Mind Altering Wisdom

‘ 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.

Distant Locations in Space or Distant Planets

Since it is possible to be born as life,

         it is possible to be born in any location,

  as anything, which experiences being to a significant degree.

     This includes planets which may be distant from our own,

          supposing they have life there. 

The figure above depicts Nut, representing the Milky Way 

or Starry Cosmos, and a human soul being brought down to Earth 

through the body of woman via the womb.

A nude man, representing primordial earth, apparently after impregnating a woman,

lay reclining. The woman stands between two anthropomorphic glyphs looking like

rams heads and representing the flow of rivers, a glyph similarly shown 

near the uterus of Nut, likely representing menstruation and natural cycles.

A bird with mans head crosses a river in a boat, representing the soul

crossing from a state of non-life. Nut, a feminine body filled with stars,

represents the Cosmos or Heavens, from which the soul descends to Earth.

Directly under the pelvic

area of Nut, between the two lines, is written something like

“The person from the strange lands of a distant star 

                                         comes to rest here, in the body”. 

Further, beautiful reliefs of Nut (a feminine body, filled with black sky and stars) 

are frequently depicted in coffins or sarcophagi, stretching the 

length of the person, suggesting that death itself is the portal to birth on other worlds.

If it is true that there is life on distant planets,

this combined with the possibility to be born as life

renders one further unique perspective.

Since a distant planet may be far enough 

     for the light viewed from there

   to be, relative to us, back in time

if we imagine a telescope powerful enough to see

    the individual faces of beings living on the surface of the planet 

as if they stood before us,

and we combine this with our previously established possibility 

        to awaken as one such being, or possibility 

        to be born as life

it is then possible that, by staring, back in time, into

the face of one who is now deceased, 

that we may even be staring

   directly into the face of ourselves,

    as a life we lived as them, not us.

The Possible Places of Birth

   The Life of a Butterfly

Since butterflies and horses, when born, arrive at the

            experience of life,

     as their bodies, in functioning, produce it

   and since our life shows it possible to experience

     the output of that functioning directly—as oneself

        it must then be possible to be born as

   all such creatures, as butterflies… and so on.

 That is to say, it is possible for a butterfly to be itself,

  not for a human to be born as a butterfly.

However, our own life, our direct self experience

   informs this being itself 

  that the butterfly embodies.

Our self experience manifests proof that 

  such an occurrence of being itself 

  can be experienced directly.

          “  Little Valley

                    with

            patch of trees

                Butterfly

                 Seeing

           Paradise Garden

              its whole life

               one month ”

—An Interesting Book

Based on this manifest proof of our present self experience,

       we can establish that

It is possible to experience being as any biological body

     which, in its functioning, coincides with such an experience, 

with consciousness, subjective being, 

      or of existing as, etc.

We may attempt to imagine these, rather radically different experiences of

    the lives of animals and so on as a kind of other realm, a realm existing 

    within the same space as our own, while completely invisible to us.

Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok,

  in the early 1900’s,

put forward the theory of the  Umwelt

the idea that organisms, although they share the same environment,

 can have different inner worlds, different Umwelten.

Furthermore, 

In ‘The Secret Oral Teachings 

of Tibetan Buddhist Sects’ it is said

“A man neither feels nor perceives exactly as 

a mosquito or a plant does. A being other than human : 

a God, a Demon or no matter what other being, 

does not perceive as we do. The extent, gradation, the strength, 

the nature of the sensations and the perceptions differ 

according to the constitution of the organ of contact of different beings. 

It follows therefore that which is real, which exists, 

which produces effects for one, does not affect the other, 

has no reality, no existence for him. 

Each sphere, each world, each order of beings 

possesses a Reality of its own because 

it produces effects in this special sphere and for this order of beings.”

Logically, it must be possible to experience being as any body or form

       which coincides with or causes an experience of being.

Anything which is alive enacts its living,

It is possible to live as anything alive,

If a thing is born, it is possible to be born as that thing;

it is possible to be born as anything which is born. 

To say that it is not possible to be born as something which is born,

  can not make sense, because it is in fact born. 

— We also know, the argument that one can not be the one of such a birth directly,

   to be untrue, since we now are alive and are  the one born.

         Why does this, then, seem impossible?

Again, due to the fact that we are presently ourselves, 

when imagining arriving at a state of self-hood again,

we imagine our present self as not our-self,

this is not because arriving at a state of self-hood 

can not happen multiple times,

but because our present self can not be another self

at another time.

It is not another self at another time.

We know, however, for a fact 

that the state of self-hood occurs multiple times

as well as that it is possible to directly be the subject of such self-hood.

            In the case that the soul, self, 

   or consciousness is biologically emergent

  it is impossible, not to be born as what is born, 

but for one present self to be re-embodied as someone else,

because the present self is formed and ends with that biology.

The energy or vitality which once animated that biology, 

     where its uttermost creation lay,

and its aspect in union with the One Universe, may not end, and

           may even be  re-embodied. But in such a case,

         the question for the spiritualist is whether 

one’s personality can be associated with this impersonal enlivening energy

          or survives with the conservation of energy in any significant way. 

For one present self to be born (re-embodied) as another,

 (rather than another to be born as itself)

   the soul must exist in the specific definition of soul 

         as an essence which preserves, after death, 

           a level of personal information significant

            to associate it with one’s own personality. 

In the view that personality of the self, and 

  consciousness, is biologically emergent,

 one present self can not be re-embodied in another

  but one can, after the death and dissolution of any present self,

 be born as a new present self —

 when the processes of biology cause 

   this phenomena of self to emerge

(just as they have in ones present life).

In both cases, a soul preserving one’s personality throughout embodiment, 

or a new personality emergent from the biological body,

experience of existing, consciousness, and selfhood 

are consistently seen to coincide with existence of a biological body.

That is to say, for a soul to be embodied, as well as 

  for a self to emerge from the biological function, both require ‘a body’ to occur.

and

our life proves it possible to directly experience the functions

  of such a body.

In both cases, the biology is consistently seen to coincide with 

   the existence of consciousness and the self.

In both cases, our present life demonstrates it possible to experience 

   the self which coincides with the biology directly (as oneself).

Therefore, in both cases, the high number of births we know of

   suggest a possibility to be born in equivalence with that number. 

The difference being, whether, in the case of

   this particular definition of soul,

they share a marker of the same individuality,

or in case of biological emergence,

 they are two totally unique people

who simply share the fact that, at their respective times,

 they both experience

being themself unto themself.

The atheist still, might consider, 

by extension, in this paradoxical way,

they do share a kind of soul,

the soul which is the self of each’s absolute individuality.

There is in fact a synthesis of the biological vs. encapsulated soul models,

  where the personality is biologically emergent,

  and the biology serves as the conduit for the life-force

 and the living being does possess, in its aspect of union with the One,

  elements of the eternal, which one might call an ‘immortal soul’ in the 

sense that the essence of life, all the energy life works, is not destroyed 

but returns to the One

and yet does not preserve the personality of individuals,

which results from circumstances of the body and environs.

In Chaim Vital’s record

of the his masters teachings, in the section the ‘Gate of Reincarnation’

   when he details five levels of the soul, starting with 

   the lowest which is associated with the biology and physical world, 

   and progressing toward fully revealed, full union with G-d at the level of emanation 

The combinations of which levels of the soul can be 

  reincarnated together is speculated and expounded in the text,

  suffice for them that understand.

“I exist even where no things are left” — Jeru the Damaja

In a state of union, Jeru’s word is manifest. 

In any case

       Our life proves it possible to be born and exist as a self.

It is therefor possible to exist as any body or form

         which coincides with existence of a self, 

          consciousness, or being, and so on. 

If it is possible to experience being as any body or form

       which coincides with an experience of being,

     then the compassion sometimes felt, for example, 

         for mass produced chickens,

    leaves the abstract realm of empathy and

enters into the fearful realm of actual possibility for oneself,

       the realm of direct self-experience.

For this reason, we have a personal and fearful initiative

  to improve our treatment of the animals we keep.

This should come as no surprise, as the flock

  in olden days was like an extension of ones own livelihood, 

  and echoes throughout, not only biblical, but

global religious narrative. 

Keeping animals is a great responsibility, 

   because our life shows us the 

    possibility to be born,

We should be terrified at the prospect

    of keeping animals in inhumane conditions

    as it then becomes a realm of living experience

    which can be arrived at, in fact, which is arrived at,

     the same number of times

    as animals that there are. 

“What man soever… that kill an ox, or lamb, 

   or goat… [without proper observance]

Being as Object or Rarified Forms

Having covered most other states of being, we may now consider

being as Object or other Rarified Forms. 

That is to say, we may ask 

whether or not the existence of material objects also implies

a possibility to exist as material objects.

It has been suggested by some sects of Monotheist Mystics 

that certain material objects, specifically stones, have a soul, 

their own portion of the divine light which makes up all existence,

 suggesting that perhaps even physical bodies, sections of mineral, or other,

   may have a kind of discreet existence unto themselves,

or between themselves and the omnipotence of the Universal Spirit. 

That is, they may exist in a state that is not one of total union,

     in a state of separation and distinction

    or, as with the human self, one of simultaneous union and disunion.

In any case, it is reasonably sure that physical objects, growths of mineral, and other

similar existents do exist. 

One may then wonder if since they exist, they are existed as;

and if existed as, they can be (in fact must be) existed as

One may consider, whether a stone’s state of separation only appears

    to us by our own eye’s level of magnification and detail,

   or perhaps if its’ state of separation is indicative of some inherent physical property

     like the sharing of electrons by atoms in the stone, which comes with  

           some tangible boundary where sharing ends.

If a soul is a portion of G-ds light which makes up all in existence,

   then indeed, a stone has a soul, 

(a portion of that which makes up the universe). 

“I am the Light, As a rock—L , Y;  L,  Y , T , E”  - Mc Lyte ‘Lyte As A Rock’ 

*Footnote 1: Refer to Eihei Dogen’s ‘Mountains and Waters Sutra’

for a masterful exploration of this topic.

To consider this further, we can take for example a bench made of concrete.

 Concrete is a man-made, fluid formula, mixed with many small stones 

   which hardens like one large stone.

We may ask, does the bench, of hardened formula and many small stones

   have just one soul?

             or

does it have a soul for each of the stones and one for the concrete bench

                 which appears like one large stone?

    Somehow, we must reason that each stone has its own soul,

 and that the concrete bench does not have its own soul, but only appears to,

 because of the remnants of the human soul imprinted upon it 

in the act of working it into a bench. 

Excerpt; Mountains and Waters Sutra: 

“Mountains and waters right now are the actualization of the ancient buddha

way. Each, abiding in its phenomenal expression, realizes completeness.

Because mountains and waters have been active sine before the Empty Eon,

they are alive in this moment. Because they have been the self since 

before form arose, they are emancipation-realization.

Priest Daokai of Mt. Furong said to the assembly, “The green mountains

are always walking; a stone woman gives birth to a child at night.”

Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains. Therefore they always

abide in ease and always walk. You should examine in detail this quality

of mountains walking. Mountains walking is just like human walking.

Accordingly, do not doubt mountains walking even though it does not look

the same as human walking… you should penetrate these words…

…Green mountains are neither sentient nor insentient. You are neither

sentient nor insentient. At this moment, you cannot doubt

 the green mountains walking. You should study the green mountains,

using numerous worlds as your standards. You should clearly examine

the green mountains walking and your own walking. You should also examine 

walking backward and backward walking, and investigate the fact that

walking forward and backward has never stopped 

since the very moment before form arose, 

since the time of the King of the Empty Eon. 

If walking stops, buddha ancestors do not appear. If walking ends, 

the buddha-dharma cannot reach the present. Walking forward

does not cease, walking backward does not cease…

This is called the mountains’ flow and the flowing mountains…

these activities are a mountain’s practice.

… there is a moment when a mountain gives birth to

a mountain child. Because mountains are buddha ancestors,

buddha ancestors appear in this way. 

… there are male stones, female stones, and nonmale nonfemale stones.

They are placed in the sky [asteroids, stars, planets, and the like]

and in the earth and are called heavenly stones and earthly stones.

These are explained in the ordinary world, but not many people

actually know about it.” — Master Dogen (1200-1270 CE, Japan).

If evidence should come forward in future

that some objects, planets, or suns

are alive, as heretical as it appears,

one would have to assume it possible to arrive in that state.

Recent evidence has suggested that plants are not only alive

but both feel and communicate (and may even have a form 

of sight through their leaves interception of reflected light).

In any case,

this would, in theory, also include ethereal or as of yet undiscovered

    categories of being, such as higher dimensional states of being,

states of being in Universes which exist in inaccessible dimensions,

states of being in Universes which are constructed out of inaccessible parts or of alternate foundational mathematics, and so on, as well as more immediately present things

such as space, which, like stones, is worthwhile to investigate as an existent, or Angelic beings (supposing they exist), such    as those mentioned biblically 

and described in the Babylonian Talmud,

 the Chayyoth, as 600 days journey from the sole of its 

foot to its ankle, and 600 times that from its ankle to knee, 

   and 600 times that from knee to waist, 600 times that

from waist to shoulder, and 600 times that from shoulder to the crown of their head

   and this being said to show that their bodies fully outstretched still

        do not reach the base of Gods Throne. 

     See the later section, Classification of Beings

        for a full enumeration of possible types.

The Possible Places of Birth

Distant Locations in Time ; Future, Past

 If it is indeed so that birth into being may occur a number of times,

 then one wonders whether, in a birth-to-come, 

 one might also awaken as a being at a distant location in time.

Since we know that ‘it is possible to be born as some being’,

   then that ‘one may be born at distant locations in time’

    is the same as the claim that

‘some beings will be born at distant locations in time’.

Regarding the claim that ‘some beings will be born at distant locations in time’

   we have ample evidence to suggest such is likely to occur. 

Since it is possible to experience a biologically produced self directly 

           as being you,

  if self’s will exist in the future with the biological bodies birthed there, 

     it is then possible to be born in the future. 

Just as our distant ancestors 

could not exist in the far future, 

   yet we do exist there,

so ‘I’ will exist in our far future— if life continues. 

Our ancestors could not experience the future as oneself,

   but as oneself the future is experienced. 

This possibility of being born into the future is astonishing,

      and perhaps even more astonishing, 

   are the possibilities of birth in the past. 

Since beings were born in the past, which is to say

   beings are born in the present of the past

it is therefore possible to be born in the past.

Even if, due to entropy, that past no longer exists in our present,

   that past is still a location where consciousness-producing

     biology exists. 

Even if, due to entropy, one birth technically, to a third party

   objective view, comes after another, causing the first

      to no longer exist (having dissipated from entropy)

          still, that place does exist for a time as the system passes through that state.

Relative to each other in their life and death,

    those two births have no sequence.

I.E. if when living as the first birth you die,

   then as entropy brings into existence

 the state of the world at the second birth,

     then lived after the first,

 the experience of the person of the first birth

and the experience of the person of the second birth

     are lived independently in their present

   therefore, in context of direct subjective experience,

     to the liver of the lives,

     one is not born in sequence after the other.

(However, in causal, historical purposes, 

   their sequence may be tangible)

It is therefor possible to be born in locations

  in the past at the time that the systems state

    results in subjective being or life. 

               REDACTED 

[Suffice, for the believer, the factual occurrence of many lives

  at all locations in time, as proof of such a possibility]

“I appear everywhere and nowhere at once…” 

 — KRS-One ‘Step  into a World’

Consequences and Karma, 

God’s Law and The Golden Rule:

Mizpah, The Two Camps

The existence of conscious self’s at various locations in space and time

  not only impacts the possible locations where birth may occur,

     but also impacts the lives of those born around and after them, 

       as their actions make up the creation of the past

           or history of those individuals. 

 Although, in the modern atheist’s view,

   one’s life now and another life lived as oneself

   may not be connected by sharing a ‘soul’ or essence

    which makes them two incarnations of the same person,

       One life and another may still be connected in a 

causal chain, by the consequences of actions ,

   when actions carried out during one life 

        effects or impacts the other life. 

As an example of one life and another being connected

  by the consequences of actions

Let’s take a powerful man who creates a slave trade.

   This man has caused a large number of beings born in the future

     to awaken born into the condition of being a slave.

Surely, this man has not directly enslaved himself,

    he has enslaved other selves. 

However, his own life demonstrates to him

  that he may awaken as the self produced

  by any biological, self-producing, body. 

   Which body becomes marked,

 through direct experience of its function,

as himself , is entirely outside of the control

      of his present self. 

   Therefor by creating a slave trade,

he greatly increases the chances that he will

     one day be born into slavery. 

“Even having become a universal monarch, 

    In the course of the cycles of aeons 

    he also becomes a servant.” 

—The Suhrllekha 

(Nagarjuna’s  ‘Letter to a Friend’)

Not only do negative or harmful acts, which lower the state

    of the world and cause a higher number of beings 

       to be born into poor circumstances,

  have the potential to effect the lives of the future,

and therefor the direct experience of any self there

                              but also

    acts of neutral or unknown effect, and acts of good

 which raise the state of the world, and cause improvement 

     of circumstances in the lives of others.

This is true of all history in general. 

     A good example of a powerful impact 

can be seen in the telegraph, transistor, or radio. 

The world we were born into, arrived at, was fundamentally altered

    by the dreams, and lives, of the creators of these technologies. 

How much more so for the contributors to

language, mathematics, religion, and wisdom

How much more so for a charity or organization

       that saves even a single life—

    A life, which is connected to so many other lives :

      two parents, siblings, children, 

            friends, community, passersby,

         offspring and the connections of offspring,

              and so on exponentially.

    All lives which, themselves, may go on to save lives,

    may invent the next great medical cure or transistor,

 may go on to fundamentally alter the state of tomorrows world.

And, above all else, a life which, 

 in its’ inner world, is self-validating,

   the very same internal validation which we, as a self, manifest—

  an inherent right-to-live as it were, impossible to estimate in value. 

To better understand this aspect of rebirth, its relation to action and history

    we can investigate how history or pre-set

 circumstances function in the life of the individual.

“Have they not travelled throughout the land

to see what was the end of those before them?”. — Quran; Ar-Rum 30:9

  History can be defined as the situation

at a prior point in the timeline of a system. 

      This situation, can guide or define

 the parameters of the systems eventuality. 

  For example, the starting point and volume 

of a river can determine how far 

the river can ever wander from

     that starting point. 

Or, a person who builds a road, 

   increases the likelihood

   that people will walk 

 down that path in the future. 

In the case of the system that is human civilization,

     History is the situation we are born into.

 Whether we arrive into a war-torn land amid a famine

or a peaceful nation where 

community members live in equity and esteem,

with free exchange of products and ideas, a place of high culture—

may often depend on the lives who came before us, the past lives. 

That is, the state of the world we arrive at depend on lives who came before,

     however, we begin shaping this world from the moment we arrive,

     we, in fact, are ‘the lives who came before’ of those in our future.

This is where the previously discussed possibility to be born in the future

   and possibility to be born in the past takes on a new importance

A person who does good deeds, causes a good deed to be done

        in the life of a given self.

Since we have shown it possible to be born as a given self,

   this person increases the chance that a good deed will be done 

        to them as another self. 

A person who improves the condition of lives in this world,

    greatly increases the chance that a life born into will 

   arrive at a world which is in a more positive condition. 

In this way, the domino effect can be practically applied

   to improve one’s condition in general. 

“This World is ours, that’s why the demons are leery,

    it’s our inheritance…” 

     — GURU of GangStarr’s ‘Robin Hood Theory’.

“It is Allah Who created you, then gives you provisions, 

then will cause you to die, and then will bring you back to life…

Corruption has spread on the land and sea as a result

of what people’s hands have done, so that Allah may

cause them to taste some of their deeds and 

perhaps they might return [to the Right Path]”. —Quran; Ar -Rum 30:40

In the Egyptian Reliefs depicting what has been deemed

‘The Book of The Dead’ a monstrous combination of

the most feared Earthly predators, that which swallows whole

rabbits, birds, and men—crocodiles, cheetahs,  and so on,

 a synthesis of hieroglyphs such as Sobek, the crocodile, 

a symbol of ravenous looting, copulating, consuming,

 stands as the symbol for the ‘divine justice’ which occurs 

 when the heart of the dead person is weighed against a feather, 

the symbol for the truth, and found wanton. 

Such a weighing represents the truth about the deeds of their life,

 and divine justice is said to inescapably occur in the next life.

Footnote: Many further connections support this association 

                 with Egyptian resurrection spells and possess a

                 general value relating to our topics,

                 such as the association of Jesus with the shepherd,

                  a symbol of Osiris, the crook and flail,

                or that of the fig tree, a symbol for Nut, representing

                a birth from the Cosmos, Heavens, or Milky Way.

There are many lives

   (many lives, of which we have shown, 

    via our life now, it possible to live directly).

Because of this relation of action and circumstances

  and because of the non-temporal quality of birth

  or otherwise the births which occurred in the past

We are ourselves responsible for much of our own

  circumstances.

In a paradoxical way, by not being the one who committed these actions

    we become the one who committed these actions

    and are responsible for much of the events which happen to us.

In reverse, the actions we visit on others become,

    by this possibility to  experience selfhood,

   actions visited on ourselves, 

    by not ourselves. 

Because of this relation of history, our role through action,

   and these qualities of time and birth

It is up to us whether or not we cause the creation of

   a living Hell, or a living Paradise.

“And many of those who sleep 

in the dust of the Earth shall awake, 

some to everlasting life, 

Mizpah, The Two Camps

Passive Reaction

    This relationship of action and circumstances 

can be used to improve the world and the quality of our own life 

  not only through active action but also through passive reaction.

      By a new kind of seeing ourself in others,

one grounded in fact and reality through the logic above,

  we can begin to change our understanding of self and other.

Through this change, we can begin to see any harm 

      caused to us from a new perspective. 

Since one guaranteed control, over harm done to us

      is in our reaction to it,

and since a majority of the worldly impact of an event

consists in the many people it reaches through us,

    when we react negatively to it, 

(rather than in the events immediate interaction between the two) ,

  we can choose to limit the karma of a negative event

   by reacting to it in as positive a manner as possible. 

Otherwise, this harmful event spirals, freely through us,

     into the rest of the Universe. 

Consequences and Law

Mizpah, The Two Camps

Learning and Spirituality

      This idea, understanding the possibility of birth,

 connects us to the lives and actions of others paradoxically

 through the very separateness and self-hood each of us feel. 

  The tangibility of our identity to us, is exactly the feature that

   can cause identification in any other given biological body,

a feature which connects our actions toward others directly to ourselves. 

Incorporating this eccentric connection 

into the concept of learning and spirituality,

   this connection allows us to accept teachings 

        and authentic spiritual lineages,

 not as mere disciples, but as if it were us who taught these concepts

        for the betterment of ourselves. 

The Two Camps

Jegar-Sahadutha; The Heap of Witness

Judgement and Justice

Because of our knowledge of the harm done to us by others,

and because of this new view of self in other and other in self,

we should be repulsed by the idea of harming someone.

In fact, we should greatly fear it,

  as we would fear a tidal wave 

  about to swallow our entire city

  or a black hole about to swallow our world,

for it is in harming someone once, 

that our link in a series of single actions 

stretching on for an eternity goes unchecked,

and an eternity of harm is completed. 

Because of our knowledge of the harm done to others by us,

with this view of other in self and self in other,

we should show great mercy in judgement and justice 

  on those who do harm us. 

Let us take for example

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”,

    for, any person upon being stoned, will beg and plead;

   but only by realizing the self in the other

 can one comprehend their plea beyond empathy, in directness,

      as it in fact issues, directly, from themself within.

 The mind that comprehends the complex truth on this subject

  recognizes themself in the woman who is to be stoned.

      Whether parable or record,

 this question ingeniously revealed to the members of the crowd 

   themselves in the position of the woman,

    as in fact, they were all along. 

Since it is possible to be born as life,

     to be the self which is produced by the biology,

     it is then possible to be born as a self which is produced by biology. 

Since there are many self’s continually produced 

   as new bodies are born, it is not only compassionate to 

          consider ‘The Golden Rule’, 

    to treat others how one would be treated,

   but is also logical and of direct self-interest.

That is, just as the practical person saves money for a later time, 

so one who wishes to prepare for the next life may do so

in a practical manner, by improving the state of the future world.

Not only is ‘The Golden Rule’ logical and of self-interest,

but is written directly into the fabric of creation.

This ancient mandate of Law is in fact written 

   into the very fabric of creation

  by the fact that many self’s are born, 

existing simultaneously, 

and by the fact that we do certainly experience 

   a portion of these self’s to be us.

We experience a portion of these self’s to be us, however,

portion by portion, the infinite is made up.

 (In Xeno’s Paradox, the idea is put forward 

  that if we divide the distance an arrow travels

  and then we divide that half portion again, and that again,

  and so on continuously, then 

  the arrow must travel an infinite distance

  to strike the mark. )

As these laws are written into the very fabric of creation,

manifest in creation as what Is, one can see a clear connection

to G-d’s communication of these commandments to Moses

and his appearance before him as Am-ness or Is-ness on Sinai. 

That is, G-d said to Moses on Sinai, in answer to giving him his name,

   what is often translated as “ I am what I am”

  which, in Hebrew one might translate as “I am I am” or “I is what is”,

  “I am is” or “I am what it is to exist”. That is to say, a succinct phrase

   expressing G-d as all which exists and all which is beyond what exists—

   for creation, is exactly that: Is-ness, Am-ness, etc. 

   And even that which is beyond material creation could be said to exist

   by the light of G-d or in its’ union with G-d. 

Reviewing the Ten Primary commandments

delivered at Sinai, we see that each and every one

is based on this truth of equal entitlement between two or more beings,

and one can say G-d has made it so in the sense that in the manifestation of this world,

it is also true of natural facts — in the nature of subjectivity, 

in the nature of self and other, and their fluidity, which we have explored. 

We experience a portion of these self’s to be us, however,

portion by portion, the infinite is made up.

 In Xeno’s Paradox, the idea is put forward 

  that if we divide the distance an arrow travels

  and then we divide that half portion again, and that again,

  and so on continuously, then 

  the arrow must travel an infinite distance

  to strike the mark. 

We should consider a self both as us,

      and not us.

Since we experience a self; in judgement,

we should consider it as us. 

Seeing that it is possible to be us, 

   or that we be it,

and is in fact ourself in form of itself,

just as we are itself in form of ourself. 

“When fear and suffering are disliked by me and others

equally, what is so special about me that I protect myself and not the other?

If I give them no protection because their suffering does 

not afflict me, why do I protect my body against 

future suffering when it does not afflict me?

The notion ‘it is the same me even then’ is a false construction…

If you think that it is for the person who has the pain

to guard against it, a pain in the foot is not of the hand, so why

is the one protected by the other?” 

— Bodhicaryavatara Perfection of Meditative Absorption line 95

       These self’s, 

 each causing an illusion of separation and plurality

 out of the substance of the One Unity,

 enact the birth, life-story, selfhood,

 and absoluteness of their own existence,

     and assert

 the privacy of their subjectivity to be unmatched, 

  simultaneously.

We both are and are not,

self is and is not other,

other is and is not self,

The best way to comprehend this truth,

rather than imagining ourselves born as someone else,

is 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 functioning.

Similarly will a given birth feel itself 

to be the self which coincides with 

    its body.

Our life has simply shown it possible to be  a given birth. 

“Through habituation there is the understanding of ‘I’

 regarding the drops of sperm and blood of two other people…

Why can I not also accept another’s body as my self in the same way,

since the otherness of my own body is so easy to accept?”

— Bodhicaryavatara The Perfection of Meditative Absorption Line 111

Since it is possible to be born anywhere there is organic material

      which produces an experience of life

 (or anywhere there is self, soul, or being of any kind)

     it is possible to be born on distant planets,

     if there  is life there.

And since it is possible to be born on distant planets,

     this benefit of ethical action extends to distant planets,

 (or anywhere there is self, soul, or being of any kind).

This may serve as a intimately personal motive for lawful behavior

    should we ever encounter life outside of Earth.

    And should they be intelligent and logical,

    this natural fact, the fact of the potential of arriving at being,

   may serve as an impetus for their reciprocation of 

      mutually beneficial behavior. 

Consequences and Law

Jegar-Sahadutha —The Heap of Witness

The Location of The Garden of Eden,

  Paradise, and Pure Land

    Since it has been shown possible to be born or arrive at

any body or form which can be existed as or which is experienced 

Any such Paradise-like states, Pure Lands, and Edens

  which do exist, particularly ones which are inhabited

by living beings, must be locations in which

a state of life is arrived at — the same number of times

as living beings which exist there.

While there are some distinctions in the specifics

between Buddhist Pure Land, Eden, and the many other

cultural conceptions of Paradise realms, 

and they may even possess varying 

psychological associations of some importance,

the point that any such existing, inhabited states are states one can 

arrive in, is of more importance than any such distinctions 

 or semantics.

Eden, however, refers specifically to such a state

which once existed on Earth

    For the metaphysician there are two forms of such an Eden, 

      the Earthen and the Spiritual.

The Earthen Eden is a theoretical time

in the history of humanity, 

 existing in the distant past

at the time before men wore animal skins

  and fabrics, and before they had knowledge

of the other insofar as knowledge of the other

causes an awareness of their gaze, portrayed

as conscientiousness at ones nudity,

and manifesting in a primal innocence 

outside knowledge of right and wrong. 

It is also said that this is before 

men constructed shelters 

  or possessed other markers of 

  complex civic and economic function, 

  living off the land in a state of nature.

The Spiritual Eden can not be located

by coordinates relevant to the human form

and represents a meta-physical state of humanity 

or a personal internal spiritual state.

The Spiritual and Earthen Edens are

said to have been united on Earth 

during the time of the first men. 

Were it possible to be born in the past,

as evidence seems to suggest,

it would then be possible to be born in the Earthen Gan Eden.

Consequences and Law

The Balance of Deeds

The Possible Existence of Heavens and Hells

Since it has been shown

by the miracle of our own life

that one may arrive in a realm 

from a state of naught,

or in very least, from what becomes forgotten,

then, supposing hellish or heavenly experiences

do exist somewhere,

it must then be plausible for one,

just as one arrived from naught into this life now,

to arrive in a form of Hell or Gehennom (God forbid), a Heaven,

(or Pure Land or Eden-like realm, 

     as previously considered).

There are two distinct kinds of Heaven 

and Hell-like realms which

our previously investigated theory would imply

have a real and actual likelihood to exist in the Universe.

The first is a world (often associated with the phrase)

 which transcends in some way the Earthen,

this may be by subsisting in a higher dimensional condition

(above 3 spacial dimensions and time)

or some other transcendent condition 

as of yet unimagined by the human mind,

which nonetheless, could be every bit as likely

to exist as our life now, which was also unimagined

by us before we arrived fully immersed in it.

For one example of such a condition,

we could consider an alternate Universe

 in Mathematical Multiverse Theory,

  in which foundational mathematics go through

a kind of evolutionary process, simultaneously

 causing our own Universe and many others

in which the mathematical ground is so

altered that they would function radically outside 

of what one has previously imagined.

The second kind of Heaven or Hell

exists in a much more grounded, naturalistic way,

in the sense that  it requires 

nothing we do not already know 

for certain to exist here on Earth. 

Since we have previously established

the possibility (in theory) for a perpetual

series of lives,

This Hell/Gehennom (may) exist as the birth,

again and again as beings which,

due to the actions of others in past lives (history)

experience nothing but suffering.

For example, the child born in 

a city being bombed, and

the newborn animal in a forest fire.

May the Most High show mercy upon them.

This is why, the potential to be born,

combined with the historicity of various lives,

makes human action so crucial —

the absoluteness of our own individuality

paradoxically renders us,

in a parallel iteration,

as the other visited by 

 our very own action,

the selfhood manifest in the nature of our form,

 stands as the proof

of this fact,

that we both are and are not

responsible for the creation of our own

Heavens and Hells.

In the same way, a Paradise,

a perpetual series of lives

with very little suffering, could,

in the reality of our basic animal realm,

(without anything extra-natural)

occur.

However, if the inhabitants

actions do not match

the Heavenly state of life,

but rather cause suffering to others—

their perpetual Heaven will deteriorate

by their very own hand.

The parable of Eden, as it were.

Interestingly, because of the possibility

(now established mathematically by

   portions of the Jacob’s Ladder equations)

  to be born in the past, and because of the

cyclical and infinite nature of such a course,

we each have the perpetual opportunity to

improve the state of the world, giving us,

indeed all humanity, a limited, but perpetual

(in being cyclical) amount of time; a continuous 

amount of time, to perfect the world unto 

       the creation of Paradise.

To reiterate:

There are two types of Heavens and Hells,

now that we have made clear 

all other implications of this theory,

we can consider them, 

for without them, 

this portion simply won’t be intelligible.

The first type, is a more ‘traditionalist’

form. For it is merely an existence of a physical 

or extra-physical realm, where, just as

one can go from non-existence to life

(birth) here— one could too, be ‘born’, so to say, there.

The second type is a more naturalized, perhaps,

or rather, more certain to exist, form.

In this form, the “potentially perpetual

series of lives” previously considered above,

could create a Paradise through

 the birth could be a butterfly

floating about a paradise garden

dying after a life of little suffering,

followed by birth in an idyllic pasture community,

and so on.

Such a chain of lives would constitute

a naturalized, real, indefinite Heaven—

inescapable, but not unalterable.

By improving conditions for all beings

on Earth, one increases the chances

of such a Paradise.

Now, since, as we have shown,

the number of births is (potentially) indefinite,

even if the total number of lives is finite,

this then, in a way, could cause the ‘scientific’,

as they say in our age, reality of an eternal realm. 

It is a wonder of mercy, that wisdom not only 

leads to righteousness, but also that 

even in the utmost state of suffering,

the wise person, knowing they suffer 

for doing right, knowing that between them

and the Universal tally they have no guilt before which

to hide their face, the Person of Wisdom does not enter through

suffering into Hell but into a Heaven. 

Although one should not need to suffer,

this is the essential quality of the Martyr,

and of the Christian parable.

It is a terrible thing to suffer,

but it is worse to suffer and know it is deserved. 

In the Naranda Purana, the portion named Yama’s Abode, it is said:

“Yama’s abode is very far away. Those who have accumulated 

punya have nothing to fear there. But the sinners have 

every reason to be scared. The righteous enjoy the trip 

to Yama’s abode, but the sinners suffer a lot.

…The righteous have no cause to fear the journey. 

They travel in great comfort. Those who have donated food 

get delicious meals along the way. Those who have donated 

water slake their thirst with condensed milk. Those who have 

donated clothes get wonderful clothes to wear. Those who have 

donated land or houses do not have to walk at all. ”

The main distinction between what we have designated

as Edens or Pure Lands and Heaven or Hell and Gehinnom realms

is that while life span in a Pure Land, Eden, or Gehinnom may be myriad eons,

it occurs for a limited number of time, where as the Heaven or Hell realms

are potentially infinite either through the perpetual

series of lives discussed in the ‘Birth at Distant Locations’ section

or by some other transcendent quality, such as higher dimensional states

or alternate laws of physics, various other qualities of

higher spiritual realms, and so on.

This is the beauty of creation, not unlike the conservation

of energy, this Karma, the sum of deeds, creating the balance between Paradise and Gehennom,

Heaven and Hell, the likelihood of a good or bad

rebirth directly determined by the balance of deeds.

“See, I have set before thee this day

Finding Peace and Changes 

in Contemporary After-Death Paradigm

Lastly, because we can see it is possible to be born, 

  and many more life’s are likely to be born in the future,

  nothingness may not follow death, 

as is assumed in the modern scientific-atheist’s view,

  But rather a potentially perpetual series of lives and realms.

This concept of the many realms and orders of beings,

  combined with the high number of births and

  the possibility of being born; I.E.

  combined with the natural possibility for reincarnation

  points to a new understanding and image of 

  death and its effects. 

In contemporary thought, particularly of the scientific-agnostic,

   it is considered that death, by ceasing all sensation and thought,

   by ending all experience, can only be imagined as the opposite

   of experience, as a great nothingness, as timeless non-experience.

The potentially perpetual series of lives

 indicated by the many births, and by our 

present incarnation’s demonstration 

       that we can be born,

suggests that the blissful nothingness 

      imagined after death

may not exist there, or at least ,

is less likely to occur there than believed

in contemporary, atheistic, or scientific thought. 

Funny enough, it is this very scientific thought, 

 which pictures the inner self

  to be an emergent property of the biology, 

  and biology an emergent property of Nature,

which unifies us with a World which produces many births. 

And it is our own self-experience 

which unifies us with the potential 

to experience the emergence of self 

that takes place with those many births.

Because it is possible to be born,

and because there are so many births,

nothingness is unlikely to follow death,

but rather a potentially perpetual series of lives.

Because of this potentially perpetual series of lives,

the peace of blissful nothingness is unlikely

to follow death, but, rather, more life.

If the peace of non-existence does not follow death,

but more life, then we can only be certain to have peace

  in life, in a given incarnation.

Although not true in a pure sense without alternative,

    there is a sense in which, 

  within these many incarnations,

each life will only be composed of present moments. 

     In this sense, if we fail to take peace in the present moment, 

  we have failed to take peace.

We have no guarantee we will succeed later.

Conversely,

since, with many incarnations,

each life will be composed only of present moments 

     if we achieve peace in the present moment, 

  at that moment,

we have peace across all lives.  

In this sense,

a moment of Peace

is worth a lifetime of suffering

and is a (higher dimensional)

Paradise unto itself.

Such moments should be promoted

  for others

 and sought by us at every step.

Conclusion

    We have covered, in the lines above,

    birth, rebirth, reincarnation, or resurrection,

   through multiple births as unique individuals,

    the possibility to be born as any being

    which experiences a state of being,

    the possibility to be incarnated as physical objects

   or other rarified existents, the possibility

   to be born at great distances in space and time

   the possibility, if viewing ‘past’ light through

a high power telescope, to look directly into the face of a past life,

 the non-linear, atemporal, nature of self-existence

and its effect on karma through the creation of history

and enactment of deeds in life,

the law as fact, as part of nature, as written 

into the fabric of creation, a refreshed mandate

for the golden rule, the illusion and reality of self,

the simultaneous separation and total union of self, 

the law of the golden rule as applicable to non-human, alien,

animal, and discrete or rarified lifeforms, 

the existence of many realms, the potential

for a lengthy or perpetual chain of lives,

the changes to our present scientific paradigm

in regard to our view of death, non-existence, and timeless peace,

and the results for a peace which is experienced

in each and every lived experience, throughout all our lives.

Mathematics

Jacob’s Ladder:

Calculating the Probability

of Incarnation

i : The Totala number of Lives in the Universe

j : The Total number of States it is possible

       to Exist As  Over a Period of Time

I: Total number of Lives and States possible to Exist As

J: Total number of States in the Universe

i / j =  probability of incarnation

              (subjective)

I / J= probability of incarnation

              (objective)

where j = 1, j = i, Probability = 1 or %100

where j = i, Probability = 1 or %100

where j = 0, i = 0, Probability = 0 

where i = 0, use objective where I = i + j

Probability is further restricted by calculus of

Total Number of Lives at tn and various other time and entropy considerations

i / j t1

   i / j t2 

      i / j t3… 

The difference between subjective and objective being

primarily that if a state cannot be existed as, such a state

cannot qualify as one which takes up time while existing

in that state. If therefor, a state cannot be existed as, it can not

effect the time between incarnations. In such a case, these states

are not arrived at for a time but passed over, immediately

to lives or states which can be existed as. This, then, does not

effect the likelihood that the next experienced state will be

a state of experience. On the other hand, if a state may be 

existed as, it could also qualify as a life or incarnation in that sense,

(as a material or rarefied existent) complicating calculation further. 

The objective looks purely at the difference in number of states versus the number

of states with an experience of existence, while the subjective is more accurate

and may itself include the objective depending on how material states

are considered or, more accurately, what turns out to be true of material states.

Essentially, these forms become necessary because we consider things such as material which is conscious or has a soul, fields which are conscious or have a soul, and so on.

To clearer illustrate this consider for example that, in the subjective form, 

j cannot be less than i, as any life automatically qualifies as a state existed as. 

Whereas, conversely, there may be states existed as, such as stones or fields,

which are not lives (this represents the case where j is larger than i). 

In such cases, where there are 

existences which are not also lives (where we wish to set i to 1, or j larger than i) 

we can use the objective form so that, for example, if there are 500 states

existed as but only 1 life, we then take 501/[some larger number of total states].

Additionally, even where there are fields or material states existed as,

the subjective can function to include them, so long as j is not less than i ,

because we consider that a conscious or soul endowed state which

one exists as is a form of life, so that i is at least equal to j;

and we may also find, that j is at least equal to i, this is because, again,

of the logic that a state not existed as cannot be a state arrived at, taking up time, so that

any states not existed as will not be experienced, will not cause an experience of time

in-between experiences of consciousness, and then, in this way, will not effect the probability

that the next state arrived at is a conscious or soul endowed one. Essentially,

it becomes a question of relevance, thus requiring the objective and subjective forms. 

Mathematics

Jacob’s Ladder:

Probability of Human Birth / 

Buddhist Proverb of the Turtle

There is a classic Buddhist proverb which says that the likelihood of being incarnated in a human birth is the same as the likelihood of a Turtle sticking its head out of the water and coming up through a log with a hole in it. Using our equation and working backwards,

Earth’s Oceans have 333.42 million km squared surface area. If a log with half meter hole is on that surface the probability of coming up in that section is 1/6,668,400,000,000,000 

Human population is over 8 billion, meaning for this estimate to be accurate there would need to be 6.6684^11 non human beings for every human or 5.33472^20 non human beings (either total or on Earth depending on what the proverb refers to). 

Estimates for bacteria alone are around 5x10^30 to 13x10^35. Estimates for the number of species on Earth are between 8.7^6 and 10^12. If the species which have very few and the ones which have a very great number average to between 10^8 and 10^14 (which is exactly in the range we’d expect) then this proverb is extraordinarily accurate.

Considering the mathematical renaissance which occurred in India, and the large kingdoms which had census statistics and accurate maps, it’s plausible that this proverb was based on some real math estimate in the same manner as our formula here. In any case, it’s fascinating how accurate this proverb turns out to be. 

Class D — Dimensions

1b. Beings which bodily existence

        occurs in four dimensions

    (three directional dimensions + time)

1a. Beings which perception occurs

      in four dimensions

     (three directional dimensions + time)

2b. Bodily existence in one direction + time

2a. Perception in one direction + time

3b. Bodily existence in one, two, or three 

       unknown dimensions

3a. Perception in one, two or three

       unknown dimensions

4b. Bodily existence in-between dimensions

4a. Perception in-between dimensions

5b. Bodily existence In five dimensions

5a. Perception in-between dimensions

6, 7, 8, 9, and higher a’s and b’s; etc.

7ca. Perception without dimensions

7cb. Bodily existence without dimensions

Class S — Size

(may include unit and # or multiplication of)

1. Less than Planck length

2. Smaller than cellular

3. Cellular

4. Multi-cellular

5. Roughly Planetary

6. Larger than Planetary

7. Roughly Size of Milky Way

8. Size of Known Universe

9. Beyond Size of Universe

Other Keys —

( ). Classifications in ( ) represent

   possible but unknown qualities of a being

— . Dashes represent individual specs in the same category

… . Dots represent all specs in between those two numbers

#x. Rough multiplication of some number times the spec

Mathematics

The Balance of Deeds:

Calculating Passive Good

BASE FORM

(Total potential     -    (Actual Harm)

       Harm       )

FORM 2

 Total elapsed 

potential Harm / Elapsed Time = Passive Good Average

(Likely Lifespan / Elapsed Time) x (Passive Good Average) = Likely Passive Good

The Balance of Deeds:

The most basic calculations of The Balance of Deeds, while simple, still yield extraordinarily pertinent results. Let us assume a person makes 100 choices per day involving another person which are consequential, in a year they will make 36,000. Now we will consider one such choice. (This choice can be a passive refrain, or active). If a given choice impacts one person immediately, and the person impacted will go on to make contact with 5 others (5 contacts which are directly influenced by the first action, as more likely they will contact 100-1000, in general, that day), and those 5 each make contact with 5 others, and so on, then for a population of 8 billion people (assuming 5 influenced impacts per day) the number of contacts will match the number for the entire human race in less than 15 days.

That is, 8 billion [influenced] contacts will be made in under 15 days. Since the same individual can be impacted twice, rather than spreading to every single individual of the population, it rather makes influence even more significant. This is because the social environment functions as a potent feedback loop, in which, an incident of bad mood, lets say, simultaneously propagates to new groups and sections of the populace while also returning back to its point of genesis multiple times before terminating. 

Generative Carrier      —>       Self      —>   Other       —>    Group 2 Others: A B C D  E

                                                                            AA  BB CC   DD EE : Group 3A Others

                                 Group 4A Others: AAA BBB CCC DDD EEE

This quality of the social environment, that of magnifying the seemingly minute, and of functioning as a potent feedback loop presents a simple proof for the self-benefit of ethical behavior. That is, even the solely selfish person should, with understanding of reality, act in a more ethical way, as this would benefit them. This basic example takes the very minimum accounting, leaving out that single acts can effect individuals for years or lifetimes, and that many more than 5 contacts are made per day. Such truths function exactly like the scientists ‘Conservation of Energy’ and, quite beautifully, it is the exact importance attributed by the subject or victim which dictates the potency with which the environment becomes impacted. Unfortunately, we can not refrain from cursing at others in traffic and expect to balance our impact with that of stealing a persons savings. Interestingly, in the very same way, the economic or monetary value (in cases which involve such things) also translates in perfect exactitude to the impact on the social environment. (This is when considered overall against total monetary values, not in its relative or emotional, attributed, impact, which must be factored in in addition to monetary impact).

‘ 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.

Distant Locations in Space or Distant Planets

Since it is possible to be born as life,

         it is possible to be born in any location,

  as anything, which experiences being to a significant degree.

     This includes planets which may be distant from our own,

          supposing they have life there. 

The figure above depicts Nut, representing the Milky Way 

or Starry Cosmos, and a human soul being brought down to Earth 

through the body of woman via the womb.

A nude man, representing primordial earth, apparently after impregnating a woman,

lay reclining. The woman stands between two anthropomorphic glyphs looking like

rams heads and representing the flow of rivers, a glyph similarly shown 

near the uterus of Nut, likely representing menstruation and natural cycles.

A bird with mans head crosses a river in a boat, representing the soul

crossing from a state of non-life. Nut, a feminine body filled with stars,

represents the Cosmos or Heavens, from which the soul descends to Earth.

Directly under the pelvic

area of Nut, between the two lines, is written something like

“The person from the strange lands of a distant star 

                                         comes to rest here, in the body”. 

Further, beautiful reliefs of Nut (a feminine body, filled with black sky and stars) 

are frequently depicted in coffins or sarcophagi, stretching the 

length of the person, suggesting that death itself is the portal to birth on other worlds.

If it is true that there is life on distant planets,

this combined with the possibility to be born as life

renders one further unique perspective.

Since a distant planet may be far enough 

     for the light viewed from there

   to be, relative to us, back in time

if we imagine a telescope powerful enough to see

    the individual faces of beings living on the surface of the planet 

as if they stood before us,

and we combine this with our previously established possibility 

        to awaken as one such being, or possibility 

        to be born as life

it is then possible that, by staring, back in time, into

the face of one who is now deceased, 

that we may even be staring

   directly into the face of ourselves,

    as a life we lived as them, not us.

The Possible Places of Birth

   The Life of a Butterfly

Since butterflies and horses, when born, arrive at the

            experience of life,

     as their bodies, in functioning, produce it

   and since our life shows it possible to experience

     the output of that functioning directly—as oneself

        it must then be possible to be born as

   all such creatures, as butterflies… and so on.

 That is to say, it is possible for a butterfly to be itself,

  not for a human to be born as a butterfly.

However, our own life, our direct self experience

   informs this being itself 

  that the butterfly embodies.

Our self experience manifests proof that 

  such an occurrence of being itself 

  can be experienced directly.

          “  Little Valley

                    with

            patch of trees

                Butterfly

                 Seeing

           Paradise Garden

              its whole life

               one month ”

—An Interesting Book

Based on this manifest proof of our present self experience,

       we can establish that

It is possible to experience being as any biological body

     which, in its functioning, coincides with such an experience, 

with consciousness, subjective being, 

      or of existing as, etc.

We may attempt to imagine these, rather radically different experiences of

    the lives of animals and so on as a kind of other realm, a realm existing 

    within the same space as our own, while completely invisible to us.

Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok,

  in the early 1900’s,

put forward the theory of the  Umwelt

the idea that organisms, although they share the same environment,

 can have different inner worlds, different Umwelten.

Furthermore, 

In ‘The Secret Oral Teachings 

of Tibetan Buddhist Sects’ it is said

“A man neither feels nor perceives exactly as 

a mosquito or a plant does. A being other than human : 

a God, a Demon or no matter what other being, 

does not perceive as we do. The extent, gradation, the strength, 

the nature of the sensations and the perceptions differ 

according to the constitution of the organ of contact of different beings. 

It follows therefore that which is real, which exists, 

which produces effects for one, does not affect the other, 

has no reality, no existence for him. 

Each sphere, each world, each order of beings 

possesses a Reality of its own because 

it produces effects in this special sphere and for this order of beings.”

Logically, it must be possible to experience being as any body or form

       which coincides with or causes an experience of being.

Anything which is alive enacts its living,

It is possible to live as anything alive,

If a thing is born, it is possible to be born as that thing;

it is possible to be born as anything which is born. 

To say that it is not possible to be born as something which is born,

  can not make sense, because it is in fact born. 

— We also know, the argument that one can not be the one of such a birth directly,

   to be untrue, since we now are alive and are  the one born.

         Why does this, then, seem impossible?

Again, due to the fact that we are presently ourselves, 

when imagining arriving at a state of self-hood again,

we imagine our present self as not our-self,

this is not because arriving at a state of self-hood 

can not happen multiple times,

but because our present self can not be another self

at another time.

It is not another self at another time.

We know, however, for a fact 

that the state of self-hood occurs multiple times

as well as that it is possible to directly be the subject of such self-hood.

            In the case that the soul, self, 

   or consciousness is biologically emergent

  it is impossible, not to be born as what is born, 

but for one present self to be re-embodied as someone else,

because the present self is formed and ends with that biology.

The energy or vitality which once animated that biology, 

     where its uttermost creation lay,

and its aspect in union with the One Universe, may not end, and

           may even be  re-embodied. But in such a case,

         the question for the spiritualist is whether 

one’s personality can be associated with this impersonal enlivening energy

          or survives with the conservation of energy in any significant way. 

For one present self to be born (re-embodied) as another,

 (rather than another to be born as itself)

   the soul must exist in the specific definition of soul 

         as an essence which preserves, after death, 

           a level of personal information significant

            to associate it with one’s own personality. 

In the view that personality of the self, and 

  consciousness, is biologically emergent,

 one present self can not be re-embodied in another

  but one can, after the death and dissolution of any present self,

 be born as a new present self —

 when the processes of biology cause 

   this phenomena of self to emerge

(just as they have in ones present life).

In both cases, a soul preserving one’s personality throughout embodiment, 

or a new personality emergent from the biological body,

experience of existing, consciousness, and selfhood 

are consistently seen to coincide with existence of a biological body.

That is to say, for a soul to be embodied, as well as 

  for a self to emerge from the biological function, both require ‘a body’ to occur.

and

our life proves it possible to directly experience the functions

  of such a body.

In both cases, the biology is consistently seen to coincide with 

   the existence of consciousness and the self.

In both cases, our present life demonstrates it possible to experience 

   the self which coincides with the biology directly (as oneself).

Therefore, in both cases, the high number of births we know of

   suggest a possibility to be born in equivalence with that number. 

The difference being, whether, in the case of

   this particular definition of soul,

they share a marker of the same individuality,

or in case of biological emergence,

 they are two totally unique people

who simply share the fact that, at their respective times,

 they both experience

being themself unto themself.

The atheist still, might consider, 

by extension, in this paradoxical way,

they do share a kind of soul,

the soul which is the self of each’s absolute individuality.

There is in fact a synthesis of the biological vs. encapsulated soul models,

  where the personality is biologically emergent,

  and the biology serves as the conduit for the life-force

 and the living being does possess, in its aspect of union with the One,

  elements of the eternal, which one might call an ‘immortal soul’ in the 

sense that the essence of life, all the energy life works, is not destroyed 

but returns to the One

and yet does not preserve the personality of individuals,

which results from circumstances of the body and environs.

In Chaim Vital’s record

of the his masters teachings, in the section the ‘Gate of Reincarnation’

   when he details five levels of the soul, starting with 

   the lowest which is associated with the biology and physical world, 

   and progressing toward fully revealed, full union with G-d at the level of emanation 

The combinations of which levels of the soul can be 

  reincarnated together is speculated and expounded in the text,

  suffice for them that understand.

“I exist even where no things are left” — Jeru the Damaja

In a state of union, Jeru’s word is manifest. 

In any case

       Our life proves it possible to be born and exist as a self.

It is therefor possible to exist as any body or form

         which coincides with existence of a self, 

          consciousness, or being, and so on. 

If it is possible to experience being as any body or form

       which coincides with an experience of being,

     then the compassion sometimes felt, for example, 

         for mass produced chickens,

    leaves the abstract realm of empathy and

enters into the fearful realm of actual possibility for oneself,

       the realm of direct self-experience.

For this reason, we have a personal and fearful initiative

  to improve our treatment of the animals we keep.

This should come as no surprise, as the flock

  in olden days was like an extension of ones own livelihood, 

  and echoes throughout, not only biblical, but

global religious narrative. 

Keeping animals is a great responsibility, 

   because our life shows us the 

    possibility to be born,

We should be terrified at the prospect

    of keeping animals in inhumane conditions

    as it then becomes a realm of living experience

    which can be arrived at, in fact, which is arrived at,

     the same number of times

    as animals that there are. 

“What man soever… that kill an ox, or lamb, 

   or goat… [without proper observance]

Being as Object or Rarified Forms

Having covered most other states of being, we may now consider

being as Object or other Rarified Forms. 

That is to say, we may ask 

whether or not the existence of material objects also implies

a possibility to exist as material objects.

It has been suggested by some sects of Monotheist Mystics 

that certain material objects, specifically stones, have a soul, 

their own portion of the divine light which makes up all existence,

 suggesting that perhaps even physical bodies, sections of mineral, or other,

   may have a kind of discreet existence unto themselves,

or between themselves and the omnipotence of the Universal Spirit. 

That is, they may exist in a state that is not one of total union,

     in a state of separation and distinction

    or, as with the human self, one of simultaneous union and disunion.

In any case, it is reasonably sure that physical objects, growths of mineral, and other

similar existents do exist. 

One may then wonder if since they exist, they are existed as;

and if existed as, they can be (in fact must be) existed as

One may consider, whether a stone’s state of separation only appears

    to us by our own eye’s level of magnification and detail,

   or perhaps if its’ state of separation is indicative of some inherent physical property

     like the sharing of electrons by atoms in the stone, which comes with  

           some tangible boundary where sharing ends.

If a soul is a portion of G-ds light which makes up all in existence,

   then indeed, a stone has a soul, 

(a portion of that which makes up the universe). 

“I am the Light, As a rock—L , Y;  L,  Y , T , E”  - Mc Lyte ‘Lyte As A Rock’ 

*Footnote 1: Refer to Eihei Dogen’s ‘Mountains and Waters Sutra’

for a masterful exploration of this topic.

To consider this further, we can take for example a bench made of concrete.

 Concrete is a man-made, fluid formula, mixed with many small stones 

   which hardens like one large stone.

We may ask, does the bench, of hardened formula and many small stones

   have just one soul?

             or

does it have a soul for each of the stones and one for the concrete bench

                 which appears like one large stone?

    Somehow, we must reason that each stone has its own soul,

 and that the concrete bench does not have its own soul, but only appears to,

 because of the remnants of the human soul imprinted upon it 

in the act of working it into a bench. 

Excerpt; Mountains and Waters Sutra: 

“Mountains and waters right now are the actualization of the ancient buddha

way. Each, abiding in its phenomenal expression, realizes completeness.

Because mountains and waters have been active sine before the Empty Eon,

they are alive in this moment. Because they have been the self since 

before form arose, they are emancipation-realization.

Priest Daokai of Mt. Furong said to the assembly, “The green mountains

are always walking; a stone woman gives birth to a child at night.”

Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains. Therefore they always

abide in ease and always walk. You should examine in detail this quality

of mountains walking. Mountains walking is just like human walking.

Accordingly, do not doubt mountains walking even though it does not look

the same as human walking… you should penetrate these words…

…Green mountains are neither sentient nor insentient. You are neither

sentient nor insentient. At this moment, you cannot doubt

 the green mountains walking. You should study the green mountains,

using numerous worlds as your standards. You should clearly examine

the green mountains walking and your own walking. You should also examine 

walking backward and backward walking, and investigate the fact that

walking forward and backward has never stopped 

since the very moment before form arose, 

since the time of the King of the Empty Eon. 

If walking stops, buddha ancestors do not appear. If walking ends, 

the buddha-dharma cannot reach the present. Walking forward

does not cease, walking backward does not cease…

This is called the mountains’ flow and the flowing mountains…

these activities are a mountain’s practice.

… there is a moment when a mountain gives birth to

a mountain child. Because mountains are buddha ancestors,

buddha ancestors appear in this way. 

… there are male stones, female stones, and nonmale nonfemale stones.

They are placed in the sky [asteroids, stars, planets, and the like]

and in the earth and are called heavenly stones and earthly stones.

These are explained in the ordinary world, but not many people

actually know about it.” — Master Dogen (1200-1270 CE, Japan).

If evidence should come forward in future

that some objects, planets, or suns

are alive, as heretical as it appears,

one would have to assume it possible to arrive in that state.

Recent evidence has suggested that plants are not only alive

but both feel and communicate (and may even have a form 

of sight through their leaves interception of reflected light).

In any case,

this would, in theory, also include ethereal or as of yet undiscovered

    categories of being, such as higher dimensional states of being,

states of being in Universes which exist in inaccessible dimensions,

states of being in Universes which are constructed out of inaccessible parts or of alternate foundational mathematics, and so on, as well as more immediately present things

such as space, which, like stones, is worthwhile to investigate as an existent, or Angelic beings (supposing they exist), such    as those mentioned biblically 

and described in the Babylonian Talmud,

 the Chayyoth, as 600 days journey from the sole of its 

foot to its ankle, and 600 times that from its ankle to knee, 

   and 600 times that from knee to waist, 600 times that

from waist to shoulder, and 600 times that from shoulder to the crown of their head

   and this being said to show that their bodies fully outstretched still

        do not reach the base of Gods Throne. 

     See the later section, Classification of Beings

        for a full enumeration of possible types.

The Possible Places of Birth

Distant Locations in Time ; Future, Past

 If it is indeed so that birth into being may occur a number of times,

 then one wonders whether, in a birth-to-come, 

 one might also awaken as a being at a distant location in time.

Since we know that ‘it is possible to be born as some being’,

   then that ‘one may be born at distant locations in time’

    is the same as the claim that

‘some beings will be born at distant locations in time’.

Regarding the claim that ‘some beings will be born at distant locations in time’

   we have ample evidence to suggest such is likely to occur. 

Since it is possible to experience a biologically produced self directly 

           as being you,

  if self’s will exist in the future with the biological bodies birthed there, 

     it is then possible to be born in the future. 

Just as our distant ancestors 

could not exist in the far future, 

   yet we do exist there,

so ‘I’ will exist in our far future— if life continues. 

Our ancestors could not experience the future as oneself,

   but as oneself the future is experienced. 

This possibility of being born into the future is astonishing,

      and perhaps even more astonishing, 

   are the possibilities of birth in the past. 

Since beings were born in the past, which is to say

   beings are born in the present of the past

it is therefore possible to be born in the past.

Even if, due to entropy, that past no longer exists in our present,

   that past is still a location where consciousness-producing

     biology exists. 

Even if, due to entropy, one birth technically, to a third party

   objective view, comes after another, causing the first

      to no longer exist (having dissipated from entropy)

          still, that place does exist for a time as the system passes through that state.

Relative to each other in their life and death,

    those two births have no sequence.

I.E. if when living as the first birth you die,

   then as entropy brings into existence

 the state of the world at the second birth,

     then lived after the first,

 the experience of the person of the first birth

and the experience of the person of the second birth

     are lived independently in their present

   therefore, in context of direct subjective experience,

     to the liver of the lives,

     one is not born in sequence after the other.

(However, in causal, historical purposes, 

   their sequence may be tangible)

It is therefor possible to be born in locations

  in the past at the time that the systems state

    results in subjective being or life. 

               REDACTED 

[Suffice, for the believer, the factual occurrence of many lives

  at all locations in time, as proof of such a possibility]

“I appear everywhere and nowhere at once…” 

 — KRS-One ‘Step  into a World’

Consequences and Karma, 

God’s Law and The Golden Rule:

Mizpah, The Two Camps

The existence of conscious self’s at various locations in space and time

  not only impacts the possible locations where birth may occur,

     but also impacts the lives of those born around and after them, 

       as their actions make up the creation of the past

           or history of those individuals. 

 Although, in the modern atheist’s view,

   one’s life now and another life lived as oneself

   may not be connected by sharing a ‘soul’ or essence

    which makes them two incarnations of the same person,

       One life and another may still be connected in a 

causal chain, by the consequences of actions ,

   when actions carried out during one life 

        effects or impacts the other life. 

As an example of one life and another being connected

  by the consequences of actions

Let’s take a powerful man who creates a slave trade.

   This man has caused a large number of beings born in the future

     to awaken born into the condition of being a slave.

Surely, this man has not directly enslaved himself,

    he has enslaved other selves. 

However, his own life demonstrates to him

  that he may awaken as the self produced

  by any biological, self-producing, body. 

   Which body becomes marked,

 through direct experience of its function,

as himself , is entirely outside of the control

      of his present self. 

   Therefor by creating a slave trade,

he greatly increases the chances that he will

     one day be born into slavery. 

“Even having become a universal monarch, 

    In the course of the cycles of aeons 

    he also becomes a servant.” 

—The Suhrllekha 

(Nagarjuna’s  ‘Letter to a Friend’)

Not only do negative or harmful acts, which lower the state

    of the world and cause a higher number of beings 

       to be born into poor circumstances,

  have the potential to effect the lives of the future,

and therefor the direct experience of any self there

                              but also

    acts of neutral or unknown effect, and acts of good

 which raise the state of the world, and cause improvement 

     of circumstances in the lives of others.

This is true of all history in general. 

     A good example of a powerful impact 

can be seen in the telegraph, transistor, or radio. 

The world we were born into, arrived at, was fundamentally altered

    by the dreams, and lives, of the creators of these technologies. 

How much more so for the contributors to

language, mathematics, religion, and wisdom

How much more so for a charity or organization

       that saves even a single life—

    A life, which is connected to so many other lives :

      two parents, siblings, children, 

            friends, community, passersby,

         offspring and the connections of offspring,

              and so on exponentially.

    All lives which, themselves, may go on to save lives,

    may invent the next great medical cure or transistor,

 may go on to fundamentally alter the state of tomorrows world.

And, above all else, a life which, 

 in its’ inner world, is self-validating,

   the very same internal validation which we, as a self, manifest—

  an inherent right-to-live as it were, impossible to estimate in value. 

To better understand this aspect of rebirth, its relation to action and history

    we can investigate how history or pre-set

 circumstances function in the life of the individual.

“Have they not travelled throughout the land

to see what was the end of those before them?”. — Quran; Ar-Rum 30:9

  History can be defined as the situation

at a prior point in the timeline of a system. 

      This situation, can guide or define

 the parameters of the systems eventuality. 

  For example, the starting point and volume 

of a river can determine how far 

the river can ever wander from

     that starting point. 

Or, a person who builds a road, 

   increases the likelihood

   that people will walk 

 down that path in the future. 

In the case of the system that is human civilization,

     History is the situation we are born into.

 Whether we arrive into a war-torn land amid a famine

or a peaceful nation where 

community members live in equity and esteem,

with free exchange of products and ideas, a place of high culture—

may often depend on the lives who came before us, the past lives. 

That is, the state of the world we arrive at depend on lives who came before,

     however, we begin shaping this world from the moment we arrive,

     we, in fact, are ‘the lives who came before’ of those in our future.

This is where the previously discussed possibility to be born in the future

   and possibility to be born in the past takes on a new importance

A person who does good deeds, causes a good deed to be done

        in the life of a given self.

Since we have shown it possible to be born as a given self,

   this person increases the chance that a good deed will be done 

        to them as another self. 

A person who improves the condition of lives in this world,

    greatly increases the chance that a life born into will 

   arrive at a world which is in a more positive condition. 

In this way, the domino effect can be practically applied

   to improve one’s condition in general. 

“This World is ours, that’s why the demons are leery,

    it’s our inheritance…” 

     — GURU of GangStarr’s ‘Robin Hood Theory’.

“It is Allah Who created you, then gives you provisions, 

then will cause you to die, and then will bring you back to life…

Corruption has spread on the land and sea as a result

of what people’s hands have done, so that Allah may

cause them to taste some of their deeds and 

perhaps they might return [to the Right Path]”. —Quran; Ar -Rum 30:40

In the Egyptian Reliefs depicting what has been deemed

‘The Book of The Dead’ a monstrous combination of

the most feared Earthly predators, that which swallows whole

rabbits, birds, and men—crocodiles, cheetahs,  and so on,

 a synthesis of hieroglyphs such as Sobek, the crocodile, 

a symbol of ravenous looting, copulating, consuming,

 stands as the symbol for the ‘divine justice’ which occurs 

 when the heart of the dead person is weighed against a feather, 

the symbol for the truth, and found wanton. 

Such a weighing represents the truth about the deeds of their life,

 and divine justice is said to inescapably occur in the next life.

Footnote: Many further connections support this association 

                 with Egyptian resurrection spells and possess a

                 general value relating to our topics,

                 such as the association of Jesus with the shepherd,

                  a symbol of Osiris, the crook and flail,

                or that of the fig tree, a symbol for Nut, representing

                a birth from the Cosmos, Heavens, or Milky Way.

There are many lives

   (many lives, of which we have shown, 

    via our life now, it possible to live directly).

Because of this relation of action and circumstances

  and because of the non-temporal quality of birth

  or otherwise the births which occurred in the past

We are ourselves responsible for much of our own

  circumstances.

In a paradoxical way, by not being the one who committed these actions

    we become the one who committed these actions

    and are responsible for much of the events which happen to us.

In reverse, the actions we visit on others become,

    by this possibility to  experience selfhood,

   actions visited on ourselves, 

    by not ourselves. 

Because of this relation of history, our role through action,

   and these qualities of time and birth

It is up to us whether or not we cause the creation of

   a living Hell, or a living Paradise.

“And many of those who sleep 

in the dust of the Earth shall awake, 

some to everlasting life, 

Mizpah, The Two Camps

Passive Reaction

    This relationship of action and circumstances 

can be used to improve the world and the quality of our own life 

  not only through active action but also through passive reaction.

      By a new kind of seeing ourself in others,

one grounded in fact and reality through the logic above,

  we can begin to change our understanding of self and other.

Through this change, we can begin to see any harm 

      caused to us from a new perspective. 

Since one guaranteed control, over harm done to us

      is in our reaction to it,

and since a majority of the worldly impact of an event

consists in the many people it reaches through us,

    when we react negatively to it, 

(rather than in the events immediate interaction between the two) ,

  we can choose to limit the karma of a negative event

   by reacting to it in as positive a manner as possible. 

Otherwise, this harmful event spirals, freely through us,

     into the rest of the Universe. 

Consequences and Law

Mizpah, The Two Camps

Learning and Spirituality

      This idea, understanding the possibility of birth,

 connects us to the lives and actions of others paradoxically

 through the very separateness and self-hood each of us feel. 

  The tangibility of our identity to us, is exactly the feature that

   can cause identification in any other given biological body,

a feature which connects our actions toward others directly to ourselves. 

Incorporating this eccentric connection 

into the concept of learning and spirituality,

   this connection allows us to accept teachings 

        and authentic spiritual lineages,

 not as mere disciples, but as if it were us who taught these concepts

        for the betterment of ourselves. 

The Two Camps

Jegar-Sahadutha; The Heap of Witness

Judgement and Justice

Because of our knowledge of the harm done to us by others,

and because of this new view of self in other and other in self,

we should be repulsed by the idea of harming someone.

In fact, we should greatly fear it,

  as we would fear a tidal wave 

  about to swallow our entire city

  or a black hole about to swallow our world,

for it is in harming someone once, 

that our link in a series of single actions 

stretching on for an eternity goes unchecked,

and an eternity of harm is completed. 

Because of our knowledge of the harm done to others by us,

with this view of other in self and self in other,

we should show great mercy in judgement and justice 

  on those who do harm us. 

Let us take for example

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”,

    for, any person upon being stoned, will beg and plead;

   but only by realizing the self in the other

 can one comprehend their plea beyond empathy, in directness,

      as it in fact issues, directly, from themself within.

 The mind that comprehends the complex truth on this subject

  recognizes themself in the woman who is to be stoned.

      Whether parable or record,

 this question ingeniously revealed to the members of the crowd 

   themselves in the position of the woman,

    as in fact, they were all along. 

Since it is possible to be born as life,

     to be the self which is produced by the biology,

     it is then possible to be born as a self which is produced by biology. 

Since there are many self’s continually produced 

   as new bodies are born, it is not only compassionate to 

          consider ‘The Golden Rule’, 

    to treat others how one would be treated,

   but is also logical and of direct self-interest.

That is, just as the practical person saves money for a later time, 

so one who wishes to prepare for the next life may do so

in a practical manner, by improving the state of the future world.

Not only is ‘The Golden Rule’ logical and of self-interest,

but is written directly into the fabric of creation.

This ancient mandate of Law is in fact written 

   into the very fabric of creation

  by the fact that many self’s are born, 

existing simultaneously, 

and by the fact that we do certainly experience 

   a portion of these self’s to be us.

We experience a portion of these self’s to be us, however,

portion by portion, the infinite is made up.

 (In Xeno’s Paradox, the idea is put forward 

  that if we divide the distance an arrow travels

  and then we divide that half portion again, and that again,

  and so on continuously, then 

  the arrow must travel an infinite distance

  to strike the mark. )

As these laws are written into the very fabric of creation,

manifest in creation as what Is, one can see a clear connection

to G-d’s communication of these commandments to Moses

and his appearance before him as Am-ness or Is-ness on Sinai. 

That is, G-d said to Moses on Sinai, in answer to giving him his name,

   what is often translated as “ I am what I am”

  which, in Hebrew one might translate as “I am I am” or “I is what is”,

  “I am is” or “I am what it is to exist”. That is to say, a succinct phrase

   expressing G-d as all which exists and all which is beyond what exists—

   for creation, is exactly that: Is-ness, Am-ness, etc. 

   And even that which is beyond material creation could be said to exist

   by the light of G-d or in its’ union with G-d. 

Reviewing the Ten Primary commandments

delivered at Sinai, we see that each and every one

is based on this truth of equal entitlement between two or more beings,

and one can say G-d has made it so in the sense that in the manifestation of this world,

it is also true of natural facts — in the nature of subjectivity, 

in the nature of self and other, and their fluidity, which we have explored. 

We experience a portion of these self’s to be us, however,

portion by portion, the infinite is made up.

 In Xeno’s Paradox, the idea is put forward 

  that if we divide the distance an arrow travels

  and then we divide that half portion again, and that again,

  and so on continuously, then 

  the arrow must travel an infinite distance

  to strike the mark. 

We should consider a self both as us,

      and not us.

Since we experience a self; in judgement,

we should consider it as us. 

Seeing that it is possible to be us, 

   or that we be it,

and is in fact ourself in form of itself,

just as we are itself in form of ourself. 

“When fear and suffering are disliked by me and others

equally, what is so special about me that I protect myself and not the other?

If I give them no protection because their suffering does 

not afflict me, why do I protect my body against 

future suffering when it does not afflict me?

The notion ‘it is the same me even then’ is a false construction…

If you think that it is for the person who has the pain

to guard against it, a pain in the foot is not of the hand, so why

is the one protected by the other?” 

— Bodhicaryavatara Perfection of Meditative Absorption line 95

       These self’s, 

 each causing an illusion of separation and plurality

 out of the substance of the One Unity,

 enact the birth, life-story, selfhood,

 and absoluteness of their own existence,

     and assert

 the privacy of their subjectivity to be unmatched, 

  simultaneously.

We both are and are not,

self is and is not other,

other is and is not self,

The best way to comprehend this truth,

rather than imagining ourselves born as someone else,

is 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 functioning.

Similarly will a given birth feel itself 

to be the self which coincides with 

    its body.

Our life has simply shown it possible to be  a given birth. 

“Through habituation there is the understanding of ‘I’

 regarding the drops of sperm and blood of two other people…

Why can I not also accept another’s body as my self in the same way,

since the otherness of my own body is so easy to accept?”

— Bodhicaryavatara The Perfection of Meditative Absorption Line 111

Since it is possible to be born anywhere there is organic material

      which produces an experience of life

 (or anywhere there is self, soul, or being of any kind)

     it is possible to be born on distant planets,

     if there  is life there.

And since it is possible to be born on distant planets,

     this benefit of ethical action extends to distant planets,

 (or anywhere there is self, soul, or being of any kind).

This may serve as a intimately personal motive for lawful behavior

    should we ever encounter life outside of Earth.

    And should they be intelligent and logical,

    this natural fact, the fact of the potential of arriving at being,

   may serve as an impetus for their reciprocation of 

      mutually beneficial behavior. 

Consequences and Law

Jegar-Sahadutha —The Heap of Witness

The Location of The Garden of Eden,

  Paradise, and Pure Land

    Since it has been shown possible to be born or arrive at

any body or form which can be existed as or which is experienced 

Any such Paradise-like states, Pure Lands, and Edens

  which do exist, particularly ones which are inhabited

by living beings, must be locations in which

a state of life is arrived at — the same number of times

as living beings which exist there.

While there are some distinctions in the specifics

between Buddhist Pure Land, Eden, and the many other

cultural conceptions of Paradise realms, 

and they may even possess varying 

psychological associations of some importance,

the point that any such existing, inhabited states are states one can 

arrive in, is of more importance than any such distinctions 

 or semantics.

Eden, however, refers specifically to such a state

which once existed on Earth

    For the metaphysician there are two forms of such an Eden, 

      the Earthen and the Spiritual.

The Earthen Eden is a theoretical time

in the history of humanity, 

 existing in the distant past

at the time before men wore animal skins

  and fabrics, and before they had knowledge

of the other insofar as knowledge of the other

causes an awareness of their gaze, portrayed

as conscientiousness at ones nudity,

and manifesting in a primal innocence 

outside knowledge of right and wrong. 

It is also said that this is before 

men constructed shelters 

  or possessed other markers of 

  complex civic and economic function, 

  living off the land in a state of nature.

The Spiritual Eden can not be located

by coordinates relevant to the human form

and represents a meta-physical state of humanity 

or a personal internal spiritual state.

The Spiritual and Earthen Edens are

said to have been united on Earth 

during the time of the first men. 

Were it possible to be born in the past,

as evidence seems to suggest,

it would then be possible to be born in the Earthen Gan Eden.

Consequences and Law

The Balance of Deeds

The Possible Existence of Heavens and Hells

Since it has been shown

by the miracle of our own life

that one may arrive in a realm 

from a state of naught,

or in very least, from what becomes forgotten,

then, supposing hellish or heavenly experiences

do exist somewhere,

it must then be plausible for one,

just as one arrived from naught into this life now,

to arrive in a form of Hell or Gehennom (God forbid), a Heaven,

(or Pure Land or Eden-like realm, 

     as previously considered).

There are two distinct kinds of Heaven 

and Hell-like realms which

our previously investigated theory would imply

have a real and actual likelihood to exist in the Universe.

The first is a world (often associated with the phrase)

 which transcends in some way the Earthen,

this may be by subsisting in a higher dimensional condition

(above 3 spacial dimensions and time)

or some other transcendent condition 

as of yet unimagined by the human mind,

which nonetheless, could be every bit as likely

to exist as our life now, which was also unimagined

by us before we arrived fully immersed in it.

For one example of such a condition,

we could consider an alternate Universe

 in Mathematical Multiverse Theory,

  in which foundational mathematics go through

a kind of evolutionary process, simultaneously

 causing our own Universe and many others

in which the mathematical ground is so

altered that they would function radically outside 

of what one has previously imagined.

The second kind of Heaven or Hell

exists in a much more grounded, naturalistic way,

in the sense that  it requires 

nothing we do not already know 

for certain to exist here on Earth. 

Since we have previously established

the possibility (in theory) for a perpetual

series of lives,

This Hell/Gehennom (may) exist as the birth,

again and again as beings which,

due to the actions of others in past lives (history)

experience nothing but suffering.

For example, the child born in 

a city being bombed, and

the newborn animal in a forest fire.

May the Most High show mercy upon them.

This is why, the potential to be born,

combined with the historicity of various lives,

makes human action so crucial —

the absoluteness of our own individuality

paradoxically renders us,

in a parallel iteration,

as the other visited by 

 our very own action,

the selfhood manifest in the nature of our form,

 stands as the proof

of this fact,

that we both are and are not

responsible for the creation of our own

Heavens and Hells.

In the same way, a Paradise,

a perpetual series of lives

with very little suffering, could,

in the reality of our basic animal realm,

(without anything extra-natural)

occur.

However, if the inhabitants

actions do not match

the Heavenly state of life,

but rather cause suffering to others—

their perpetual Heaven will deteriorate

by their very own hand.

The parable of Eden, as it were.

Interestingly, because of the possibility

(now established mathematically by

   portions of the Jacob’s Ladder equations)

  to be born in the past, and because of the

cyclical and infinite nature of such a course,

we each have the perpetual opportunity to

improve the state of the world, giving us,

indeed all humanity, a limited, but perpetual

(in being cyclical) amount of time; a continuous 

amount of time, to perfect the world unto 

       the creation of Paradise.

To reiterate:

There are two types of Heavens and Hells,

now that we have made clear 

all other implications of this theory,

we can consider them, 

for without them, 

this portion simply won’t be intelligible.

The first type, is a more ‘traditionalist’

form. For it is merely an existence of a physical 

or extra-physical realm, where, just as

one can go from non-existence to life

(birth) here— one could too, be ‘born’, so to say, there.

The second type is a more naturalized, perhaps,

or rather, more certain to exist, form.

In this form, the “potentially perpetual

series of lives” previously considered above,

could create a Paradise through

 the birth could be a butterfly

floating about a paradise garden

dying after a life of little suffering,

followed by birth in an idyllic pasture community,

and so on.

Such a chain of lives would constitute

a naturalized, real, indefinite Heaven—

inescapable, but not unalterable.

By improving conditions for all beings

on Earth, one increases the chances

of such a Paradise.

Now, since, as we have shown,

the number of births is (potentially) indefinite,

even if the total number of lives is finite,

this then, in a way, could cause the ‘scientific’,

as they say in our age, reality of an eternal realm. 

It is a wonder of mercy, that wisdom not only 

leads to righteousness, but also that 

even in the utmost state of suffering,

the wise person, knowing they suffer 

for doing right, knowing that between them

and the Universal tally they have no guilt before which

to hide their face, the Person of Wisdom does not enter through

suffering into Hell but into a Heaven. 

Although one should not need to suffer,

this is the essential quality of the Martyr,

and of the Christian parable.

It is a terrible thing to suffer,

but it is worse to suffer and know it is deserved. 

In the Naranda Purana, the portion named Yama’s Abode, it is said:

“Yama’s abode is very far away. Those who have accumulated 

punya have nothing to fear there. But the sinners have 

every reason to be scared. The righteous enjoy the trip 

to Yama’s abode, but the sinners suffer a lot.

…The righteous have no cause to fear the journey. 

They travel in great comfort. Those who have donated food 

get delicious meals along the way. Those who have donated 

water slake their thirst with condensed milk. Those who have 

donated clothes get wonderful clothes to wear. Those who have 

donated land or houses do not have to walk at all. ”

The main distinction between what we have designated

as Edens or Pure Lands and Heaven or Hell and Gehinnom realms

is that while life span in a Pure Land, Eden, or Gehinnom may be myriad eons,

it occurs for a limited number of time, where as the Heaven or Hell realms

are potentially infinite either through the perpetual

series of lives discussed in the ‘Birth at Distant Locations’ section

or by some other transcendent quality, such as higher dimensional states

or alternate laws of physics, various other qualities of

higher spiritual realms, and so on.

This is the beauty of creation, not unlike the conservation

of energy, this Karma, the sum of deeds, creating the balance between Paradise and Gehennom,

Heaven and Hell, the likelihood of a good or bad

rebirth directly determined by the balance of deeds.

“See, I have set before thee this day

Finding Peace and Changes 

in Contemporary After-Death Paradigm

Lastly, because we can see it is possible to be born, 

  and many more life’s are likely to be born in the future,

  nothingness may not follow death, 

as is assumed in the modern scientific-atheist’s view,

  But rather a potentially perpetual series of lives and realms.

This concept of the many realms and orders of beings,

  combined with the high number of births and

  the possibility of being born; I.E.

  combined with the natural possibility for reincarnation

  points to a new understanding and image of 

  death and its effects. 

In contemporary thought, particularly of the scientific-agnostic,

   it is considered that death, by ceasing all sensation and thought,

   by ending all experience, can only be imagined as the opposite

   of experience, as a great nothingness, as timeless non-experience.

The potentially perpetual series of lives

 indicated by the many births, and by our 

present incarnation’s demonstration 

       that we can be born,

suggests that the blissful nothingness 

      imagined after death

may not exist there, or at least ,

is less likely to occur there than believed

in contemporary, atheistic, or scientific thought. 

Funny enough, it is this very scientific thought, 

 which pictures the inner self

  to be an emergent property of the biology, 

  and biology an emergent property of Nature,

which unifies us with a World which produces many births. 

And it is our own self-experience 

which unifies us with the potential 

to experience the emergence of self 

that takes place with those many births.

Because it is possible to be born,

and because there are so many births,

nothingness is unlikely to follow death,

but rather a potentially perpetual series of lives.

Because of this potentially perpetual series of lives,

the peace of blissful nothingness is unlikely

to follow death, but, rather, more life.

If the peace of non-existence does not follow death,

but more life, then we can only be certain to have peace

  in life, in a given incarnation.

Although not true in a pure sense without alternative,

    there is a sense in which, 

  within these many incarnations,

each life will only be composed of present moments. 

     In this sense, if we fail to take peace in the present moment, 

  we have failed to take peace.

We have no guarantee we will succeed later.

Conversely,

since, with many incarnations,

each life will be composed only of present moments 

     if we achieve peace in the present moment, 

  at that moment,

we have peace across all lives.  

In this sense,

a moment of Peace

is worth a lifetime of suffering

and is a (higher dimensional)

Paradise unto itself.

Such moments should be promoted

  for others

 and sought by us at every step.

Conclusion

    We have covered, in the lines above,

    birth, rebirth, reincarnation, or resurrection,

   through multiple births as unique individuals,

    the possibility to be born as any being

    which experiences a state of being,

    the possibility to be incarnated as physical objects

   or other rarified existents, the possibility

   to be born at great distances in space and time

   the possibility, if viewing ‘past’ light through

a high power telescope, to look directly into the face of a past life,

 the non-linear, atemporal, nature of self-existence

and its effect on karma through the creation of history

and enactment of deeds in life,

the law as fact, as part of nature, as written 

into the fabric of creation, a refreshed mandate

for the golden rule, the illusion and reality of self,

the simultaneous separation and total union of self, 

the law of the golden rule as applicable to non-human, alien,

animal, and discrete or rarified lifeforms, 

the existence of many realms, the potential

for a lengthy or perpetual chain of lives,

the changes to our present scientific paradigm

in regard to our view of death, non-existence, and timeless peace,

and the results for a peace which is experienced

in each and every lived experience, throughout all our lives.

Mathematics

Jacob’s Ladder:

Calculating the Probability

of Incarnation

i : The Totala number of Lives in the Universe

j : The Total number of States it is possible

       to Exist As  Over a Period of Time

I: Total number of Lives and States possible to Exist As

J: Total number of States in the Universe

i / j =  probability of incarnation

              (subjective)

I / J= probability of incarnation

              (objective)

where j = 1, j = i, Probability = 1 or %100

where j = i, Probability = 1 or %100

where j = 0, i = 0, Probability = 0 

where i = 0, use objective where I = i + j

Probability is further restricted by calculus of

Total Number of Lives at tn and various other time and entropy considerations

i / j t1

   i / j t2 

      i / j t3… 

The difference between subjective and objective being

primarily that if a state cannot be existed as, such a state

cannot qualify as one which takes up time while existing

in that state. If therefor, a state cannot be existed as, it can not

effect the time between incarnations. In such a case, these states

are not arrived at for a time but passed over, immediately

to lives or states which can be existed as. This, then, does not

effect the likelihood that the next experienced state will be

a state of experience. On the other hand, if a state may be 

existed as, it could also qualify as a life or incarnation in that sense,

(as a material or rarefied existent) complicating calculation further. 

The objective looks purely at the difference in number of states versus the number

of states with an experience of existence, while the subjective is more accurate

and may itself include the objective depending on how material states

are considered or, more accurately, what turns out to be true of material states.

Essentially, these forms become necessary because we consider things such as material which is conscious or has a soul, fields which are conscious or have a soul, and so on.

To clearer illustrate this consider for example that, in the subjective form, 

j cannot be less than i, as any life automatically qualifies as a state existed as. 

Whereas, conversely, there may be states existed as, such as stones or fields,

which are not lives (this represents the case where j is larger than i). 

In such cases, where there are 

existences which are not also lives (where we wish to set i to 1, or j larger than i) 

we can use the objective form so that, for example, if there are 500 states

existed as but only 1 life, we then take 501/[some larger number of total states].

Additionally, even where there are fields or material states existed as,

the subjective can function to include them, so long as j is not less than i ,

because we consider that a conscious or soul endowed state which

one exists as is a form of life, so that i is at least equal to j;

and we may also find, that j is at least equal to i, this is because, again,

of the logic that a state not existed as cannot be a state arrived at, taking up time, so that

any states not existed as will not be experienced, will not cause an experience of time

in-between experiences of consciousness, and then, in this way, will not effect the probability

that the next state arrived at is a conscious or soul endowed one. Essentially,

it becomes a question of relevance, thus requiring the objective and subjective forms. 

Mathematics

Jacob’s Ladder:

Probability of Human Birth / 

Buddhist Proverb of the Turtle

There is a classic Buddhist proverb which says that the likelihood of being incarnated in a human birth is the same as the likelihood of a Turtle sticking its head out of the water and coming up through a log with a hole in it. Using our equation and working backwards,

Earth’s Oceans have 333.42 million km squared surface area. If a log with half meter hole is on that surface the probability of coming up in that section is 1/6,668,400,000,000,000 

Human population is over 8 billion, meaning for this estimate to be accurate there would need to be 6.6684^11 non human beings for every human or 5.33472^20 non human beings (either total or on Earth depending on what the proverb refers to). 

Estimates for bacteria alone are around 5x10^30 to 13x10^35. Estimates for the number of species on Earth are between 8.7^6 and 10^12. If the species which have very few and the ones which have a very great number average to between 10^8 and 10^14 (which is exactly in the range we’d expect) then this proverb is extraordinarily accurate.

Considering the mathematical renaissance which occurred in India, and the large kingdoms which had census statistics and accurate maps, it’s plausible that this proverb was based on some real math estimate in the same manner as our formula here. In any case, it’s fascinating how accurate this proverb turns out to be. 

Class D — Dimensions

1b. Beings which bodily existence

        occurs in four dimensions

    (three directional dimensions + time)

1a. Beings which perception occurs

      in four dimensions

     (three directional dimensions + time)

2b. Bodily existence in one direction + time

2a. Perception in one direction + time

3b. Bodily existence in one, two, or three 

       unknown dimensions

3a. Perception in one, two or three

       unknown dimensions

4b. Bodily existence in-between dimensions

4a. Perception in-between dimensions

5b. Bodily existence In five dimensions

5a. Perception in-between dimensions

6, 7, 8, 9, and higher a’s and b’s; etc.

7ca. Perception without dimensions

7cb. Bodily existence without dimensions

Class S — Size

(may include unit and # or multiplication of)

1. Less than Planck length

2. Smaller than cellular

3. Cellular

4. Multi-cellular

5. Roughly Planetary

6. Larger than Planetary

7. Roughly Size of Milky Way

8. Size of Known Universe

9. Beyond Size of Universe

Other Keys —

( ). Classifications in ( ) represent

   possible but unknown qualities of a being

— . Dashes represent individual specs in the same category

… . Dots represent all specs in between those two numbers

#x. Rough multiplication of some number times the spec

Mathematics

The Balance of Deeds:

Calculating Passive Good

BASE FORM

(Total potential     -    (Actual Harm)

       Harm       )

FORM 2

 Total elapsed 

potential Harm / Elapsed Time = Passive Good Average

(Likely Lifespan / Elapsed Time) x (Passive Good Average) = Likely Passive Good

‘ 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.

Distant Locations in Space or Distant Planets

Since it is possible to be born as life,

         it is possible to be born in any location,

  as anything, which experiences being to a significant degree.

     This includes planets which may be distant from our own,

          supposing they have life there. 

The figure above depicts Nut, representing the Milky Way 

or Starry Cosmos, and a human soul being brought down to Earth 

through the body of woman via the womb.

A nude man, representing primordial earth, apparently after impregnating a woman,

lay reclining. The woman stands between two anthropomorphic glyphs looking like

rams heads and representing the flow of rivers, a glyph similarly shown 

near the uterus of Nut, likely representing menstruation and natural cycles.

A bird with mans head crosses a river in a boat, representing the soul

crossing from a state of non-life. Nut, a feminine body filled with stars,

represents the Cosmos or Heavens, from which the soul descends to Earth.

Directly under the pelvic

area of Nut, between the two lines, is written something like

“The person from the strange lands of a distant star 

                                         comes to rest here, in the body”. 

Further, beautiful reliefs of Nut (a feminine body, filled with black sky and stars) 

are frequently depicted in coffins or sarcophagi, stretching the 

length of the person, suggesting that death itself is the portal to birth on other worlds.

If it is true that there is life on distant planets,

this combined with the possibility to be born as life

renders one further unique perspective.

Since a distant planet may be far enough 

     for the light viewed from there

   to be, relative to us, back in time

if we imagine a telescope powerful enough to see

    the individual faces of beings living on the surface of the planet 

as if they stood before us,

and we combine this with our previously established possibility 

        to awaken as one such being, or possibility 

        to be born as life

it is then possible that, by staring, back in time, into

the face of one who is now deceased, 

that we may even be staring

   directly into the face of ourselves,

    as a life we lived as them, not us.

The Possible Places of Birth

   The Life of a Butterfly

Since butterflies and horses, when born, arrive at the

            experience of life,

     as their bodies, in functioning, produce it

   and since our life shows it possible to experience

     the output of that functioning directly—as oneself

        it must then be possible to be born as

   all such creatures, as butterflies… and so on.

 That is to say, it is possible for a butterfly to be itself,

  not for a human to be born as a butterfly.

However, our own life, our direct self experience

   informs this being itself 

  that the butterfly embodies.

Our self experience manifests proof that 

  such an occurrence of being itself 

  can be experienced directly.

          “  Little Valley

                    with

            patch of trees

                Butterfly

                 Seeing

           Paradise Garden

              its whole life

               one month ”

—An Interesting Book

Based on this manifest proof of our present self experience,

       we can establish that

It is possible to experience being as any biological body

     which, in its functioning, coincides with such an experience, 

with consciousness, subjective being, 

      or of existing as, etc.

We may attempt to imagine these, rather radically different experiences of

    the lives of animals and so on as a kind of other realm, a realm existing 

    within the same space as our own, while completely invisible to us.

Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok,

  in the early 1900’s,

put forward the theory of the  Umwelt

the idea that organisms, although they share the same environment,

 can have different inner worlds, different Umwelten.

Furthermore, 

In ‘The Secret Oral Teachings 

of Tibetan Buddhist Sects’ it is said

“A man neither feels nor perceives exactly as 

a mosquito or a plant does. A being other than human : 

a God, a Demon or no matter what other being, 

does not perceive as we do. The extent, gradation, the strength, 

the nature of the sensations and the perceptions differ 

according to the constitution of the organ of contact of different beings. 

It follows therefore that which is real, which exists, 

which produces effects for one, does not affect the other, 

has no reality, no existence for him. 

Each sphere, each world, each order of beings 

possesses a Reality of its own because 

it produces effects in this special sphere and for this order of beings.”

Logically, it must be possible to experience being as any body or form

       which coincides with or causes an experience of being.

Anything which is alive enacts its living,

It is possible to live as anything alive,

If a thing is born, it is possible to be born as that thing;

it is possible to be born as anything which is born. 

To say that it is not possible to be born as something which is born,

  can not make sense, because it is in fact born. 

— We also know, the argument that one can not be the one of such a birth directly,

   to be untrue, since we now are alive and are  the one born.

         Why does this, then, seem impossible?

Again, due to the fact that we are presently ourselves, 

when imagining arriving at a state of self-hood again,

we imagine our present self as not our-self,

this is not because arriving at a state of self-hood 

can not happen multiple times,

but because our present self can not be another self

at another time.

It is not another self at another time.

We know, however, for a fact 

that the state of self-hood occurs multiple times

as well as that it is possible to directly be the subject of such self-hood.

            In the case that the soul, self, 

   or consciousness is biologically emergent

  it is impossible, not to be born as what is born, 

but for one present self to be re-embodied as someone else,

because the present self is formed and ends with that biology.

The energy or vitality which once animated that biology, 

     where its uttermost creation lay,

and its aspect in union with the One Universe, may not end, and

           may even be  re-embodied. But in such a case,

         the question for the spiritualist is whether 

one’s personality can be associated with this impersonal enlivening energy

          or survives with the conservation of energy in any significant way. 

For one present self to be born (re-embodied) as another,

 (rather than another to be born as itself)

   the soul must exist in the specific definition of soul 

         as an essence which preserves, after death, 

           a level of personal information significant

            to associate it with one’s own personality. 

In the view that personality of the self, and 

  consciousness, is biologically emergent,

 one present self can not be re-embodied in another

  but one can, after the death and dissolution of any present self,

 be born as a new present self —

 when the processes of biology cause 

   this phenomena of self to emerge

(just as they have in ones present life).

In both cases, a soul preserving one’s personality throughout embodiment, 

or a new personality emergent from the biological body,

experience of existing, consciousness, and selfhood 

are consistently seen to coincide with existence of a biological body.

That is to say, for a soul to be embodied, as well as 

  for a self to emerge from the biological function, both require ‘a body’ to occur.

and

our life proves it possible to directly experience the functions

  of such a body.

In both cases, the biology is consistently seen to coincide with 

   the existence of consciousness and the self.

In both cases, our present life demonstrates it possible to experience 

   the self which coincides with the biology directly (as oneself).

Therefore, in both cases, the high number of births we know of

   suggest a possibility to be born in equivalence with that number. 

The difference being, whether, in the case of

   this particular definition of soul,

they share a marker of the same individuality,

or in case of biological emergence,

 they are two totally unique people

who simply share the fact that, at their respective times,

 they both experience

being themself unto themself.

The atheist still, might consider, 

by extension, in this paradoxical way,

they do share a kind of soul,

the soul which is the self of each’s absolute individuality.

There is in fact a synthesis of the biological vs. encapsulated soul models,

  where the personality is biologically emergent,

  and the biology serves as the conduit for the life-force

 and the living being does possess, in its aspect of union with the One,

  elements of the eternal, which one might call an ‘immortal soul’ in the 

sense that the essence of life, all the energy life works, is not destroyed 

but returns to the One

and yet does not preserve the personality of individuals,

which results from circumstances of the body and environs.

In Chaim Vital’s record

of the his masters teachings, in the section the ‘Gate of Reincarnation’

   when he details five levels of the soul, starting with 

   the lowest which is associated with the biology and physical world, 

   and progressing toward fully revealed, full union with G-d at the level of emanation 

The combinations of which levels of the soul can be 

  reincarnated together is speculated and expounded in the text,

  suffice for them that understand.

“I exist even where no things are left” — Jeru the Damaja

In a state of union, Jeru’s word is manifest. 

In any case

       Our life proves it possible to be born and exist as a self.

It is therefor possible to exist as any body or form

         which coincides with existence of a self, 

          consciousness, or being, and so on. 

If it is possible to experience being as any body or form

       which coincides with an experience of being,

     then the compassion sometimes felt, for example, 

         for mass produced chickens,

    leaves the abstract realm of empathy and

enters into the fearful realm of actual possibility for oneself,

       the realm of direct self-experience.

For this reason, we have a personal and fearful initiative

  to improve our treatment of the animals we keep.

This should come as no surprise, as the flock

  in olden days was like an extension of ones own livelihood, 

  and echoes throughout, not only biblical, but

global religious narrative. 

Keeping animals is a great responsibility, 

   because our life shows us the 

    possibility to be born,

We should be terrified at the prospect

    of keeping animals in inhumane conditions

    as it then becomes a realm of living experience

    which can be arrived at, in fact, which is arrived at,

     the same number of times

    as animals that there are. 

“What man soever… that kill an ox, or lamb, 

   or goat… [without proper observance]

Being as Object or Rarified Forms

Having covered most other states of being, we may now consider

being as Object or other Rarified Forms. 

That is to say, we may ask 

whether or not the existence of material objects also implies

a possibility to exist as material objects.

It has been suggested by some sects of Monotheist Mystics 

that certain material objects, specifically stones, have a soul, 

their own portion of the divine light which makes up all existence,

 suggesting that perhaps even physical bodies, sections of mineral, or other,

   may have a kind of discreet existence unto themselves,

or between themselves and the omnipotence of the Universal Spirit. 

That is, they may exist in a state that is not one of total union,

     in a state of separation and distinction

    or, as with the human self, one of simultaneous union and disunion.

In any case, it is reasonably sure that physical objects, growths of mineral, and other

similar existents do exist. 

One may then wonder if since they exist, they are existed as;

and if existed as, they can be (in fact must be) existed as

One may consider, whether a stone’s state of separation only appears

    to us by our own eye’s level of magnification and detail,

   or perhaps if its’ state of separation is indicative of some inherent physical property

     like the sharing of electrons by atoms in the stone, which comes with  

           some tangible boundary where sharing ends.

If a soul is a portion of G-ds light which makes up all in existence,

   then indeed, a stone has a soul, 

(a portion of that which makes up the universe). 

“I am the Light, As a rock—L , Y;  L,  Y , T , E”  - Mc Lyte ‘Lyte As A Rock’ 

*Footnote 1: Refer to Eihei Dogen’s ‘Mountains and Waters Sutra’

for a masterful exploration of this topic.

To consider this further, we can take for example a bench made of concrete.

 Concrete is a man-made, fluid formula, mixed with many small stones 

   which hardens like one large stone.

We may ask, does the bench, of hardened formula and many small stones

   have just one soul?

             or

does it have a soul for each of the stones and one for the concrete bench

                 which appears like one large stone?

    Somehow, we must reason that each stone has its own soul,

 and that the concrete bench does not have its own soul, but only appears to,

 because of the remnants of the human soul imprinted upon it 

in the act of working it into a bench. 

Excerpt; Mountains and Waters Sutra: 

“Mountains and waters right now are the actualization of the ancient buddha

way. Each, abiding in its phenomenal expression, realizes completeness.

Because mountains and waters have been active sine before the Empty Eon,

they are alive in this moment. Because they have been the self since 

before form arose, they are emancipation-realization.

Priest Daokai of Mt. Furong said to the assembly, “The green mountains

are always walking; a stone woman gives birth to a child at night.”

Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains. Therefore they always

abide in ease and always walk. You should examine in detail this quality

of mountains walking. Mountains walking is just like human walking.

Accordingly, do not doubt mountains walking even though it does not look

the same as human walking… you should penetrate these words…

…Green mountains are neither sentient nor insentient. You are neither

sentient nor insentient. At this moment, you cannot doubt

 the green mountains walking. You should study the green mountains,

using numerous worlds as your standards. You should clearly examine

the green mountains walking and your own walking. You should also examine 

walking backward and backward walking, and investigate the fact that

walking forward and backward has never stopped 

since the very moment before form arose, 

since the time of the King of the Empty Eon. 

If walking stops, buddha ancestors do not appear. If walking ends, 

the buddha-dharma cannot reach the present. Walking forward

does not cease, walking backward does not cease…

This is called the mountains’ flow and the flowing mountains…

these activities are a mountain’s practice.

… there is a moment when a mountain gives birth to

a mountain child. Because mountains are buddha ancestors,

buddha ancestors appear in this way. 

… there are male stones, female stones, and nonmale nonfemale stones.

They are placed in the sky [asteroids, stars, planets, and the like]

and in the earth and are called heavenly stones and earthly stones.

These are explained in the ordinary world, but not many people

actually know about it.” — Master Dogen (1200-1270 CE, Japan).

If evidence should come forward in future

that some objects, planets, or suns

are alive, as heretical as it appears,

one would have to assume it possible to arrive in that state.

Recent evidence has suggested that plants are not only alive

but both feel and communicate (and may even have a form 

of sight through their leaves interception of reflected light).

In any case,

this would, in theory, also include ethereal or as of yet undiscovered

    categories of being, such as higher dimensional states of being,

states of being in Universes which exist in inaccessible dimensions,

states of being in Universes which are constructed out of inaccessible parts or of alternate foundational mathematics, and so on, as well as more immediately present things

such as space, which, like stones, is worthwhile to investigate as an existent, or Angelic beings (supposing they exist), such    as those mentioned biblically 

and described in the Babylonian Talmud,

 the Chayyoth, as 600 days journey from the sole of its 

foot to its ankle, and 600 times that from its ankle to knee, 

   and 600 times that from knee to waist, 600 times that

from waist to shoulder, and 600 times that from shoulder to the crown of their head

   and this being said to show that their bodies fully outstretched still

        do not reach the base of Gods Throne. 

     See the later section, Classification of Beings

        for a full enumeration of possible types.

The Possible Places of Birth

Distant Locations in Time ; Future, Past

 If it is indeed so that birth into being may occur a number of times,

 then one wonders whether, in a birth-to-come, 

 one might also awaken as a being at a distant location in time.

Since we know that ‘it is possible to be born as some being’,

   then that ‘one may be born at distant locations in time’

    is the same as the claim that

‘some beings will be born at distant locations in time’.

Regarding the claim that ‘some beings will be born at distant locations in time’

   we have ample evidence to suggest such is likely to occur. 

Since it is possible to experience a biologically produced self directly 

           as being you,

  if self’s will exist in the future with the biological bodies birthed there, 

     it is then possible to be born in the future. 

Just as our distant ancestors 

could not exist in the far future, 

   yet we do exist there,

so ‘I’ will exist in our far future— if life continues. 

Our ancestors could not experience the future as oneself,

   but as oneself the future is experienced. 

This possibility of being born into the future is astonishing,

      and perhaps even more astonishing, 

   are the possibilities of birth in the past. 

Since beings were born in the past, which is to say

   beings are born in the present of the past

it is therefore possible to be born in the past.

Even if, due to entropy, that past no longer exists in our present,

   that past is still a location where consciousness-producing

     biology exists. 

Even if, due to entropy, one birth technically, to a third party

   objective view, comes after another, causing the first

      to no longer exist (having dissipated from entropy)

          still, that place does exist for a time as the system passes through that state.

Relative to each other in their life and death,

    those two births have no sequence.

I.E. if when living as the first birth you die,

   then as entropy brings into existence

 the state of the world at the second birth,

     then lived after the first,

 the experience of the person of the first birth

and the experience of the person of the second birth

     are lived independently in their present

   therefore, in context of direct subjective experience,

     to the liver of the lives,

     one is not born in sequence after the other.

(However, in causal, historical purposes, 

   their sequence may be tangible)

It is therefor possible to be born in locations

  in the past at the time that the systems state

    results in subjective being or life. 

               REDACTED 

[Suffice, for the believer, the factual occurrence of many lives

  at all locations in time, as proof of such a possibility]

“I appear everywhere and nowhere at once…” 

 — KRS-One ‘Step  into a World’

Consequences and Karma, 

God’s Law and The Golden Rule:

Mizpah, The Two Camps

The existence of conscious self’s at various locations in space and time

  not only impacts the possible locations where birth may occur,

     but also impacts the lives of those born around and after them, 

       as their actions make up the creation of the past

           or history of those individuals. 

 Although, in the modern atheist’s view,

   one’s life now and another life lived as oneself

   may not be connected by sharing a ‘soul’ or essence

    which makes them two incarnations of the same person,

       One life and another may still be connected in a 

causal chain, by the consequences of actions ,

   when actions carried out during one life 

        effects or impacts the other life. 

As an example of one life and another being connected

  by the consequences of actions

Let’s take a powerful man who creates a slave trade.

   This man has caused a large number of beings born in the future

     to awaken born into the condition of being a slave.

Surely, this man has not directly enslaved himself,

    he has enslaved other selves. 

However, his own life demonstrates to him

  that he may awaken as the self produced

  by any biological, self-producing, body. 

   Which body becomes marked,

 through direct experience of its function,

as himself , is entirely outside of the control

      of his present self. 

   Therefor by creating a slave trade,

he greatly increases the chances that he will

     one day be born into slavery. 

“Even having become a universal monarch, 

    In the course of the cycles of aeons 

    he also becomes a servant.” 

—The Suhrllekha 

(Nagarjuna’s  ‘Letter to a Friend’)

Not only do negative or harmful acts, which lower the state

    of the world and cause a higher number of beings 

       to be born into poor circumstances,

  have the potential to effect the lives of the future,

and therefor the direct experience of any self there

                              but also

    acts of neutral or unknown effect, and acts of good

 which raise the state of the world, and cause improvement 

     of circumstances in the lives of others.

This is true of all history in general. 

     A good example of a powerful impact 

can be seen in the telegraph, transistor, or radio. 

The world we were born into, arrived at, was fundamentally altered

    by the dreams, and lives, of the creators of these technologies. 

How much more so for the contributors to

language, mathematics, religion, and wisdom

How much more so for a charity or organization

       that saves even a single life—

    A life, which is connected to so many other lives :

      two parents, siblings, children, 

            friends, community, passersby,

         offspring and the connections of offspring,

              and so on exponentially.

    All lives which, themselves, may go on to save lives,

    may invent the next great medical cure or transistor,

 may go on to fundamentally alter the state of tomorrows world.

And, above all else, a life which, 

 in its’ inner world, is self-validating,

   the very same internal validation which we, as a self, manifest—

  an inherent right-to-live as it were, impossible to estimate in value. 

To better understand this aspect of rebirth, its relation to action and history

    we can investigate how history or pre-set

 circumstances function in the life of the individual.

“Have they not travelled throughout the land

to see what was the end of those before them?”. — Quran; Ar-Rum 30:9

  History can be defined as the situation

at a prior point in the timeline of a system. 

      This situation, can guide or define

 the parameters of the systems eventuality. 

  For example, the starting point and volume 

of a river can determine how far 

the river can ever wander from

     that starting point. 

Or, a person who builds a road, 

   increases the likelihood

   that people will walk 

 down that path in the future. 

In the case of the system that is human civilization,

     History is the situation we are born into.

 Whether we arrive into a war-torn land amid a famine

or a peaceful nation where 

community members live in equity and esteem,

with free exchange of products and ideas, a place of high culture—

may often depend on the lives who came before us, the past lives. 

That is, the state of the world we arrive at depend on lives who came before,

     however, we begin shaping this world from the moment we arrive,

     we, in fact, are ‘the lives who came before’ of those in our future.

This is where the previously discussed possibility to be born in the future

   and possibility to be born in the past takes on a new importance

A person who does good deeds, causes a good deed to be done

        in the life of a given self.

Since we have shown it possible to be born as a given self,

   this person increases the chance that a good deed will be done 

        to them as another self. 

A person who improves the condition of lives in this world,

    greatly increases the chance that a life born into will 

   arrive at a world which is in a more positive condition. 

In this way, the domino effect can be practically applied

   to improve one’s condition in general. 

“This World is ours, that’s why the demons are leery,

    it’s our inheritance…” 

     — GURU of GangStarr’s ‘Robin Hood Theory’.

“It is Allah Who created you, then gives you provisions, 

then will cause you to die, and then will bring you back to life…

Corruption has spread on the land and sea as a result

of what people’s hands have done, so that Allah may

cause them to taste some of their deeds and 

perhaps they might return [to the Right Path]”. —Quran; Ar -Rum 30:40

In the Egyptian Reliefs depicting what has been deemed

‘The Book of The Dead’ a monstrous combination of

the most feared Earthly predators, that which swallows whole

rabbits, birds, and men—crocodiles, cheetahs,  and so on,

 a synthesis of hieroglyphs such as Sobek, the crocodile, 

a symbol of ravenous looting, copulating, consuming,

 stands as the symbol for the ‘divine justice’ which occurs 

 when the heart of the dead person is weighed against a feather, 

the symbol for the truth, and found wanton. 

Such a weighing represents the truth about the deeds of their life,

 and divine justice is said to inescapably occur in the next life.

Footnote: Many further connections support this association 

                 with Egyptian resurrection spells and possess a

                 general value relating to our topics,

                 such as the association of Jesus with the shepherd,

                  a symbol of Osiris, the crook and flail,

                or that of the fig tree, a symbol for Nut, representing

                a birth from the Cosmos, Heavens, or Milky Way.

There are many lives

   (many lives, of which we have shown, 

    via our life now, it possible to live directly).

Because of this relation of action and circumstances

  and because of the non-temporal quality of birth

  or otherwise the births which occurred in the past

We are ourselves responsible for much of our own

  circumstances.

In a paradoxical way, by not being the one who committed these actions

    we become the one who committed these actions

    and are responsible for much of the events which happen to us.

In reverse, the actions we visit on others become,

    by this possibility to  experience selfhood,

   actions visited on ourselves, 

    by not ourselves. 

Because of this relation of history, our role through action,

   and these qualities of time and birth

It is up to us whether or not we cause the creation of

   a living Hell, or a living Paradise.

“And many of those who sleep 

in the dust of the Earth shall awake, 

some to everlasting life, 

Mizpah, The Two Camps

Passive Reaction

    This relationship of action and circumstances 

can be used to improve the world and the quality of our own life 

  not only through active action but also through passive reaction.

      By a new kind of seeing ourself in others,

one grounded in fact and reality through the logic above,

  we can begin to change our understanding of self and other.

Through this change, we can begin to see any harm 

      caused to us from a new perspective. 

Since one guaranteed control, over harm done to us

      is in our reaction to it,

and since a majority of the worldly impact of an event

consists in the many people it reaches through us,

    when we react negatively to it, 

(rather than in the events immediate interaction between the two) ,

  we can choose to limit the karma of a negative event

   by reacting to it in as positive a manner as possible. 

Otherwise, this harmful event spirals, freely through us,

     into the rest of the Universe. 

Consequences and Law

Mizpah, The Two Camps

Learning and Spirituality

      This idea, understanding the possibility of birth,

 connects us to the lives and actions of others paradoxically

 through the very separateness and self-hood each of us feel. 

  The tangibility of our identity to us, is exactly the feature that

   can cause identification in any other given biological body,

a feature which connects our actions toward others directly to ourselves. 

Incorporating this eccentric connection 

into the concept of learning and spirituality,

   this connection allows us to accept teachings 

        and authentic spiritual lineages,

 not as mere disciples, but as if it were us who taught these concepts

        for the betterment of ourselves. 

The Two Camps

Jegar-Sahadutha; The Heap of Witness

Judgement and Justice

Because of our knowledge of the harm done to us by others,

and because of this new view of self in other and other in self,

we should be repulsed by the idea of harming someone.

In fact, we should greatly fear it,

  as we would fear a tidal wave 

  about to swallow our entire city

  or a black hole about to swallow our world,

for it is in harming someone once, 

that our link in a series of single actions 

stretching on for an eternity goes unchecked,

and an eternity of harm is completed. 

Because of our knowledge of the harm done to others by us,

with this view of other in self and self in other,

we should show great mercy in judgement and justice 

  on those who do harm us. 

Let us take for example

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”,

    for, any person upon being stoned, will beg and plead;

   but only by realizing the self in the other

 can one comprehend their plea beyond empathy, in directness,

      as it in fact issues, directly, from themself within.

 The mind that comprehends the complex truth on this subject

  recognizes themself in the woman who is to be stoned.

      Whether parable or record,

 this question ingeniously revealed to the members of the crowd 

   themselves in the position of the woman,

    as in fact, they were all along. 

Since it is possible to be born as life,

     to be the self which is produced by the biology,

     it is then possible to be born as a self which is produced by biology. 

Since there are many self’s continually produced 

   as new bodies are born, it is not only compassionate to 

          consider ‘The Golden Rule’, 

    to treat others how one would be treated,

   but is also logical and of direct self-interest.

That is, just as the practical person saves money for a later time, 

so one who wishes to prepare for the next life may do so

in a practical manner, by improving the state of the future world.

Not only is ‘The Golden Rule’ logical and of self-interest,

but is written directly into the fabric of creation.

This ancient mandate of Law is in fact written 

   into the very fabric of creation

  by the fact that many self’s are born, 

existing simultaneously, 

and by the fact that we do certainly experience 

   a portion of these self’s to be us.

We experience a portion of these self’s to be us, however,

portion by portion, the infinite is made up.

 (In Xeno’s Paradox, the idea is put forward 

  that if we divide the distance an arrow travels

  and then we divide that half portion again, and that again,

  and so on continuously, then 

  the arrow must travel an infinite distance

  to strike the mark. )

As these laws are written into the very fabric of creation,

manifest in creation as what Is, one can see a clear connection

to G-d’s communication of these commandments to Moses

and his appearance before him as Am-ness or Is-ness on Sinai. 

That is, G-d said to Moses on Sinai, in answer to giving him his name,

   what is often translated as “ I am what I am”

  which, in Hebrew one might translate as “I am I am” or “I is what is”,

  “I am is” or “I am what it is to exist”. That is to say, a succinct phrase

   expressing G-d as all which exists and all which is beyond what exists—

   for creation, is exactly that: Is-ness, Am-ness, etc. 

   And even that which is beyond material creation could be said to exist

   by the light of G-d or in its’ union with G-d. 

Reviewing the Ten Primary commandments

delivered at Sinai, we see that each and every one

is based on this truth of equal entitlement between two or more beings,

and one can say G-d has made it so in the sense that in the manifestation of this world,

it is also true of natural facts — in the nature of subjectivity, 

in the nature of self and other, and their fluidity, which we have explored. 

We experience a portion of these self’s to be us, however,

portion by portion, the infinite is made up.

 In Xeno’s Paradox, the idea is put forward 

  that if we divide the distance an arrow travels

  and then we divide that half portion again, and that again,

  and so on continuously, then 

  the arrow must travel an infinite distance

  to strike the mark. 

We should consider a self both as us,

      and not us.

Since we experience a self; in judgement,

we should consider it as us. 

Seeing that it is possible to be us, 

   or that we be it,

and is in fact ourself in form of itself,

just as we are itself in form of ourself. 

“When fear and suffering are disliked by me and others

equally, what is so special about me that I protect myself and not the other?

If I give them no protection because their suffering does 

not afflict me, why do I protect my body against 

future suffering when it does not afflict me?

The notion ‘it is the same me even then’ is a false construction…

If you think that it is for the person who has the pain

to guard against it, a pain in the foot is not of the hand, so why

is the one protected by the other?” 

— Bodhicaryavatara Perfection of Meditative Absorption line 95

       These self’s, 

 each causing an illusion of separation and plurality

 out of the substance of the One Unity,

 enact the birth, life-story, selfhood,

 and absoluteness of their own existence,

     and assert

 the privacy of their subjectivity to be unmatched, 

  simultaneously.

We both are and are not,

self is and is not other,

other is and is not self,

The best way to comprehend this truth,

rather than imagining ourselves born as someone else,

is 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 functioning.

Similarly will a given birth feel itself 

to be the self which coincides with 

    its body.

Our life has simply shown it possible to be  a given birth. 

“Through habituation there is the understanding of ‘I’

 regarding the drops of sperm and blood of two other people…

Why can I not also accept another’s body as my self in the same way,

since the otherness of my own body is so easy to accept?”

— Bodhicaryavatara The Perfection of Meditative Absorption Line 111

Since it is possible to be born anywhere there is organic material

      which produces an experience of life

 (or anywhere there is self, soul, or being of any kind)

     it is possible to be born on distant planets,

     if there  is life there.

And since it is possible to be born on distant planets,

     this benefit of ethical action extends to distant planets,

 (or anywhere there is self, soul, or being of any kind).

This may serve as a intimately personal motive for lawful behavior

    should we ever encounter life outside of Earth.

    And should they be intelligent and logical,

    this natural fact, the fact of the potential of arriving at being,

   may serve as an impetus for their reciprocation of 

      mutually beneficial behavior. 

Consequences and Law

Jegar-Sahadutha —The Heap of Witness

The Location of The Garden of Eden,

  Paradise, and Pure Land

    Since it has been shown possible to be born or arrive at

any body or form which can be existed as or which is experienced 

Any such Paradise-like states, Pure Lands, and Edens

  which do exist, particularly ones which are inhabited

by living beings, must be locations in which

a state of life is arrived at — the same number of times

as living beings which exist there.

While there are some distinctions in the specifics

between Buddhist Pure Land, Eden, and the many other

cultural conceptions of Paradise realms, 

and they may even possess varying 

psychological associations of some importance,

the point that any such existing, inhabited states are states one can 

arrive in, is of more importance than any such distinctions 

 or semantics.

Eden, however, refers specifically to such a state

which once existed on Earth

    For the metaphysician there are two forms of such an Eden, 

      the Earthen and the Spiritual.

The Earthen Eden is a theoretical time

in the history of humanity, 

 existing in the distant past

at the time before men wore animal skins

  and fabrics, and before they had knowledge

of the other insofar as knowledge of the other

causes an awareness of their gaze, portrayed

as conscientiousness at ones nudity,

and manifesting in a primal innocence 

outside knowledge of right and wrong. 

It is also said that this is before 

men constructed shelters 

  or possessed other markers of 

  complex civic and economic function, 

  living off the land in a state of nature.

The Spiritual Eden can not be located

by coordinates relevant to the human form

and represents a meta-physical state of humanity 

or a personal internal spiritual state.

The Spiritual and Earthen Edens are

said to have been united on Earth 

during the time of the first men. 

Were it possible to be born in the past,

as evidence seems to suggest,

it would then be possible to be born in the Earthen Gan Eden.

Consequences and Law

The Balance of Deeds

The Possible Existence of Heavens and Hells

Since it has been shown

by the miracle of our own life

that one may arrive in a realm 

from a state of naught,

or in very least, from what becomes forgotten,

then, supposing hellish or heavenly experiences

do exist somewhere,

it must then be plausible for one,

just as one arrived from naught into this life now,

to arrive in a form of Hell or Gehennom (God forbid), a Heaven,

(or Pure Land or Eden-like realm, 

     as previously considered).

There are two distinct kinds of Heaven