Chapter 4
Re-Incarnation and the Avatar
There is a line from a song by Crosby Stills and Nash, "we have all
been here before.."
The song is called 'Deja Vu', and is very good at capturing a sense of
eeriness, of that moment when you realize that you're far more ancient
than you believed.
Reincarnation is a reality.
There is no question of believing in it, do not try to simply believe
in it.
Instead, there are three ways to directly experience it.
The first: become very open, and listen to yourself.
You will know, you will sense, that you are ancient.
You will see with absolute certainty that you have been doing much of
what you are doing now for all your life.
Often, this certainty will be triggered best by an encounter with a person
place or thing that you had previously encountered in a recent lifetime.
The second: There are meditations, especially tantric ones from Tibetan
Buddhism, that will allow you to experience direct recall of your past
incarnations.
However, these meditations take a great deal of effort.
The meditations are detailed (but not completely) in my book, "three paths
of ecstasy".
While there are many sources from which to learn the true technique for
this, most of the 'past life' programs will not work.
Especially the idea that someone else can regress you with hypnosis or
something like that.
It will only produce a psychological dream, but not a true memory.
Only you can remember yourself.
The third: this technique is the easiest, but also the least appealing
to many people.
For it to work, you have to die first.
At the time of your death, you must remain conscious, meditative.
And for that to happen you must have been meditating for your entire life.
If you have been meditative, then with great effort you can be conscious
and aware at the time of death, and from this you will remember, in your
next lifetime, all of your previous lives.
But what is this, that keeps us united to one form throughout many lives?
In reality, it is not us as we think of ourselves who are reincarnated.
It is not our personalities, but our individuality.
The individuality is the part of you that is a unique and individual
facet of the Mystery.
It exists in the eternal, and will take a different form in each incarnation.
It will don and shed bodies like a body dons and sheds clothing. But it
always exists.
It is the eternal in you, that you may seek out.
There is a term in Indian mysticism, Avatara, that has been misinterpreted
by false religionists.
They will try to tell you that an Avatar is a god who has come down into
a body, god in human form.
But in fact, an Avatar is a facet, this individuality when it is unmasked,
uncovered by a persona.
The Avatar is the divine incarnate in a man made manifest.
Proper Practice In Ritual and Meditation
Eat and delight in eating, and find the Avatar.
Love someone until it burns within you, and find the Avatar.
Have sex and share your body freely without restriction or shame, and
find the Avatar.
Sit in a park, and find the Avatar.
Touch the bark of a tree, with your hand or your heart, and find the Avatar.
Bow before a painted stone, and find the Avatar.
Stand at the crossroads at midnight and find the gate between worlds,
and find the Avatar.
Do something your mind says you'll regret, and find the Avatar.
Get into a fight you think you'll lose, and find the Avatar.
Dip your hands in a river, and find the Avatar.
Raise your arms to the sun, and find the Avatar.
Stay awake until you collapse, and find the Avatar.
Study the language of birds, and find the Avatar.
Raise a plant, and find the Avatar.
Go to a cafe on a rainy morning, and find the Avatar.
Build something out of wood, and find the Avatar.
Ride a horse, and find the Avatar.
Go to Brazil, or Paris, and find the Avatar.
Study the Tarot, and find the Avatar.
Watch a good movie, and find the Avatar.
Listen to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, and find the Avatar.
Suffer.
And live.
"Brahma is found in the sacrifice, and Brahma is found in the fire (where the sacrifice is performed). And Brahma is found in the one who makes the sacrifice." - Krishna