From: jeffjc@cs.mcgill.ca (Jeffrey CHANCE)
Subject: Re: reincarnation in multiple bodies?
Organization: ----
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 17:14:18 GMT

Earlier I wrote:
>>Supreme enjoying Himself in a little game, a little wierd sort of
>>funny and unique experience. Another example of this class of
>>phenomenon (IMO) is when a soul reincarnates as a different sex.
>>In both these cases, the phenomenon is a very rare occurance but
>>still occurs every now and then as part of the richness and
>>completeness of the Divine Lila.


To which Pat Monardo replied:
>the Supreme what? the Supreme object of wild speculation?
>a soul now incarnates only in one sex? how silly!
>i find the above paragraph extremely annoying.
>human existence will remain a metaphysical hell
>as long as religious leaders continue burdening people with
>notions of Spirit and God. it's a bad game.


Fine. But did you understand what I was getting at?
I was trying to say that, IMO, there are millions of
things going on in the creation (and, while I've 
mentioned it, this is all IMO, Im not just blindly quoting
from books Ive read, a brain-washed follower of religious
teaching like you seem to imply). 
Look at all the stuff thats going on in the world. Almost
anything you can imagine a person experiencing, has
happened or is happening. Think about it.
Some of the things that people experience seem to be quite
common themes- eg. growing up, having relationships, friends,
having a job, having people you know die, getting sick,
having some hobby, following some religion, etc. Other
things are the exception, such as people being visited by
UFOs, people becoming movie idols, people who channel
communication from non-physical beings, people whose whole
life centres around training for the olympics, people who
go through life blind, etc etc. The point here is that there
is so much going on, some of it more common, some of it less
common. Now, I subscribe to the belief that, ultimately, it
is the Supreme (God) who is the ultimate experiencer of all
things. I also subscribe to the belief that the Supreme 
actually wants to have all these experiences, as part of
His game and manifestation here. This is where I was coming
from when I posted about the topic of reincarnation in
multiple bodies. 

As for the part about the soul almost always reincarnating
as the same sex, this is my belief based on what my teacher,
Sri Chinmoy, has said about this. I know that a lot of these
new age teachers say that it is quite common for a soul to
come back as a different sex. But, their words don't have
any meaning for me personally. Not that these topics are
particularly important, but if Im going to have an opinion
on such things I base it on the writings of those who I
consider to be God-realized or almost so. These include
my teacher Sri Chinmoy, Yogananda, Yukteswar, Vivekananda,
Ramakrishna, Aurobindo, Maharshi, and others (probably
Meher Baba too, except I haven't read any of his works).
From what I have read, only Sri Chinmoy has addressed this
particular question and hence based on what he said I
happen to believe that souls almost always stay as the
same sex throughout their human incarnations. This makes
sense also if you happen to believe that each soul is
meant to manifest something particular, some particular
quality or set of qualities, regardless of the incarnation. 

Maybe someone else has something to say about their opinions
on this. Any references to what the above-mentioned spiritual
master have said, that I may have missed? Again, I want to
say that in any event this particular question isn't really
important, but I responded because you (Pat) didn't agree.

>i was watching some catholic priest on the tube,
>and he was trying to paint a picture of Divine
>Grace pervading creation. of course he was standing in 
>some idyllic garden environment. fortunately, my Buddhist
>training allowed me to slap myself on the face and recognize
>it as mind control. this technique wouldn't work if
>he was standing in Los Angeles a few months back.
>I find the Soul teaching offensive as well. Here
>is this Divine Self which can't be seen or even
>defined and yet it is the focus of much Theistist teaching.
>The effect seems to be to belittle human existence as
>fallen/feeble. It is anti-empirical and an emperical
>philosophy is the only way to harness the full power of Being.
>-- Pat Monardo
>

So, are you saying that those who try to inspire mankind with
spiritual thoughts, with thoughts of peace and love, etc.,
either on TV or in public or through their writings, don't
have a meaningful contribution to make to this world?

Jeff
--------------------------------------------------------------
|    Jeff Chance                       | That to which you   |
|    Dept. of Chemistry                | give your attention |
|    McGill University, Montreal       | becomes stronger in |
|    MAIL: jeffjc@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca | your life.          |
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern