'I' A Sutra
‘ I ’
A Sutra
Contents : a detailed explanation
of rebirth and reincarnation
composed by the author in verse
after the format of the Sanskrit sutra ;
a loose collection of lines linked together
and progressing in order of
topical development — from questions,
to axioms, to demonstrated conclusions.
“After your death you will be what you were
before your birth” —Shopenhaur
It is possible to be born
Beings will be born again
I was born as a Being
It is possible for me to be a Being
Beings will be born again
It is possible to be born as a Being again
It is possible for me to be a Being
I was born as a Being
Beings will be born again
-
To say ‘it is possible to be born again as someone else’
is the same as combining the two statements
‘that someone else will be born’
and ‘that it is possible to be born as someone’.
Put another way ,
What proof do I need in order to show it is possible to be born
on a life inhabited planet, if there is already life there?
Only the proof that it is possible to be born as life.
Although this topic is often associated with ideas of the ‘soul’
it is not at all dependent on it.
Before moving on to explore the rest of the topic,
we will examine why the ‘soul’ argument is not relevant,
at least, to our specific question here, as
in both cases we get the same result.
Whether the awakening of a being be caused by soul
or the biology,
more bodies will be born.
In both cases, then,
more lives will emerge.
Our proof that it is possible to be one such life,
imparts a suggestion to this fact
that more lives will emerge.
It implies that (regardless of the spiritual or physical root of selfhood)
selfhood can and in fact does happen many times.
In both cases, that of soul or that of self as biologically emergent,
it is nonetheless possible to be born as life,
and there are many lives.
Moreover,
Regardless of soul or biology as our root,
the birth of a biological body, in both cases, is seen to
coincide with a conscious self and the existence of a living being.
In the largely Christian United States,
on the surface level,
our general cultural conception of the soul, of what the word ‘soul’ means
comes from a mixture
of quips, phrases, and popular interpretations of scripture
that have been commonly spread in American Christian circles.
Some stemming from organizations historically prevalent through
America’s lifetime,
some of older heritage, from the age of Crusades,
as well as some of uniquely modern phenomenon like
TV Evangelism of the 1990’s.
On a deeper level,
much of today’s official Christian doctrine of the soul
begins with Emperor Constantine’s rulings
at the Council of Nicaea, which
in order to form a stable foundation for the Holy Roman Empire,
squashed all the day’s topics of theological debate into one official stance.
There are however, many works on the soul
even among Christian and monotheist sources
in which the conception of soul may surprise the modern
reader to a great degree — as they completely
reframe and supersede our common assumptions
and are often compatible with a scientific understanding of the world.
The various Hebrew words for ‘soul’ translate
to ‘breath’, ‘wind’, and so on.
In The Tanya, an 18th century work of Judaic Mysticism,
the higher soul is said to mix with the physical body
(the animal soul)
in the left ventricle of the heart.
This mixing with the physical blood is elaborated to explain
man’s containing a portion of G-d, and yet having
the YetZer Hara, the evil inclination.
In early western medical textbooks, such as that of the
Roman gladiatorial physician Galen,
the blood is said to mix with oxygen
in the left ventricle of the heart.
In Christianity Restored by Miguel Servetus,
(for which he was persecuted by the Church)
after discovering pulmonary circulation for himself,
with the full force of the ecstasy of this miraculous discovery,
he writes that it is here that the vital spirit,
that is, the energy of G-d,
enters into man, mixing in the heart.
Today we also know of the cells
extraction of energy from food.
(something one might perhaps relate to the tree of knowledge,
as it were).
These concepts represent a synthesis of the biologically
emergent and the immortal soul.
In general,
The truth as to whether or not
the existence of the soul
is (scientifically) factual
depends entirely on the definition of ‘soul’.
If, however, we return
to the image of the soul,
in the traditional definition as
a personal essence which is immortal,
then existence after death is a given—
as the essence of our being remains intact after death.
This has long been proposed by theologians.
If, on the other hand,
soul, consciousness, or subjective being
are emergent properties of nature and biology,
our own life then proves it possible to
experience that emergence directly.
Since more biological bodies,
which produce this emergent consciousness
are born every day,
this possibility to experience one such consciousness directly
combined with the high number of births
suggests that one may experience birth as a being
multiple times.
“And many who sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake”
—Isiah 26:19
It is the nature of our subjectivity
which implies to us that this can not occur,
since in imagining being born as another,
we imagine ourself as someone else,
which we are not,
or try to imagine ourself as not ourself,
which is incomprehensible.
This fact that we are ourself,
rather than suggesting birth (as another) to be an impossibility,
is the very thing which suggests birth as a being is possible.
Paradoxically, it is this exact quality of subjectivity that
can cause us to identify in ourselves
which could cause us to
identify oneself in another at another time.
In the Sanskrit Buddhist sutra from India around 800 CE,
the Bodhicaryavatara, the question is asked
“If sentient beings were like an illusion,
then after they die, how would they be reborn?”
and the answer given:
“As long as the necessary conditions are assembled
[mind, sensory faculties, natural phenomena, etc.]
for that long any illusion will occur.”
In summary this shows that in case of a traditional soul,
we must live on after death as our essence remains intact,
and in case of the self as biologically emergent,
strangely, we too, must now admit to the possibility
of life after death.
In all cases, traditional soul, self as biologically emergent,
and synthesis,
it is nonetheless possible to be born as life,
and there are many lives.
Since everything we have ever experienced or known,
has been through this body and this self,
the correct way to imagine birth as a self,
rather than imagining ourself someone else,
is instead to imagine
the process of our own birth,
and the absolute reality with which we feel
we are this being, the self that coincides with this bodies function.
Similarly will a given birth feel
it is the self which coincides with
its’ body.
Our life has simply shown it possible to be a given birth.
Our life has shown it possible to be born as life.
