Are Past Lives Real?

Sunday 12 Aug 2012

Are Past Lives Real?

This question is vexed and will probably always be a flashpoint for debate between those who believe past lives are true and those who believe they are not true.  A question of belief! I would contend however that it is possible to know more about this subject than what we just believe.

To understand anything in a meaningful way we need to have an appropriate perspective. In other words we need to have enough information or data to be able to draw meaningful conclusions on what we are trying to understand. For example a fish will be able know and describe what it is like to live in the sea, but would not be able to describe living on the land as an air breathing creature. A turtle however might give a good account of both experiences. Mosquitoes have visual access deeper into the red end of the colour spectrum, so they know more about that, than we as humans do. It is a question of acquiring or developing the appropriate data.

The conscious energy of a human being is generally very poorly understood, however it is possible to sharpen and train our minds to be more aware of this energy. This is done with a practice like Meditation. The Buddha left a very clear set of instructions for any human-being to use. His mind development instructions can allow us all to see deeper into the nature of absolute truth at the heart of the present moment. The present moment is the balance point between past and future. This flow of time forms the basis for our understanding of the Universe. Evolution has also given us the ability to use reflection, to see ourselves in the bigger picture. Most animals have not evolved in this way yet.  They still rely only on their instincts to survive and so far reflection has trumped instincts. In this way we have kept ourselves living at the top of the food chain.

Despite being on top of the food chain, the usual way that most of us work and use our human condition is still relatively coarse, especially when compared to someone who has trained their mind to look deeply into the present moment. A trained mind has fewer impediments and will be a more refined instrument to examine the nature of humanity at this level. Using a photographic metaphor, it will have many more pixels and will remove the blur to provide more clarity. The Buddha spoke of five aggregates that systematically penetrate into our minds as they are uncovered. The first and coarsest is Materiality, which is all matter including our bodies and the universe. Then moving into the mental conditions with Feelings followed by Perception and then back to Mental Flow and finally the stream of Consciousness itself.  A trained mind can penetrate and notice very clearly all these conditions.

Asking our original question from this more refined perspective brings a very clear answer because of the increased knowledge. When the stream of consciousness is accessed beyond doubt, one begins to see and understand how the worldly conditions are passed on in time. One can see and understand Birth and Death because we are seeing it all from a wider universal perspective, instead of the usual blinkered and limited view available only to service our individual selves.

There is no doubt that past lives can really be seen from this deeper purer perspective. They can be seen embedded in the stream of consciousness and can be accessed using our brain and thoughts after a very still meditation period. They can also be accessed from the subconscious, with the help of a hypnotherapist.

The original question however still remains --- Are past lives real?

It turns out that the question of “what is real?” is a very slippery concept, because at its heart all past lives (including the life we are living right now), are conditioned, that is, dependent on other conditions for their existence. The mental flow that comes out of our consciousness, then our perception of it, along with the feelings that are generated all evolve into the construction of the body that represents what we call  --- self. It is all a moving, shifting, flowing delusion from the perspective of the absolute truth inside the present moment. It is all conditioned and will remain conditioned with the natural consequence of birth, old age, sickness and death remaining in place. Questions about self and reality are not exactly relevant from this perspective.

The peace that the Buddha exhorted us all to work towards is right at the heart of the present moment. This is the absolute balance point between past and future, the middle way, the unconditioned. When we can purify our minds enough to know this place without any doubt, we can die into it and finish with conditioning.  This is where true peace is, it is the end of “dukka” or suffering.