I was discussing this further with a friend recently and we were talking about the nature of the soul, across many systems, including the way it's discussed in modern occult. Spirits can linger after death (ghosts, etc.) but the soul always returns to the Divine source from where it came. If the Source is oneness, then what returns from "oneness" to be reincarnated? The way Tibetan Buddhists describe the process is that you enter the bardo and your subtle consciousness will enter a room where there are many humans having sex, and if you haven't done the proper training you'll just get sucked into the creative power of one of those couples, experiencing rebirth. On the other end of the room is a portal of light which is where you train your subtle mind to go instead of looking at the people having sex. In theosophy they expand upon this further to say you will be magnetically pulled to the parents who match your evolutionary vibration (I'm paraphrasing) so that your soul-specific work can continue. But it's all a story based on separateness. You're this separate soul moving about purgatory looking for a way back to oneness, which you are already part of? It doesn't make sense.
It's all a nice story. But then, if you interrogate the concept of subtle consciousness, or karma, or souls, or whatever... what is actually in here for anything to attach to beyond death? It seems like a farce. To put it another way, your ego isn't even real, it's totally holographic, and this reality all around us? Totally empty of substance, when you get right down to it. It's all one thing, whatever it is, but there's no one DOING anything. Matter on the subatomic level is basically empty. So what are we even talking about when we talk about past lives or the next life, when this one is so obviously fictitious? Like in Buddhism, they talk about accumulating merit and purifying karma. What can merit or karma even attach to? There's nothing in here!
In other words, if there's no real story beyond mind, then what story moves forward? And if you can't even remember the story, then it's as good as non-existent, so what's the point of even entertaining this? They say, "It's the natural law of being human, like water freezes when it's cold, we can't remember in this form." Well gee, isn't that convenient.
If there's an evolution of the soul via the reincarnation process, then what is the soul trying to achieve? Where is it trying to go? There's really nowhere to go, beyond this moment. A soul projecting a plan is no different than a human projecting into the future. There's nothing there, just like the past is non-existent.
To me it just seems like a lot of work in order to get to a point where you won't remember any of it anyway. We don't have these elaborate stories when an ant gets stepped on, or a tree cut down. We just see them as there one minute and gone the next -- poof, oh well! They're dead. Yet humans are somehow special, YOU are somehow special, and above it all. So let's all run around and gather merit, and purify karma, yippee! Whatever floats your boat.
