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Choice of Afterlife?
- Thread starter Psalm23
- Start date
I actually do. I can come back here to earth and live another life or remain as existence/consciousness/bliss (satcitananda).
Precisely as it is described in the Scriptures and what I can deduce from that. A glorified body with different properties (such as being able to travel at the speed of thought), with Heaven and Earth united, God and all spirits fully visible, all the animals and plants that died previously enjoying their existence to the fullest extent that they were made to, in the presence of the Lord and His Saints. If I make it there I fully intend to race through the Universe first. It's gonna be awesome. In my opinion at least.
The Sum of Awe
Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Hmm... I'd choose to awaken to the hysterical laughter of jester gods and the clapping of machine elves. Thereupon I would learn or realize the meaning behind my experience here on Earth.
Going a bit deeper into the time between leaving one body and returning in another, my understanding of the afterlife starts with a past life review. Those who have been kind and generous, loving and caring experience what others have experienced from them and that joy is called heaven. Those who have been treated others badly experience what they meted out and that misery is called hell. But neither are permanent.
People continue this rebirth process until they've done everything they could ever want to do and experienced everything as well. Then they start the process which eventually leads them to union with the Divine.
People continue this rebirth process until they've done everything they could ever want to do and experienced everything as well. Then they start the process which eventually leads them to union with the Divine.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I do not think that anyone can ever know what the afterlife will be like, even though some people have conjured up images in their heads from reading Scriptures. I believe we can know general things as noted below but we cannot ever know the specifics.
“Death proffereth unto every confident believer the cup that is life indeed. It bestoweth joy, and is the bearer of gladness. It conferreth the gift of everlasting life.
As to those that have tasted of the fruit of man’s earthly existence, which is the recognition of the one true God, exalted be His glory, their life hereafter is such as We are unable to describe. The knowledge thereof is with God, alone, the Lord of all worlds.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 345-346
I believe that the nature of the soul is a mystery no human mind can ever unravel. I believe that after our body dies our soul will pass on to the spiritual world (heaven) where it will continue to exist and take on another form, a spiritual body which will last forever.
1 Corinthians 15 New Living Translation
40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies.
44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die,[c] this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.[d]
Read full chapter
Now back to your question. My ideal afterlife would look like the soul that is in heaven as described in this short video:
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Can you cite the Scriptures that refer to this kind of afterlife?
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I'd be the eternal Supreme being of all creation.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
I like reincarnation. Not as an after life but the same life I get to improve on for centuries until I got it right.
I don't know how I'd reincarnate to know whether my life circumstance would be better or worse. One life not afterlife. I do lean towards souls existing waiting for bodies but that's not reincarnation. Heaven doesn't attract me maybe because I don't believe in god to make sense of it.
When my aunt passed and I held her ashes that's when I figured, welp. That's it. She's no longer here. We're all going to be ashes. Dead. Dead. Deadskie. If you got the movie reference.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I do hope you realize that position comes with a lot of responsibility.
Another go around on earth as a different person. A whole new set of problems/personality quirks to face.
WisdomAddict
Member
how can we know we do a good job on learning in each reincarnation?
i personally believe in reincarnation
because i remember my death in last reincarnation
but i was been in really harsh and terrible conditions and i know it was definitely karmic related in my current life or reincarnation
how do i know in the next reincarnation will it be better??
will they carry with me and they will repeat again??
or i pay them all?
i personally believe in reincarnation
because i remember my death in last reincarnation
but i was been in really harsh and terrible conditions and i know it was definitely karmic related in my current life or reincarnation
how do i know in the next reincarnation will it be better??
will they carry with me and they will repeat again??
or i pay them all?
but where? Will you be @ a point in space? I hope you will not say "beyond space."
Will you be involuntarily aware of being at a point?
Or will you say "I am omnipresent by inference" ?
Or will you actually sense omnipresence?
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"Will you" implies a point in the future...or more accurately, time. "Where" implies space. These are Maya.
My first involuntary awareness experience (or more commonly known as a spontaneous mystical experience or "oneness" experience) happened in my early teens. From the perspective of vyavaharika, this happened at a point in time as a result of Maya. In Paramartika, I am immutably aware.
Who senses? With what apparatus might I sense this?
Namaste
At first , in your reply there was time , and space as well. While the first part is directly mAyA , in the latter part of the sentence and in the whole sentence there is choice involved => mAyA. Please see :
VERBS: come back, remain. Remain is also by choice per the earlier part of your sentence and hence in that same framework, showing your awareness of choice and will or even observation of conciousness.
PREPOSITIONS: here to <object> ; <verb> AS <object>[/QUOTE]
At first , in your reply there was time , and space as well. While the first part is directly mAyA , in the latter part of the sentence and in the whole sentence there is choice involved => mAyA. Please see :
So what? Since you are showing a choice, time and space have not gone away.
The one who claims they CAN either come back here to earth or "remain as existence/conciousness/bliss"Who senses? With what apparatus might I sense this?
VERBS: come back, remain. Remain is also by choice per the earlier part of your sentence and hence in that same framework, showing your awareness of choice and will or even observation of conciousness.
PREPOSITIONS: here to <object> ; <verb> AS <object>[/QUOTE]
Namaste.
You make a valid point. Choice does imply Maya, doesn't it.
This makes for an interesting topic.
Maybe "choice" isn't the best choice in words.
A jivanmukta, or more accurately, Atman, once their body and mind expire, remains as as Brahman. It doesn't become Brahman, because it never wasn't Brahman. So "remain" in this case isn't really a choice, so to speak. I can't choose to be what I eternally am.
So how does an avatar (such as Krishna in the the Bhagavad Gita) come to appear in vyavaharika for the aid of jivas who have trapped themselves in the cycle of samsara if not by some form of choice?
PearlSeeker
Well-Known Member
No afterlife at all. Just life. And eternal youth. But I guess aging and death must also have a purpose.
Aha! So choice => mind ? God has a .mind.
On a more serious note, it is like a set plan in Bramh' that can be called nIyatI - or destiny, and the Divine Will.
--Shri KRshNa is pUrNAvatAr - Complete VishNu and hence we can say His Will
--There are partial avatArs and they are sent for this avatAr-kArya (mission)
--Other yogis could develop a desire on their own to come back here => automatically it means they were somewhere before coming here.
So while KRshNa came here as NArAyaN Rshi of the pair Nara-NArAyaN and later as KRshNa of the pair Arjun and KRshNa resp., He does not deny being in one place, many places and all places simultaneously.
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A loka is both a state of consciousness, as well as a place ? May not be a concrete place, but more like a simulated or generated place of like-consciousnesses (like video-conferencing).
Hence we have the 7 higher lokas and Christians call it 7 heavens. We also have 7 lower lokas. = a total of 14
So essentially the question is, where is "beyond 14 lokas" such as Vaikuntha spots?
Is that not "in space" where there is no matter at all? Before that , where are the 14 lokas ?
I don't think the lokas are in single spatial location each. They may have headquarters,, but all the beings in a loka are of alike-consciousness so they are connected to each other and they are capable of inter-loka connection.
Simplest form is the bhakta- BhagavAn heart connection.
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