One life to live

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

IF I would have a chance to meet somebody who came back from the dead, I would like to ask what afterlife is like. Is it maybe another life, totally different from the current one we are living, or a totally different experience? Or do we just have this life, and therefore must treasure it here and now, because it may never happen again.

The thought of continuing lifetimes, of lives occurring over and over again, like a reincarnation of some sort, appeals to my senses. It is but natural since I love my current state. Some cultures believe that humans can live in this world, behaving or misbehaving, but must be ready to face the consequences of actions in their next lives. If we misbehaved in this life, there is a theory that you could reincarnate into an animal, or a worse version of yourself. If you behaved, you can be elevated to your higher self. But what is the higher self? Is it devoid of the enjoyment of physicality? Will we still have a body?

Milan Kundera, in his book, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” says that, some people accept a “certain lack of ultimate meaning in life, and living for momentary beauty…” while those who cannot accept this, “seek to attach a meaning and weight to what they consider important in life.”

 My professor in logarithm said that there is a way to approximate the afterlife, in much the same way that there are ways to measure sound, earthquakes, the brightness of stars, and the complex emotional and psychological chemistry between two people. He believes in the afterlife, a reality we cannot grasp at the moment given the thick overlay of knowledge and belief systems and the various interference in the receptors of our limited mind.

Whether you believe in one life or many lives thereafter depends on how you experienced your present world, the institutions that shaped your consciousness, your reasoning and faith. If you believe there is just one life, by all means live it, leave no room to waste, taste the world fully. If you believe the possibility of many lives thereafter, wouldn’t you be doing the same? After all, there is no guarantee that the next world out there is how you imagined it to be.

 

Tiny dust

dance, tiny dust, keep on dancing
between the crazy drops of rain
falling everywhere
drenching the bigger dust
forced down by their own weight
and the heaviness of rain

keep on, keep on spinning
pirouetting with the gentle wind
flowing gently with the leaves and flowers
in the lightness of your being.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments