Your thoughts on the afterlife?

Standingstones

Celestial
Some years ago I took some classes on Tibetan Buddhist meditation. The Buddhist nun giving the class told us that if we didn’t live positive, good lives our next incarnation would be a life where we transgressed into a lower form. This disturbed me so I asked a question to make sure I heard her right. “So in our next incarnation we could return as a cockroach if we didn’t live a positive life?” I asked her. She said yes, that is what will happen. I left there and I never returned.
 

Ron67

Ignorance isn’t bliss!
Some years ago I took some classes on Tibetan Buddhist meditation. The Buddhist nun giving the class told us that if we didn’t live positive, good lives our next incarnation would be a life where we transgressed into a lower form. This disturbed me so I asked a question to make sure I heard her right. “So in our next incarnation we could return as a cockroach if we didn’t live a positive life?” I asked her. She said yes, that is what will happen. I left there and I never returned.
How would one redeem oneself whilst being a cockroach?
 

Shadowprophet

Truthiness
I get what you're saying but I'm hard wired to accept things with evidence.So if there is a God I'm condemned to hell because God made me impervious to believing by faith alone!.So I don't have a choice.
Oh no that's fine, if there is one thing I want people to understand about me versus who I was even last year, it's that I've grown a lot, I never really was about pushing my beliefs off on others but more so now after having lost so much family and then having what's left fall apart, I see now that what's most important isn't that my friends believe in the same God I do. What's most important is they are my friends. I think it's wrong of me to make any assumptions about people based on what they do or don't believe. It's the person and how they treat others that's most important, don't get me wrong, I would eagerly wish and welcome you to be a Christian, but that's not a requirement to be my brother. My calling I think, is just to be as kind as I can be to people, I don't believe in judging others, according to my belief, I am a very flawed person, and love and kindness covers many flaws.
 

Ron67

Ignorance isn’t bliss!
Oh no that's fine, if there is one thing I want people to understand about me versus who I was even last year, it's that I've grown a lot, I never really was about pushing my beliefs off on others but more so now after having lost so much family and then having what's left fall apart, I see now that what's most important isn't that my friends believe in the same God I do. What's most important is they are my friends. I think it's wrong of me to make any assumptions about people based on what they do or don't believe. It's the person and how they treat others that's most important, don't get me wrong, I would eagerly wish and welcome you to be a Christian, but that's not a requirement to be my brother. My calling I think, is just to be as kind as I can be to people, I don't believe in judging others, according to my belief, I am a very flawed person, and love and kindness covers many flaws.
Great way to live your life regardless of ones beliefs.
 

Rick Hunter

Celestial
Oh no that's fine, if there is one thing I want people to understand about me versus who I was even last year, it's that I've grown a lot, I never really was about pushing my beliefs off on others but more so now after having lost so much family and then having what's left fall apart, I see now that what's most important isn't that my friends believe in the same God I do. What's most important is they are my friends. I think it's wrong of me to make any assumptions about people based on what they do or don't believe. It's the person and how they treat others that's most important, don't get me wrong, I would eagerly wish and welcome you to be a Christian, but that's not a requirement to be my brother. My calling I think, is just to be as kind as I can be to people, I don't believe in judging others, according to my belief, I am a very flawed person, and love and kindness covers many flaws.

b0044
 

The shadow

The shadow knows!
6b830786a09901c37e4d769dab8a4d7e.jpg
Babylon 5 said it best.
there are some times I smell my dads prince Albert tobacco...
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
I believe very strongly in reincarnation. We are here to learn. Good and evil do not really exist; there are simply good choices and bad choices. Western society has ingrained the idea of punishment and hell into us since birth but these concepts don't exist on the spiritual plane
.
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Hey friends. These days, I spend most of my free brain capacity thinking about what happens to us when we physically die. I am a fairly devout Christian, however our Bible isn't really detailed about this topic. Pretty much, if you believe in Jesus you go to a better place. If you don't, you go to a worse place. I have been reading alot of books and articles on the topic. From what I can tell, there are likely to be levels of Heaven and Hell. Reincarnation is possible but not guaranteed, and we may be reincarnated somewhere other than Planet Earth. Our beliefs and behavior in this life (or others we have lived) determines which Heaven or Hell we go to. It seems quite possible that we can graduate from one level to another, or go backwards to a worse level. Also, some spirits of deceased people can stay here for various reasons.

This is what I have come up with so far. My Christian faith doesn't demand that I proclaim one particular explanation of the afterlife as 100% true and all others are false. So, I am willing to learn and revise my expectations. What does everyone here think about the afterlife? How did you arrive at your beliefs? Any books/articles/lectures or other resources that you found particularly enlightening?

Here is my penny worth.
The afterlife, what it will be like, depends greatly on our conscious and perceived expectations.
One who has regrets may not have the best experience crossing over verses one with no regrets. Or he may decide to remain Earth bound. Same for one whose mind is filled with knowing he/she has done terrible things, only for them it may be a hell-like experience. An experience created by their own psyche of guilt that they can not escape from once they become free of their body.
One who has none of that will have a very pleasant experience.
The soul is energy and as thus is neither male or female. However most who cross over prefer to self identify with whatever sex they were before they crossed over.
What or who they see will vary certainly as well. So a religious person will see figures they expect to see plus family members perhaps as well. Others will simply see family members or perhaps a spirit guide to help them across.

The spirit world is a resting place, and not a permanent place for souls to reside.
There is a spirit world for every single world of life. They are all interconnected on a higher level but I am not sure how that works. Especially as it pertains to the multi-verse.

All souls go through learning stages and levels and for the vast majority that means reincarnation. If not here on our planet Earth then somewhere in the cosmos or multi-verse, as most souls are not restricted to Earth.

The amount of time a soul spends in the spirit world depends on a host of things. How well the lessens were learned in the immediate past life, urgency, and what the plans are with other souls with whom they are to interact with in their next life...for example.
Some may remain there for a thousand years while others may reincarnate only moments after they die.

We plan our own life and lessens we need to learn in that life. So we prearrange who we will be, what our likes and dislikes and interest will be(basically) as well as if we need to be a male or female.

One whom murdered in their past life, may feel they need the lesson, to feel what it is like to be a victim of murder, in their next life...as an example.

People you knew after you pass on will appear to you as you best remembered them. So one person being viewed by 5 others may be seen in 5 different ways. It will depend on how those 5 people best remembered you.

Communication is done telepathically. It is the truly, one, universal language. So you may find you can talk to animals(pets).

Souls are eternal. Once they have been created, they can not be destroyed.

There is no Devil or Satan. Those are human constructs.
There is also no Hell. Any hell-like experiences are a soul's own self tormented creation.
Remember the phrase "You are your own worst enemy." This is very true.

Souls are at different ages.
There are young souls(relatively speaking), and there are old souls.
Age depends on how many lives one has lived as an intelligent entity and how much time has passed.

....IMHO
 

pepe

Celestial
I think my soul is just my mind.

Life has made me what I am and I started as a blank page with animal instinct and have been shown the way by those who directed me. I don't think people are born evil or good but it is what they are exposed to and how it is delt with that creates the persona.

I've known truly bad people who have done some terrible things and I knew the families they came from, equally terrible and very little chance of becoming nice minded people. I have since returned to where is home never to go back, it's there though. This as my experience has split my mind in some fasion where how I used to think still pops in for a visit but I now know better.

Understanding what enables us to understand is not accessible today but in time I think it will be so and the soul and mind will be seen as one.

Three becomes two becomes one again.
 

k

Honorable
The semi-active role of karmic power in our life reduces the significance of your own actions. Human being, his rational activity violates the laws of nature. Only because of human actions you can live such a colorful life that you will want to become blooming forest glade in afterlife.
 
Last edited:

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Oh no that's fine, if there is one thing I want people to understand about me versus who I was even last year, it's that I've grown a lot, I never really was about pushing my beliefs off on others but more so now after having lost so much family and then having what's left fall apart, I see now that what's most important isn't that my friends believe in the same God I do. What's most important is they are my friends. I think it's wrong of me to make any assumptions about people based on what they do or don't believe. It's the person and how they treat others that's most important, don't get me wrong, I would eagerly wish and welcome you to be a Christian, but that's not a requirement to be my brother. My calling I think, is just to be as kind as I can be to people, I don't believe in judging others, according to my belief, I am a very flawed person, and love and kindness covers many flaws.

I found that the trick to making a sale isn't to push it's to suggest and let the target convince themselves.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Nivek, what do you mean?

Rational activities of humans as a whole are rationalized through the filters of society these days which doesn't give enough due consideration to nature, producing a momentum that's actually irrational in the bigger picture...

...
 

Rick Hunter

Celestial
Heaven is another thing that Christians look forward to, but the Bible doesn't often describe in detail. Where Heaven is described, may be a reflection of what the writer thought it ought to be. Jesus told the thief on the cross beside him that it was paradise, but that is not very specific. I have heard Heaven described as everything from a land of unlimited carnal indulgence to a simple reuniting with God. Here's my take on what Heaven (or whatever we might call an ideal afterlife) could be.

Heaven is more of a state of being or existence than a place or activity. In Heaven needs and desires cease and we exist in a state of perfect equalibrium. It isn't so much perfection and pleasure as it is completeness and satisfaction. An island of stability, if you will. Although I am not a Buddhist, I think this is what their practitioners are describing as Nirvana.
 
Top