Class on Questioning – UUCA

Using:
Ten Eternal Questions: Wisdom, Insight, and Reflection for Life’s Journey,
By Zoe Sallis

Our assignment – To read the answers in the book and to write a letter addressed to
one of the answerers that discusses our reactions to their beliefs and our own
beliefs.

Second Question:

Do you think this life is all there is, or do you believe in an afterlife?

Steve Vai – 
“It is my belief (and actually many peoples’ belief) that the soul is eternal and
that it moves from body to body through the concept of reincarnation.  It enters the
world with a specific body, set of moral values, and destination that are designed to
help evolve the soul to the point of purging it of desires by separating it from the
mind.  This aids the soul in its eventual ascent into a state of God-consciousness.
As for an afterlife, when we die and are in the interim state of an afterlife, it is
an endless world with fathomless levels.  According to our karmas generated in the
previous life (or past lives), for a time we dwell in the afterlife abyss of thought-
forms.  Some karmas may be good and some bad but elements of them can be worked out
in the myriad heavens and hells that exist in the afterlife.  This experience helps
shape the moral fiber of the soul, thus giving us the tools to deal with what lies
ahead in our next life.  This concept is something that I have felt since early child-
hood.  Obviously I can’t prove this, but I do believe that there are people walking
on the planet who have firsthand experience and knowledge of these things.”


Even though I don’t believe in God, I do believe in life after death.  I even believe
in reincarnation because it’s the only way I can make sense out of self-awareness.
However, I do have to admit that I am torn.  I can look at it in two irreconcilable
ways, depending on the day, the sky and the song in my heart.

Sometimes, I look at it in a somewhat similar way to you.  Souls enter consciousness
within a body and can, through growth, join a higher consciousness.  This happens
when a soul reaches a state of non-self - a state where the joining is not a loss of
identity, but an acceptance of non-identity, a simple state of being willing to let
go.
  
For me, the sticking place to the way you describe it, is that there is a decision
based on the needs of that soul, that cause it to be placed in a particular
situation with particular players and a specific growth goal.  Somehow, this is
horrific to me.  First, because there is someone who makes that decision, and
second, to think that there is a consciousness, a judge of some type, that would
decide to put a specific soul into the body of a child that will be starved or
abused, or that will die of a disease due to lack of treatment.  While there are
things to be learned in such situations, this points to punishment for past lives
or something that must be learned in this way and no other, and I can’t even look at
this.  

Then, let’s say there is such a cosmic judge of next lives, just for grins.  We are
then in the situation where the whole world is aligned to teach the new soul
whatever lesson is there to be learned.  The actions of the mother, father, care-
giver, whatever, are scripted, and the outcome of their lives are determined by the
consciousness that chooses that a specific life lesson needs to be learned by the
soul in question.  To me, only a narcissist could believe such a thing.  Even if
there were a god, he or she would not sculpt the entire universe, or even a small
corner of it to teach you or me a life’s lesson.  In my mind, this cannot be.

However, like I said, I do believe in reincarnation.  That there are lessons to be
learned from every life that a soul lives, and the life ones is born to is chosen
by chance – another roll of cosmic dice.  Whatever life you are born into is
whatever it turns out to be.  One can grow spiritually from all experiences.  I
often believe this to be true.

The other way I look at reincarnation is the same way I look at god.  There is no
god, and there is no soul specific to me, Kathleen, for eternity.  When I die, it
disintegrates as does my body.  My body and my soul dissolve and return to the chaos
from which they were born.  The pieces that were once me are still there, but are
combined with others to make other entities.  My body and soul both diffuse through
the universe and add to the dust and the karma of the entire body.  The spiritual
growth I have attained will be carried on, but distributed.  And the me?  Well,
that part disappears.