Remembering your past lives

[niranjan]

The Hindu spiritual master, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (founder of the 'Art of Living' foundation) has created a technique called the 'Eternity Process' , a meditation technique through which one is able to remember the memories of one's past lives stored in the subconscious mind. Many of my friends and others have gone through this technique , and in the process , have realised the memories of their previous births.

The Indian religions believe in the theory of karma or 'cause and effect'. This theory finds ample expression in the fact that those who have gone through the 'Eternity Process ' found that their inborn ,innate talents can be traced back to training in a previous birth.

This technique is getting increasingly popular, and according to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar , it is now being practiced in a few psychiatric clinics as well.

In order to do this technique , one ought to contact the nearest 'Art of Living ' centre and get in touch with an 'Art of Living ' teacher trained in this technique.One ought to be 21 years of age to do this technique.

All my friends , who have done this technique, found it to be very interesting and illuminating. I wish you the same.

[fr.novumorganum]

I do hope you want to discuss this practice and not just try and make converts



ever notice the similarity between convert and convict?

[m1thr0s]

Here is a link for anybody interested in looking through this huge site:

http://www.artofliving.org/

fr.novumorganum is quite right here niranjan. You will want to frame some of the things you have learned in a way that it can be discussed from different points of view. If you just want/need to convert others to your path without openly discussing the pros & cons of what you have found, this is not the best way for you to achieve this...

Get a few shackles together and start a website of your own in that case. Here we are all expected to offer up ideas & experience in a way that others may have a chance to decide for themselves what is valid or invalid, worthwhile or not worthwhile...

If you are on fire with a certain experience or understanding it can be difficult to work out this balance, but here in this place it is very important that you do make every effort to do so or you will be looked upon as primarily being here to convert people without due process and this is counter-productive to what this site is about or how it works...

m1thr0s

[Naomi]

gimme $375 I sell you secret mantra

b.s.

yeah I saw the site

Wikipedia:

"In USA, a course fee of $375.00 is charged for the basic course taught by trained volunteer teachers. The fee varies from country to country and there are discounts available for senior citizens and students. Though designated as a donation, such a fee is mandatory"

[niranjan]

I do hope you want to discuss this practice and not just try and make converts



ever notice the similarity between convert and convict?


Well, this is a Hindu forum and as a Hindu , I think I am entitled to post articles on Hinduism over here. I have not posted this in a Christian forum or a Muslim forum or other religions forums.
And since this is a Hindu forum, my posts are naturally meant for other Hindus, and definetely not with the intention of making converts of other religions to Hinduism. If conversion was my intention, I would have put my posts in other religions forums, which I have not done.

[Anibis]

ever notice the similarity between convert and convict?

Converts have 'conviction', and convicts have coversions?
:p
-Ibisis

[Anibis]

So lets talk about remembering past lives, then. I can't say for sure, but I've felt for a long time that I had some strong connections to the rennaisance in Italy, and to the Masons... I don't put too much effort to find out exactly who I've been or anything. That to me is fairly well tied up with Ego blustering. I ask the rest of you on this thread; have you employed certain techniques for remembering your past lives? WHat have you discovered what were the techniques? One final note to Niranjan, I think you should heed the repeated requests of the other mods (and others) who have expressed a concern that you were seeking conversions. Since you seem to have shrugged it off and not taken us seriously, let me spell it out for you. Start a thread about Remember past lives -> actually talk about the process, experience. Don't just send people to a commercial enterprise that you are no doubt affiliated in some way with; it could be seen as preaching, or more likely spamming. Its percieved as rude here, whether in the Hindu forums or any other. If you understand that and modify your posting style as such, there will be no problem. Thanks;
-Ibisis

[niranjan]

One final note to Niranjan, I think you should heed the repeated requests of the other mods (and others) who have expressed a concern that you were seeking conversions. Since you seem to have shrugged it off and not taken us seriously, let me spell it out for you. Start a thread about Remember past lives -> actually talk about the process, experience. Don't just send people to a commercial enterprise that you are no doubt affiliated in some way with; it could be seen as preaching, or more likely spamming. Its percieved as rude here, whether in the Hindu forums or any other. If you understand that and modify your posting style as such, there will be no problem. Thanks;
-Ibisis


Again I fail to perceive, in all humility how my posting articles related to Hinduism and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is a Hindu enlightened master, can be seen as preaching or done with the intention of making converts of other religions, in this Hindu forum. I again repeat , I have not posted this in the Christian forum or any other religious groups forum.
I have posted my articles in other Hindu forums and my actions were never perceived to be rude. In fact I had a very encouraging response.

The theory of rebirth is a religious teaching among Hindus and it has been taught by Krishna, Buddha, Guru Nanak and Mahavira.

And I am only presenting to my fellow Hindus that a technique to remember past lives exist. And the Art of Living Foundation is definetely not a commercial establishment. It is a spiritual institution and a NGO that has done lots of charity work and relief work throughout the world.
In Iraq itself, ravaged by the Allied invasion, the Art of Living has given free yogic courses to the Iraqi people , to counter the stress and strain war has imposed on their psyche.
Again , I wish to state that I am genuinely surprised and confused over the resistance to my posts, which are meant for Hindus, considering that this is a Hindu forum.
Even to Hindus , all I wish to say is that such a technique exists, and if they are interested they can try it. If not, forget it . Remembering your past lives is not the most important thing in Hinduism. The most important thing is to attain moksha or nirvana or enlightenment.

[Anibis]

This is a forum to discuss Hinduism, it is true, But I don't think you will find very many Hindus here at the moment. The overall context of these boards are that of ecclectic spirituality, and in particular Hermetic Alchemy. Hindus and other faiths are welcome here of course, providing the discussion stays within the forum guidelines we have set out.

This however, in not the point of the responses which you have gotten from the moderating team which you have been quite resistant to accept. The point is this: your post was essentially an advertisement for this system. It did not contain personal reflections, or a description of the technique or anything other than a plug for the program. IF you had presented this as a discussion, then this would have been a different story. It reads like a solicitation, and you seem unwilling to grasp why others would object to this. If we knew a bit more about you, other than you wish to enlighten us all to the benefits of what I am sure is a laudable technique, then there may be more lee-way, but if your first few posts on the forum show to us that you are basically looking to advertise to us, then you will not be very well recieved, I'm afraid. I am locking this thread for now, pending deletion.

-Ibisis

[m1thr0s]

Well, this is a Hindu forum and as a Hindu , I think I am entitled to post articles on Hinduism over here.You have completely missed the point. This is a Hinduism Discussion Forum not a Hinduism Billboard. The only thing you have actually offered up for discussion is that your friends got a lot out of this practise. That's nice...end of discussion!

Try it again...we are all hoping that you just don't quite get the hang of this yet.

m1thr0s

[Anibis]

Okay, thread re-opened. Let's get onto the topic of remembering past lives. Who here remembers past lives? How do you separate your 'wishful' impressions from the reality? Where does the 'memory' reside if not in the brain? What techniques are useful? Can you rein-carnate as several people? Can you reincarnate with clear memory for the purpose of conducting a work over several lifetimes? What about reincarnation as a non-human entity, or as a plant life-form? Reincarnation within your family? Hierarchy of incarnations? I realize not all these questions pertain to Hindu reincarnation theory, but I thought they might give us some 'surface area' to explore the ideas. Niranjan, maybe you can tell us a bit more about Reincarnation within a Hindu context specifically?
Cheers;
-Ibisis

[niranjan]

Here's a website on reincarnation , within a Hindu context.




http://hinduwebsite.com/reincarnation.asp

[Kain]

Here's a website on reincarnation , within a Hindu context.




http://hinduwebsite.com/reincarnation.aspGreat article niranjan, thanks for sharing that.

Kain

[niranjan]

Here's a website on reincarnation , within a Hindu context.




http://hinduwebsite.com/reincarnation.asp


I apologize for the fact that the front portion of this article is not visible due to advertisements . It was not there when I first saw it. I have lodged a complaint to the site owners to replace these advertisements elsewhere.

However the remaining visible part of the article is also informative and will help educate the readers.

Thanking you,

Niranjan.

[Kain]

I apologize for the fact that the front portion of this article is not visible due to advertisements . It was not there when I first saw it. I have lodged a complaint to the site owners to replace these advertisements elsewhere.

However the remaining visible part of the article is also informative and will help educate the readers.

Thanking you,

Niranjan.The article actually is whole Niranjan, the advertisments have simply forced it to decrease it's horizontal span in the page, as far as the upper portion of it is concerned where the advertisements are. That was a good call on your part concerning the lodged complaint however, as it would allow the article to be more easily read.

Thank you very much,

Kain

[Okazaki Castle]

I would be interested for m1thr0s to know his immediate past life, where the Sirians put him after that, and who broke him out. Wasn't me...

all the best, and many thanks btw Niranjan,
Oazaki.

[m1thr0s]

It's a little strange because I do have a kind of memories stretching into the ancient past but I am never sure where these actually derive from. Pythagoras had this notion of "World Soul" which today is probably best defined as Morphic Resonance (http://www.sheldrake.org/homepage.html). According to this theory it might be possible for any of us to access recorded experiences of just about anybody who ever lived in this world. I have often felt that this makes a better accounting of so-called reincarnation phenomenum than the idea that we have actually been other people per se. I have a hard time accepting that premise as sound. I tend to think that each human being is entirely unique and none of us have ever really been anybody else at any time or ever will be for that matter. But it is still possible to retrace the experiences of others via this "world soul" principle...which may also extend to universe itself for all we really know...

Wiki Link: Morphic Fields (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphic_field)

m1thr0s

[Kuroyagi]

I think thats a very good theory that makes lots of sense. Its somehow enlarging on the archetypal theory in that every particle and part of our present being (not only the psychic ones) has its own history and depending on it we can access certain things easier cause we have a greater closeness to them resulting from former "alliances" with them. Thanks for the reminder- nowadays theres so much out there that one often forgets the alternatives. :o_O:

[Kain]

Interesting approach m1thr0s. So, how exactly does the reincarnation phenomenon work in your view, if not through a series of personal incarnations?

My personal view on the matter is pretty much adjacent to the traditional one in most respects, although I would say that a more apt description would be one of the consequent re-incarnation of the same person (rather than us reincarnating as different people), the inherent changes that make each incarnation unique occuring due to the natural tendency of things to move on and move forward rather than repeat their current pattern. A fitting example of this tendency here described (although not a Hindu concept in itself) would be the linear change of the I Ching's hexagrams from one to the next, as depicted in their respective arrangements that map Change Itself.

Kain

[m1thr0s]

I am not so sure that reincarnation itself does not occur...in fact...I think it probably does. I just don't place much stock in past-life memories. We have a whole universe to play around in here. If I happen to have had a lousy time in this world and feel as though it was a waste of time and energy to have come here at all (which I do, in fact, happen to feel regarding this world), given that there are other "bars" in town, why would I not want to go someplace else? What confines us to this world or that one? I just don't think it makes much sense...I would move on and I would think that given the choice, many others would move on as well and never once look back.

But there are other issues as well. I tend to feel as though I am kind of a niche specialist. It's sort of an integrated part of who I am and what I do. I would probably almost always take advantage of this particular evolutionary niche given the choice because I am sort of a specialist at this particular time frame. Now if this is true for me, it might also be true of others. It may be that a Gallileo or a Davinci or a Copernicus is as much a genetic niche as anything else. Given the right set of circumstances that number will always come up someplace and is right at this moment popping up all over the universe in different worlds just now requiring that particular slot to be filled. I don't see why reincarnation might not work this way as well...planets put out certain calls at certain times and qualified individuals may or may not apply depending on their interest or other factors we cannot clearly define.

So I do not say that reincarnation does not occur. I just don't feel comfortable with any of the usual scenarios I have seen defining how it works. I also don't believe that memory is a proper proof of anything. Memory is hands down the most volatile of the brain's natural functions...It gets screwed up all the time and many things affect it. Skeptics of reincarnation often want to know why everybody seems to have been Cleopatra while nobody seems to have been one of Cleopatra's hand servants. Right now at this very moment we might be able to find 1000 people who think they were Cleopatra in a past life. According to Morphic Resonance, they could actually all be right, at the level of the memories themselves. But there was only ever one actual Cleopatra...

It's a highly complex area of analysis and discussion...I don't think there is any easy answer since we really don't have a very good fix on what the possibilities actually are.

m1thr0s

[Anibis]

I agree with m1thr0s' assesment. I have been know to 'lay claim' to certain previous incarnations, but that is alway just to piss off people who take themselves too seriously. (Man you should have seen this one guy FLIP OUT with rage when I told him I had been Hieronymous Bosch!) The thing is, if Time happens all at once, on a certain level, we can tap into any one of several different pathways to justify our current state of becoming. I feel that that is essentially it, we can achieve a resonance with a person, or a star or a thing, or a cosmos, or whatever, and then establish a 'root' in it. This may hold for a long long time (across lifetimes), or be more or less mobile. I guess, depending on ones choices one could during a lifetime become the reincarnation of somebody in the deep past that one hadn't been before... it's energy, and it's mobile... Still, I tend to like to run deep, strong roots. I generally sense a connection with my family (within which I would likely reincarnate again), With Bosch (as I said ;)) with the Rennaisance period, and with Freemasonry... When ya' got something, you might as well grow it stronger, right!?
-Anibis

Edit: Reincarnation is more about trajectory than enything else. Memory indicates trajectory, but it has a tendency, upon changing said direction to 'over-write' the previous record. Memory is not so much a record of the past, but a reflection of the becomming-future. I plan to initiate a thread on the Art of Memory shortly, since it is a very key part of the magick arts, IMO...

[Kain]

I see your point, thanks for breaking it down a bit for me m1thr0s, I appreciate it. I actually agree too, and I think you are right about the holes of it's common portrayance. Memory itself, at least as we approach it currently as a species, is indeed one of the mind's functions least trusted to retain integrity and thus could be said to be among the most volatile ones...

Kain

[Kain]

The thing is, if Time happens all at once, on a certain level, we can tap into any one of several different pathways to justify our current state of becoming. I feel that that is essentially it, we can achieve a resonance with a person, or a star or a thing, or a cosmos, or whatever, and then establish a 'root' in it. This may hold for a long long time (across lifetimes), or be more or less mobile. I guess, depending on ones choices one could during a lifetime become the reincarnation of somebody in the deep past that one hadn't been before... it's energy, and it's mobile... That's a good point I think Anibis, and one I was thinking of bringing up myself. It only stands to reason to accept such extra-temporal mobility in this subject, whether taken philosophically or even mathematically (as Time is indeed a dimension, and as such it can be approached spacially if one could be extracted from it's running pattern...an effect that could be argued to occur during the "in-between" state after death and before birth).

Kain

[Anibis]

(as Time is indeed a dimension, and as such it can be approached spacially if one could be extracted from it's running pattern...an effect that could be argued to occur during the "in-between" state after death and before birth).

Kain

Absolutely, and by extension this moment of freedom carries to the nature of existence itself, since death, upon analysis becomes coterminous with life, and we are given a sense of a single serpentine movement which undulates and regenerates, but has no specific location. Where this occurs, in the initiated person, that person gains immediate access to what you excellently described as 'extra-temporal mobility'. Thanks. We are, in a sense reincarnating ALL the time. I could say I was myself in a previous life about fifteen minutes ago... Mind you, we usually like to identify the more dramatic transitions as death/rebirth experiences, grouping 'lifetimes' together, since they are easier to tell the difference between the states, but in reality, I'd say that teh life/death/life transistion is happening all the time. In fact that's what it is is Time... Time is energy and memory, and so we have existential reincarnation! Cheers;
-Anibis

[Kain]

Absolutely, and by extension this moment of freedom carries to the nature of existence itself, since death, upon analysis becomes coterminous with life, and we are given a sense of a single serpentine movement which undulates and regenerates, but has no specific location. Where this occurs, in the initiated person, that person gains immediate access to what you excellently described as 'extra-temporal mobility'. Thanks. We are, in a sense reincarnating ALL the time. I could say I was myself in a previous life about fifteen minutes ago... Mind you, we usually like to identify the more dramatic transitions as death/rebirth experiences, grouping 'lifetimes' together, since they are easier to tell the difference between the states, but in reality, I'd say that teh life/death/life transistion is happening all the time. In fact that's what it is is Time... Time is energy and memory, and so we have existential reincarnation! Cheers;Thanks Anibis, that's a great way to phrase it and I agree completely with what has been said. Also, it is interesting to note here the definition of the Hindu notion of Kala, it being a term synonymous with both Manifestation and Time, and denoting a general movement of things into, through, and eventually out of, existance. So yes, I think it is Time in a sense...and Time could be an equally powerful way to define the manifest state as Differentiation is.

As for the sense of 'a single serpentine movement with no specific location', I think that that's a wonderful way to describe the state of what lies out and beyond the Manifest... Thanks,

Kain

[Okazaki Castle]

Hmm, world souls, interesting: a bit like a Leader role taking the aggregated karma of a particular group and giving it form and expression? I get that... but also feel that there was a specific 'linear progression' also. Linear time and Beyond Time co-existing in the same Space-Time system sort of thing. I tend to trust my past life memories because I remember a fair ammount of detail, and continually meet over and over the same people in different bodies, sure, but with the same characters, same tastes, same occupations and aims - just in a different context.

However, I like the world soul idea, it works well for me here and is a fine strategic move imo :)

As you said, things like this cannot be proven, and so what is true is probably best defined as what works most usefully for us in a given situation.

However, I also think, in terms of karmic tracking and so specific, efficient karmic management, past life accuracy is quite essential. At least, if you want to know what you're doing and why, far as I can figure the processes out. Maybe there are other ways though...

As to why hundreds of people remember themselves as cleopatra, I checked out he same connundrum once and discovered that those at top of pyramid use 'patsies' to take the 'dive' for them in terms of heavy, negative karma. Hence a lot of people actually were Cleopatra in terms of manifesting her soul and karma, but in fact were just patsies. For example, one marked example I found there was Doh who used to be a patsie for Madonna in a previous life. Caused me a fair ammount of confusion in my tracks that one before I sorted out wherre the confusion was coming from...

A few ramblings there I guess...

all the best,
Oazaki.

[m1thr0s]

I'm not so sure I buy the idea of "patsies", but I do think it is possible that the perspectives of cultural leaders (or key historical figures) would in most cases make better memory lenses spanning any given epic in time. This is something of a "kingpin" theory that suggests that collective memory may parallel the "nadis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadis)" in certain ways with trillions of memory strands making up the whole system. Among these, certain strands may tend to be more dominant than others since their actual energy mass is greater. When we lean into these memory periods, the more dominant strands are the easiest to access, their range of perspective being greater to begin with. So it would be a lot easier to identify a well defined character like cleopatra than it would some slave who spent most of his life slapping bricks together from mud. These memories would be more restricted and would not provide us with a very efficient overview of the whole period. It is technically possible to access any of the strands but we would in most cases have a much easier time accessing the more dominant ones.

All just idle speculation at this point, but a fair guess I think nevertheless...

m1thr0s

[Anibis]

The fibres analogy rings very true to me...
-Anibis

[Kain]

I'm not so sure I buy the idea of "patsies", but I do think it is possible that the perspectives of cultural leaders (or key historical figures) would in most cases make better memory lenses spanning any given epic in time. This is something of a "kingpin" theory that suggests that collective memory may parallel the "nadis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadis)" in certain ways with trillions of memory strands making up the whole system. Among these, certain strands may tend to be more dominant than others since their actual energy mass is greater. When we lean into these memory periods, the more dominant strands are the easiest to access, their range of perspective being greater to begin with. So it would be a lot easier to identify a well defined character like cleopatra than it would some slave who spent most of his life slapping bricks together from mud. These memories would be more restricted and would not provide us with a very efficient overview of the whole period. It is technically possible to access any of the strands but we would in most cases have a much easier time accessing the more dominant ones.

All just idle speculation at this point, but a fair guess I think nevertheless...Actually, this is a most interesting approach m1thr0s, I've never thought of collectove Memory in this way but it *does* make a lot of sense I think...

Kain

[Naomi]

To remember, if you can these things:

The darkest moment in your life

The happiest moment of your life

The most peaceful moment of your life

The moment you resided in the state of fury the most in your life.

The most helpless moment in your life.

The most embarassing moment in your life!

The first time you had sex.

The time you felt love at its highest with x peoples.

The first time you felt scared.

The very first memory you can recall, in your life.



Take these one at a time and amplify them times 9....

go mushin (no mind)

For women, let yourself sink into a dark abyss, connected with an watery ocean of memory, for men, view the images from above deep water, lit by twilight skies...

Wait for the images to emerge without judgement, morality, preconditioning or anything except mushin.

research on google.
haha!

[m1thr0s]

Another thing to weigh into the "strand theory" is the gods themselves I think, since many of these have been established as repositories of whole cultural perspectives. It may be that the ancients understood time better than we do today in some ways, since one way of looking at the gods is like major memory hubs, or nodes, through which many people's life experiences have been pooled together...

Consider an archetype like the White Buffalo, for instance...doesn't this essentially act as a carrier for untold generations of Native American Indian's consciousness? So in accessing that archetype, you are also accessing all those memories on some level...all that life-experience coming together in a single archetypal form...

m1thr0s

[MythMath]

Focused Energy...

[Zifiriskenoxa]

Ive had a few dreams that felt like past lives related if I have any at all. But it's like you can tell the difference from other dreams.