is already unfolding

How are we still here, doing what we are?

To visualize this, think of it as a cosmic play with a beginning and an end. The Primal Cause is the universe's desire to experience itself as the One in the many. The Ultimate Effect is the realization of this unity. And everything that happens between those two points exists within the realm of time.

This cause and this effect are outside of time. Time is nothing more than a thought construct. Enlightenment is nothing more than the ending of all thought constructs.

Sri Ramakrishna, a master of paradox, famously stated: 'The body should not be rejected or despised, do you know why? Because the body is a necessary step in reasoning.' He recognized that our physical form, while temporary, serves as a crucial tool for our understanding and growth

The body is nothing more than a thought construct.

Once you overcome that, you work with subtler and subtler thoughts until you overcome all thoughts.

“In the beginning, there was the word, and the word was with God, and God was the word.”

Here's the thing: the words' already been spoken. It’s not that the word is being spoken in the present tense. The word got said, it got uttered. That means the the pool ball was struck, and the pool table just splashed out.

You Are a Completely Determined Being

In a sense, you are a completely determined being.

“The rate at which the snake sheds its skin,” as Ram Dass says, “is the rate at which the snake sheds its skin.”

You can't force it, you can't rush it, you can't slow it down. Your spiritual unfoldment—it seems like you have something to do with it—but, as Ram Dass also pointed out, you will hear, in what he has to say, only what you are ready to hear. Jesus said it, too. “Those of you with ears, hear! Those of you with eyes, see!”

In that way, I can give this and each of you will take something differently from it. And what you will take from it is entirely determined by where you are in your spiritual journey.

Becoming the Cause

You are now appreciating the fact that you are an effect.

• The reason you have the body that you have,
• the parents you have,
• the reason you experience certain things at certain times in your life,
• the reason that you're here now experiencing this conversation,
• the reason that you are here with these particular people—it’s no accident.

This is exactly the time that you needed to be here. There's no accident!

Given that we are now enjoying an effect, a beautifully orchestrated effect whose causes lie in all sorts of different realms and times—beautiful, beautiful!

In closing, I want to suggest to you that now that you are in effect, you can also start being a cause.

You, as an effect, are just a storehouse of tendencies. You could say you didn't have to read this today. However, you know, something inside of you moved you to do it. And that tendency was a little stronger than other tendencies. Whatever reason… You can take this as free will. In a free will context, you could say you chose, right? In a non-free will context, you could say your overriding tendency was to come.

We call that a samskara, or an impression, a tendency. And this tendency, then, is going to cultivate future tendencies in the same direction.

Choose Your Actions Wisely

Whatever you choose to do, from this point on, is an effect whose cause you must eventually meet. Therefore, choose your actions wisely. Because, once you set a chain of events in motion, you will inevitably have to suffer its—offend—suffer its consequence.

Two Possible Consequences

And what is that consequence? Well, there are only two outcomes. Either it’s a consequence that hinders your ability to wake up, or it’s a consequence that promotes your ability to wake up. And that's different for different people.

In yoga, they say a meritorious action, or an action done in duty, creates punya. Punya means “merit.” The more punya you have, the more harmonious circumstances you will enjoy.

What is a harmonious circumstance?

Is it just pleasure? Certainly not.

Is it just wealth? Is it just health?

Well, in final analysis, you might start to realize that all pleasure is conducive to going beyond pleasure. You can't transcend pleasure if you never had it! So go and have it! I wish you as much pleasure as you can, joy! May you be in the bathtub, in the Bahamas, with your favorite rock stars! May you taste all the sweetest flavors in the world, and may you become sick of them! May you achieve all the wealth and kingdoms that your heart desires. Go out and conquer your empires, Alexander the Great—then, shut up!

Get tired of that, and then, slowly, in—after every birth, you start to shed this skin. All these desires no longer become suitable.

And you will find yourself in a healthy body, in a particularly affluent family that is able to give you the education that you need it, or not. Or, you'll just find a way to get the education. And you will have all the conditions in your life be conducive to your spiritual practice. Isn’t that sweet?

The Best Case Scenario

The best case scenario for you is any circumstance that is conducive to your sadhana.

They say the best birth is a human birth. The reason why is because you have chakras, you have what we call sushumna, which is your spinal column, and that allows you to experience many worlds. Where certain beings—without that hardware—can’t do it. So, human birth is very fortuitous, because you have this sushumna, with the chakras. That's a good birth.

You know what's even a better birth? A human birth wherein not only are you inclined to spirituality, but it’s actually there for you to consume. It's beautiful that you choose to incarnate in this time of the internet, when all barriers have been dissolved. If you want to be a hatha yogi, you can! If you want to be a whirling dervish Sufi, you can! If you want to be a Christian mystic, a Jain, a Rastafarian… whatever floats your boat. You have incarnated in the unique time where that's possible for you.

The Highest Conception of Human Life

Now, the best birth is when you found your path. You found your guru, a true teacher. And the best birth you can possibly imagine is the birth where you have a human body, you found your guru, you found your path, you’re inclined to walk the path, and you’re actually walking!

That's the highest conception of a human life. And that will close today. Sorry I went four minutes over.

One might ask about the idea of a pattern in the energy body that gets passed on, such as needs and desires within it. But how, for instance, could a desire to be like a rock star be present? Where did such a need or desire originate?

Answer: That's a beautiful question. Any thoughts, anyone, as to where the inclinations come from?

Maybe the same reason for the—like, why the universe exists: for fun. To experience life as a character.

The Mystery of Attraction

So, why do people like certain things...?

• Like, why is it that someone might like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin?
• Why is it that that music excites them?
• Or, why do people like certain artists?
• Why is it Picasso, and not You?

It's so subtle, but you can bet that it's probably a confluence of forces from not just one, but several other lifetimes.

The Mystery of Choosing Our Parents

You might have nothing in common with your parents, but there’s—for some reason—you chose them. So, there must be some aid that your parents, in every sense… And this is the most beautiful thing: all suffering is functional.

• Every disease you have—you chose it!
• But the reason you chose it was because it's functional to some deeper thing.
• And, in that same sense, all your inclinations—like, your desire to learn the piano and figure out Für Elise—it has to consummate itself.
• So, you, you know, your dharma will lead you in some musical path, and you have to follow it, because if you don't, then you'll just take another birth and do that.

Surrendering to the Unknown: The Definition of Spiritual Practice

I think this is the functional definition of spiritual practice: the ability to stay in a state of unknown and be okay with that.

Two Things Meditation Will Give You

Meditation offers two invaluable gifts:

• Insight into your purpose: Many of us lack clarity about what we should be doing in life. Meditation provides the necessary introspection to unveil this understanding.

• Courage to act: While some possess clear direction, they may struggle to muster the courage to break free from limiting beliefs and external pressures. These might include:

  • Outdated self-concepts

  • Societal expectations

  • The pressure to please others, even when their approval doesn't truly matter

Meditation helps dismantle these mental constructs, empowering individuals to embrace their true selves and pursue their intended path with newfound courage.

The more you meditate, the more those concepts of who you think you are—and who you think you ought to be—lose their hold on you, then you get the courage. Insight to know what you should do, courage to pursue it—that’s dharma.

is there a chance that, in our life we will never, achieve, or experience, our dharma? Or is it just a given that we will?

This is why the free will discussion comes into play. Because, in yoga, you could—you could say it this way. You are going to become enlightened, no matter what you do. You're going to become enlightened. And that means, no matter what you do, to become enlightened, necessarily, you will have to do your dharma. Whatever it turns out to be, in that life. So, no matter what, you will, at some point, be doing your dharma. The question is, “Will it happen for you in this life?”

In yoga, it is said that it takes 482 x 106, or 482,000,000,000 years to become enlightened. This is a truly astronomical amount of time.

• Some refer to this period as a kalpa.

• It is also known as "one day of Brahma" or "one day in the life of the universe", emphasizing the immense duration involved.

An Inexorable March

Eventually, if you do nothing—if you simply live your life at the mercy of your patterns and complexes, engaging in no spiritual work on yourself whatsoever—you'll still get there! You know? It's just like an inexorable march. It's so slow. And, in the process, there's a lot of suffering.

Two Kinds of Suffering

So there are two kinds of suffering.

1. There’s functional suffering, the suffering that you need to wake up from it. So that suffering is good, because it wakes you up.

2. But then, there's a bunch of needless suffering that goes on, that we create for ourselves—very acute!

So, the idea is, suffering less is probably better. So, that’s what spiritual practice is there for.

Dodging Karma

In yoga, it is said that you can even—through your spiritual practice—dodge the effects of karma. So, there’s karma coming to you right now—you can skirt your way around it through spiritual practice. For example, you might have chosen, in this life, to, I don’t know, suffer a disease. But, because of your daily hatha yoga practice, you don’t. So, yoga is like the jujitsu of karma! You’re figuring out how to, like, dodge things, flip things over. It’s—it’s all very interesting. You ultimately rewrite your own script.

Choosing Not to Wake Up

Indeed, some individuals enter this life and are presented with countless opportunities to awaken. These opportunities often arrive in the form of teachers, and frequently, these teachers manifest as suffering. However, ultimately, as the adage goes, you cannot force a horse to drink water.

If an individual is unwilling to learn from their suffering, they will continue to suffer, failing to recognize the transformative potential of their experiences. They will live and die without achieving true understanding.

In actuality, many individuals live and die in a state of profound misery.

Talking to Old People

It's actually really valuable, talking to old people. Because if you talk to them for a while, they'll pretend to be happy. If you just see them at Thanksgiving, they'll be like, "Yeah, life is good! You know? I got my garden." But if you spend, like, every day with them, and, like, sit with them for hours, until they actually start talking about their life, like… It can get pretty dark, pretty quick. You know? Because a lot of old people start to realize the absolute futility of their lives. They—almost all of them—you know, if you talk to them, most of them start to realize, like, "I wish I didn't take, like, that, so seriously as I did. I wish I didn't live for my father, or my mother. I wish I didn't sacrifice my life, because I thought I had to be something for my children."

There's actually a beautiful quote, somewhere. This old lady writes, like, "Oh, I would've taken more days off," or something like that. But a lot of people get to the end of their life absolutely disappointed about the way they have lived it.

It’s Possible to Live & Die Miserable

So, the answer is, yes. It is possible—and actually very likely for a lot of people.

The Beautiful Realization of Yoga
That’s the beautiful realization you get from yoga. You think you’re the author of your actions, but you’re not. You’re just kind of living out a sequence of chain—a chain of events—that’s going to play itself out the way it’s going to play itself out.

We often believe ourselves to be the authors of our actions, but this is not always the case. We are, in a sense, living out a predetermined sequence of events, a chain of cause and effect, that will unfold according to its own inherent trajectory.

Don’t Relapse into Determination

While that might be true, it's not good to relapse into that. If you're just like, "Oh, it's gonna happen, regardless of whatever I do. I'm just gonna sit back and let spirituality unfold..." That concept is not functional to your spirituality.

And, given all concepts are functional, or they aren't, because they're all not true... no concept is the reality. So, given that we can entertain the paradox: yes, you are a fully determined being, but it's better to pretend, like, today you got to take charge of this moment and live such that you won't have any regrets. And, as Eden says, see the light in every regret that you do currently have. It's very beautiful.

The Ramen Analogy

Allow me to present an analogy, imagine a ramen shop. You enter, presented with a menu offering various types of ramen. You choose, for example, ramen A, and begin to eat. To your dismay, the dish is unpalatable. You reach the end of the bowl, feeling disappointed and even repulsed.

The following day, you return to the same shop. You would not consider ordering ramen A again. You opt for ramen B, but find it equally unappealing. You observe someone next to you enjoying ramen A, and you feel compelled to warn them, "Please don't eat that! You will be truly disappointed!"

They, however, remain oblivious, not having reached the end of their bowl. From your perspective, the ramen A eater represents the younger soul, as you have experienced something that has moved you beyond their current understanding.

However, it is impossible to know if the ramen A eater has already tried ramen B and disliked it. They might view you, consuming ramen B, as the younger soul, exclaiming, "Ramen B! I can't believe you're eating that!"

The crux of the matter lies in the fact that there is no way to definitively determine which ramen bowl represents a more evolved approach.

This metaphor, albeit somewhat crude, illustrates a crucial point: each bowl of ramen can be seen as a different path in life. For instance, "a life for wealth" could be represented by a ramen bowl. You pursue wealth, reaching the pinnacle of success as a billionaire. Yet, upon your deathbed, you realize your life lacked meaning. You discover that money is not the ultimate goal, and there is more to life than material possessions. In your next life, you may not seek wealth, having already consumed and concluded that particular path.

Perhaps in your next life, you strive for fame or pleasure – "ramen bowl B". The possibilities are endless, each representing a different life path. The point is, we learn from our experiences, and these lessons shape our future choices.

Finishing with Desire
Ultimately, there are two ways to reach a point of fulfillment:

• One approach is to indulge in a desire completely, potentially leading to negative consequences. This can be likened to consuming an entire bowl of ramen, leaving you feeling sick and unsatisfied.

• The alternative is to engage with the desire in a more measured, analytical manner.

Imagine entering a ramen shop for the first time. You sample a small portion of ramen A, and based on your experience, you conclude, "This is not what I am looking for." You are not compelled to finish the entire bowl; you can stop and move on.

Similarly, you can explore different aspects of life without committing to them entirely. You might try a taste of ramen B and decide, "This doesn't feel right either." You might listen to the experiences of others in the shop, hearing someone say, "I tried ramen A yesterday, and it was disappointing." Or another person might comment, "I wasn't impressed with ramen B." By listening to these shared experiences, you gain valuable insights that can guide your choices.

This process of listening, learning from the experiences of others, and forming your own conclusions is akin to philosophy. You are using the collective wisdom of those who came before you to make informed decisions, saving yourself from the negative consequences of pursuing a path that ultimately does not satisfy.

The Youngest Soul in the Room

In a sense, this is the youngest soul in the room. There are all these old, jaded souls, around her. They’re all bloated, from the ramen. And this is her first trip to the ramen store! And she’s figuring it all out!

Insight, Intuition, & Viveka

What accounts for the presence of insight, intuition, and the ability to learn from experience? This intriguing question leads us to a fascinating paradox.

Imagine, at this very moment, a woman in a Starbucks somewhere in the world. She is a 45-year-old lawyer at a prominent firm, undoubtedly highly educated. However, she is engaging in a childish outburst at the young barista, screaming because he didn't add the exact amount of honey she requested to her coffee. This behavior is reminiscent of a five-year-old throwing a tantrum.

Now, consider a 7-year-old child somewhere else in the world. This child is willing to take the blame for something their younger brother did, shielding him from punishment. This act displays an uncharacteristic level of maturity for a child of that age.

When we juxtapose these two individuals, who is truly the "older" one? It becomes clear that chronological age doesn't necessarily equate to wisdom or maturity.

The concept of "souls" further complicates the matter. If we consider the notion of new souls and old souls, the traditional paradigm of age becomes irrelevant. Who can definitively say what constitutes time or age? What if wisdom and insight are not solely determined by the number of years lived?

Some might argue that "smarter souls" or "more insightful souls" are the result of having lived multiple lifetimes. However, there is no definitive evidence to support this claim.

In the yogic tradition, this ability to discern, discriminate, philosophize, and think critically is called viveka. Viveka is a quality that may be associated with wisdom, but it doesn't necessarily correlate with chronological maturity.

Ultimately, we cannot definitively answer the question of what determines insight and intuition. It remains a fascinating paradox, a testament to the complexity of human nature and the intricate interplay of age, experience, and wisdom.

Chance, Luck, and Accidents?

Sri Ramakrishna and Throat Cancer

Sri Ramakrishna, the great Indian sage, is known for his ability to work miracles.

People would come to him, sick, and he would heal them. You know, he’s a Jesus figure.

One day, he got throat cancer! And it was horrific! It's the worst form of cancer. Doctors say it’s very painful, there’s a lot of suffering, it’s a very messy form of cancer.

His followers implored him to use his spiritual powers to heal himself, urging him to remain in the world and continue his teachings.

Why Ramakrishna Chose to Suffer

And he refused. Many followers, unable to reconcile his suffering with their expectations of a spiritual master, abandoned him.

Ramakrishna said this was functional, for two reasons.

1. Because it helped separate the fake followers from the real followers. Those who couldn't see beyond the surface of appearance.

2. Secondly, he said, “I need to have this throat cancer, because it’s an effect of a cause that I started, in a previous life. If I don’t experience this effect now, I’m going to have to take another birth and experience it then.”

Two Options

So, Ramakrishna can do two things.

1. He could have healed the throat cancer and lived a more comfortable life

2. In that case, he would have had to experience the karmic consequence in a different way, perhaps through the death of a stillborn child. While the throat cancer was a painful choice, it was necessary to balance the karmic equation.

Why People Die Young

In this context, individuals who pass away at a young age have, in a sense, fulfilled their bodily purpose. It is a complex concept, but some may require a physical form solely to experience a terrible act of violence, as tragic as that may seem. However, it is important to acknowledge that such violence is an effect arising from a cause, and these individuals may have consciously chosen to engage with this particular life experience.

Furthermore, their passing, while profoundly painful, may have served a functional purpose for the loved ones they left behind.

As exemplified in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, this can be viewed as a poignant karmic narrative. The film beautifully portrays the concept of a spirit's presence, as the protagonist's voice narrates the story, offering a perspective on the beauty and sacredness of the horrific event she endured.

Why People Die Young

The premature passing of individuals can be seen as the natural completion of a specific life experience. Some souls are born with a predetermined journey, and upon its completion, their physical presence is no longer required.

Beyond this point, continued existence would serve no meaningful purpose and would become superfluous.

Chance, Randomness, and the Infinite Universe

In that sense, there is no chance, or luck, or accidents. They very intentionally chose and died—or, chosen suffered. And so, that suffering isn't meaningless, it's chosen, it's taken on.

That is one answer.

The second answer is: a lot of Buddhist schools—Vajrayana Buddhist schools—think there is a great degree of randomness and chance. Do you know why?

If you are an infinite being, creating a world of infinite form, that means infinite possibilities are allowed.

So, there is only so much intentionality you, as God, can have. God, in a way, is consigned to the world that She created. And She created a world of infinite possibilities, so She has to live with that, right?

If She chooses to incarnate into a being, there is a possibility that that being won't recognize Herself, as God.

So, She takes a risk, every time She becomes somebody. And that risk is suffering, for lifetime after lifetime.

Dying Right

This is why Buddhists emphasize the importance of "dying right". They believe that the last thought one has before passing is crucial, as it shapes the individual's transition to the next life. This notion resonates with similar beliefs found in other traditions. For example, many Christian churches encourage individuals to focus on the cross as they approach death. This practice stems from the belief that the drishti, or gaze, can guide the spirit towards its destination in the afterlife.

Therefore, the answer is both yes and no. While there is no chance or randomness, and all suffering serves a purpose, there is also a high degree of chance and probability. This is due to the infinite nature of the universe, which necessitates some degree of risk-taking.

For the unenlightened, death marks the end of their journey. But for the enlightened, death is a breath, a transition, a gift. It is the culmination of the human experience, a return to the source.

- Thanks to Nish