Where Are Those Answers? - Reincarnation?
Previously, I discussed our atheistic culture and how its bankrupt ideology provided me with no meaningful answers to life. My beginnings on this planet were horrific.
I needed answers - REAL ANSWERS
I needed answers - real answers and not the suburban-dysturbian answers from my upbringing. Surburbia Dysturbia left me in empty despair.
As an atheist, I grew up trusting logic and science. But clearly logic couldn’t help. My early life with a psychotic mother and uncaring father made no sense at all. Further adding to the confusion, my only true caregiver, Liz, had no way to stop the abuse because she was African American – simultaneously being abused by American society during the Civil Rights era when being Black meant no voice, no power, and no hope of justice.
So No, there was no logic to my life. By the age of twenty, nothing about my life made any sense at all. And Science doesn’t answer questions like the ones I had – those for meaning and purpose. Science is not equipped for that. More about that in another blog.
So I searched. I journeyed into religion and philosophy that claimed to have life’s meaningful answers.
Eastern Religions and Mysticism:
Many people, at least in California, claim to believe in the mystical, eastern religions. There are a number of them, but they mostly boil down to a western version of Buddhism.
Concepts like the Eightfold Path sounded cool. The emptying yourself of all attachments also made some sense and maybe could bring some peace to my troubled heart. Universally, all eastern religion subscribers (or dabblers) believe in REINCARNATION. Again, it sounds cool on the surface – You get to come back, again and again, to improve on the past mistakes the next time around. Most people think they will come back as humans, maybe equal or better than who they were before. Many believe they have already lived previous lives. I have met some of them.
However, the belief system says you could come back as an animal, or a bug or something worse. Every Buddhist I’ve known say they lived before as some human from history, usually rich or famous, or at least powerful.
Hmm… No cockroaches? No maggots? Some people I know act like they could have been cockroaches, or at least are sure to become one next time.
“Aside from these cavernous holes in logic, reincarnation’s biggest problem is the complete lack of forgiveness. ”
Whatever you do WILL be remembered, and you WILL PAY for that in your future life – whether maggot or human.
If you come back as a human, you may be disabled, chronically ill or dare I say, victimized by child abuse. And all of these calamities will be levied on you because you did something wrong in your past life. What did you do, you may ask? Well you have no idea because no one can actually remember the deeds of their past lives.
Seriously? I did something wrong in a past life which I cannot remember and for which I can find no forgiveness or atonement? Wow I must have done something really, really bad in a past life. Apparently, that’s what caused my mother’s psychotic breaks that made her go postal on her small children. Thankfully, I could look at the maggots to be comforted. At least I wasn’t as bad as whoever they were before.
This belief is incredibly harsh. Abusive, really.
It cannot be described any other way.
Further, it is often referred to as a “Circle of Life”.
Circle of Life? More like a Circle of Death.
I mean how many deaths do you have to die before you get this right? Wouldn’t it just be better to keep living and improving? But no, this system ignores the horror of death and just keeps repeating it, requiring it…
Be that as it may, just to clarify, I know many Buddhists. Every one of them is a kind, peaceful person who pursues peace and tranquility. In fact, for those I know, this is the primary reason for their beliefs.
But for me, the answer is No. This is not an adequate explanation of life. I need a more cogent answer that honors my humanity and, as I tease my friends, eliminates any maggots from my past or my future.
So my search continues….
