My Gran died last year and was always interested in psychic matters, she could talk to a person and tell them things about themselves only they would know. She was a tough old bird and everyone said she would live to 100. She told me one day she would die when she was 98 on a rainy day in summer. She was spot on as usual, she always told me people have birth names and she could pick them out,even those on the telly. A few days before she died she said to me "ask me the name and I will tell. I have done this to a few friends and the names seem to correspond with something in their life, can I try it here.
i kinda skimmed over some of the replies, so if someone else has already said this, then i guess you're going to get it again. the current Dalai Lama (he's the 14th reincarnation of Avalokitesvara and IS compassion. not just the embodiment of it, he IS it) has said that he remembers his past lives and also the bardo realm that one goes through between lives. they say it takes about 49 days for a rebirth to occur, and during this time, the things that make up who you "are" are torn apart (the 5 skandhas), which is apparently a very scary thing. but after having done it a bunch of times, it's not scary anymore, so then you can learn from it. that's what the dalai lama has done. this is just in tibetan buddhism, of course. and there's lots more to it, but i'm tired and need to get to bed. so this'll do for now.
I undersatnd it now when you lose the memorys you keep the personality they left behind.Ready to be shaped again with new memorys and exprences.
Your personality doesn't go over, either, since it is part of the ego. It's more like you're drawn to a certain vibration, not that you want to go to a certain vibration. Your personality is like a picture which is painted by many people and circumstances. You wipe it clean and make it ready for use again. It is torn away from you through pain like ripping away a scab. There is an emotional imprint made, but the memory of it is wiped.
I hate to say this, but I have those same memories . Like pre birth memories. Where talked to GOD and chose my life this time through. It was so abstract. And every deja-voo I have has that same abstract surrounding.
DA, You may want to check out the Tibetan Book of the Dead. http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/dead/otherworld.html
Of all your memories, can you remember when you went from a baby to a kid, from a kid to a teenager, from a teenager to an adult, from an adult to an old person? Consciousness is one, but consciousness remembering itself is fragmentary.
The way I see it, our consciousness and who we are is not based on our own memories but only our present state of perception. There are no such things as good or bad people, only fluctuating perceptions of individual truth. Since human consciousness has no predetermined definition of right or wrong, true or false, we are all given choices to believe that we are either individuals or that we are all just one single individual, in the case of humanity a single organism and that therefore we/I are all eternally and entirely alone. In physical reallity we all come from a singular energy, ergo 'God', defined physically as a singular biological bacteria which spread roughly 4.5 billion years ago, on Earth anyway, into a nearly infinate number of individual perceptions leading to of course the evolution of perception itself. Since there is no beginning nor an end to this energy there is no such thing as true or false, therefore the choice is in each of our own hands to surround ourselves with things that create positive energy (The belief that we are all individuals and contain our own personal unique meanings which live forever) or negitive energy (The solipsitic belief that nothing exists outside of one's self and that nothing one does contains meaning), which is where responsibility is transfered from the hands of God into our own individual hands. This to me seems as though there is a God and that this transfer represents God's desire to give us a doorway to that positive energy. Heaven being a place where that energy is greatly appreciated for its cost and is thus maintained in its individual form providing the sensation of life eternal for the individual soul or at least for those of us who choose to have a soul. The problem with this is that there are so many things can happen to a person which can lead them to a perminant state of lonleyness which they cannot escape from by any physiological or psychological means and because they believe there is no escape they therefore do not wish to have an eternal soul. In most cases when this happens, especially to children, the response is to degrade the world around them and their own personal being as an attempt at finding a way to disassociate themselves from the original desire to believe in something more, which now only causes them pain. This is proof that the soul and positive energy are things which can be destroyed, or in other words things that can die, which is what gives them value just like life itself. It is not at all an easy life to live when all that one does is desperately try to protect and to project one's own positive energy when all that is inside is conflict and negitive energy. It is an extremely painful experience which is why I consider it to be a disease, one of which the only cure is awareness and only when that awareness is shared by all that surround those with this particular disease. Having the ability to project a positive and sympathectic honest perspective is difficult to aquire and takes alot of work, but is well worth it if one wishes to aquire an eternal soul and if one wishes to infect others with the desire we all share for positive energy. Or, in the great words of Josiah Gilbert Holland... "God gives no value unto men Unmatched by meed of labor; And Cost of Worth has ever been The closest neighbor." From his poem 'The Cost of Worth', and yes it does take a lot of work to create worth, a whole lot of it! Especially without making a mistake or two somewhere down the line, which is where many people lose the strength to believe that worth is worth the chore of maintaining one's belief in it. I would say, since we are all here anyway, that we might as well do what we can while we can to spread some of that positive energy that God is so obviously trying to bestow upon us through our own responsibilities. Of course this is all just my opinion, think what you like, but this is a little poem I wrote about responsibility... The Damned Think twice before you look and look twice before you leap Or so the warning went from the shepherd to his sheep As he thus reflects the father who sacrificed his only son Proclaiming to all that life is everlasting once it has begun The memory is set into the eternal structure For that is the nature of having freewill The foundation is built out of random emotions It cannot be denied for it claims its fill Euthanasia is not the liberation of self For those who deny the construct of time We are the chosen pillars to the evolution of life And we stand eternal individualy defined Those who prey on the innocent only revoke their own choices As they submit our fate to the parasites of an unwilling flood We are the responsibilties of our very own God given voices Yet they would allow the spilling of innocent blood Instead of healing their wounds to retain what is left They would steal from others with a hollowed out breath Hallowed be thy name what commits sin unto shame And all will be balanced for their guilt is their claim . . . . . As every structure unfolds the truth is revealed So that we may each embody our own concepts to define what is real Though our souls are not born in fact they are built over time Where a single memory becomes the container of the structure defined As each vessel becomes aware of the conflict within Our choices are being born torn between salvation and sin Sins are in the conscious acts of spreading despair for past reasons And so the sinners grow colder darkening our lives and our seasons As the truth hits the beaches Their strongholds will fold Their fires will burn out And their hearts will grow cold For in loves eternal warmth belongs only the holy They are the protectors of the innocent and meek Deceit is upon sinners as the curse of the damned They are the pillars of the proud, selfish, and weak . . . . . The sands of time once silent will have finaly spoken As every lie is revealed unto the Temple of Tokens For if one would truly be free one must choose how one sees And so it remains kept not in vain the nature of our worth in eternity Grant Blackburn ©2007
Remembering is not necessary for conditioning ones 'self'. I do not remember the last time I rode a bike, nor where I went, but after having so much practice I can't help but get it right.
Lord Buddha didn't have any recollection of his former lives until reaching enlightenment. Reading some of the Jataka tales of Lord Buddha are extremely interesting and educational.