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The beautiful strains of this early work in Ecclesiastes, modernized into a song made popular by *The Byrds; have seemed to sign my philosophy of life with the depth of emotion that I feel upon the fulsome, blowing, warm return of Spring weather.
*"To everything, turn, turn, There is a season, turn, turn, and a time to every purpose under heaven" (potentially, lyrics by
Ecclesiastes 1:1 to 6:6 especially: 3 1-9 'everything has a time and purpose':
"FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS AN APPOINTED TIME, EVEN A TIME FOR EVERY AFFAIR UNDER THE HEAVENS .2. A TIME FOR BIRTH AND A TIME TO DIE,A TIME TO PLANT AND A TIME TO UPROOT WHICH IS PLANTED; 3. A TIME TO KILL AND A TIME TO HEAL, A TIME TO BREAK DOWN AND A TIME TO BUILD, ..."
Ecclesiastes 1: 4-7 "the wind- round and round it is going... and right back to its circlings the wind is returning."
Refs: New World Translation Contemporary English Version
Isiaiah 35. Redemption, Spring, Way of Holiness
3: 21 and 22
"who can say does manspirit ascend and beast return? Who is there to bring him in (back to earth or up to heaven) to look on what is going to be after him?"
Do we simply bless the land with our passing, like so much green recycle, or are we ascending into the realm of the angelic? We need to know - is it true? Do humans go to a heaven, to a Nirvana, after they die? Do we return as new children, to reincarnate within the human condition?
When Winter comes, and the plant loses its life signs for another six months, or forever, what lets the plant recycle as a species?
We see that, sometimes a plants' renewal is by seed, and that the new seedlets bear the genetic signatures of its forebears, fairly exactly. We don't watch a plant itchingly die, or potentially ever see a plants' light ebb and then recycle as part of the stars. Perhaps a few observe a plants' nutrients alone, as they become a heavenly new project: Earth.
When Isiaiah (a philosopher and leader whose work can be found in Torah or Old Testament) pondered for posterity- he really could not answer these questions.
Do man and beast both transcend after a life of struggle, to become little cows and men with wings, all sharing a golden joyous heaven in the clouds, together? Do sheep return as littler lamb versions of themselves in Springtime? Does anyone check, or follow the lamb?
There are so many references about the life stages: "Tibetan Book of the Dead", and "The White Peacock" being the best worked out meditation for the care of the souls' flight. Tibetan Book of the Dead is also called The Six Yogas of Nairopa. This work (said to be created by Padmasambhava by some, or by Milarepa by others) defines six stages of the Bardo plane of existence, three being stages concerning the passing from the body into other realms.
The White Peacock is an unique and esoteric Islamic text; its visualizations define, for example, the entry into the pearly gates of heaven (image of the White Peacock)
Many worshippers believe in reincarnation.Some ancient Greek philosophy includes reincarnation,as does Pagan belief, Kabalists (Mystical Judaism), Christian Gnostics (Mystical Christianity), Jain, Hindus,Spiritists, and Buddhists
Ref: Wikipedia
Ancient Greek Philosophy: Metempsychosis
Metempsychosis is an ancient Greek term that refers to the transmigration of the soul.
The Orphic religion,
founded in Thrace by Orpheus, is said to have taught :
"soul and body are united by a compact unequally binding on either; the soul is divine, immortal and aspires to freedom, while the body holds it in fetters as a prisoner. Death dissolves this compact, but only to re-imprison the liberated soul after a short time: for the wheel of birth revolves inexorably. Thus the soul continues its journey, alternating between a separate unrestrained existence and fresh reincarnation, round the wide circle of necessity, as the companion of many bodies of men and animals."
"The entire process of change from one life to the next is called, by the Buddhists, punarbhava (Sanskrit) or punabbhava (Pali), literally "becoming again"; it is also known simply as bhava, i.e. "becoming". The process seen from a universal perspective, encompassing all living beings, is called samsara." The medieval Pali scholar, Buddhaghosa labeled the consciousness described ... as constituting a condition for a new birth as 'rebirth-linking consciousness' (patisandhi), which connected the arising of a new life with the moment of death. (Burmese: Pali is a Burmese folk dialect) ...Another school, the Sautrantika, made use of a more poetic model to account for the process of karmic continuity. For them, each act 'perfumed' the individual and led to the planting of a 'seed' that would later germinate as a good or bad karmic result.
Christian Gnosticism and the Near-Death Experience
In history, esoteric writings by the apostles of Jesus were hidden and even destroyed as heretical.They were discovered to be identical in their descriptions of many out of body or near death experiences as in the work of modern day witness, Edgar Caycee...
"The Christian Gnostics were seen by some as a new Jewish sect who believed they had finally found the long-awaited Messiah. The were not thought of as a new religion. The Christian Gnostics accused the Church of watering down the gospel in order to popularize it for the masses."
An eminent scholar on gnosticism, Ioan P. Couliano, states from the very book listed in the Prophets’ bibliography that “some gnostics” believe in the “preexistent” soul, but not all.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet with Erin L. Prophet.,
Summit University Press, Corwin Springs, MT, 1997, 412 pages.
as Reviewed by Joseph P. Szimhart
The quote from Jesus from the Christian Gnostic gospel, the Book of Thomas the Contender, describes Jesus teaching reincarnation: "Watch and pray that you may not be born in the flesh, but that you may leave the bitter bondage of this life." Book of Thomas the Contender 9:5)
If you read into some of the essays Rabbis have been offering through Chabad.org (Community Outreach for Orthodox Judaism) you will find some references to Old Testament or Torah are conceived to be about the subject of reincarnation. Tilles refers here to a Jewish Book of Reincarnation, called Sha'ar HaGilgulim
Ref: Chabad.org / Yerachmiel Tilles
The Jewish book of reincarnation is called "Shaar HaGilgulim", The Gate of Reincarnation.
The ongoing work refers to mysteries of Kaballah (Jewish Mysticism) and also to Torah.
In Sha'ar HaGilgulim, the concept of soul is stated as having five stages of Light, which is energy in Light form as it emanates from God.
five stages of the soul- different levels of light emanating from God:
Each level of Light has a corresponding "world", four of which are named as formally belonging to human levels of being, or the involvement as a "face" ("partzuf" ) A root word for Face is resh (Hebrew letter R) maening, also "profile", or signature.
The soul as corresponding to worlds is said to relate to ten "sefirot". The "sefirot" are named :
Ten Sefirot, Named
"keter, chochma, bina, chesed, gevura, tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod, and malchut.
However, each one is a localized version of the entire system.In other words, it is possible to discern within each one of them ten component sefirot, and within each one of those ten others, etc. (This may be likened to a photograph taken with a hologram, where any detail may be blown up to reveal all the basic information that is contained in the whole photograph.
All the basic information of the whole is contained in the detail; and the detail contains all the basic information found in the whole.)
When we see a number of sefirot joined together, working together and functioning together as a system, then they are called a "partzuf".
Each partzuf has a unique name, and these correspond to the names of the sefirot, the names of the soul and the names of the worlds, ...(Chapter 1, Section 1). "
Ref as quoted above: Page 3, Gate of Reincarnations, Chabad.org
Light binding into worlds and to stars, or to the dimensions of stars- the whole concept certainly seems to be a macro/microcosm theme. The "sefirot" is Hebrew for star, sapphire gem, and also for the light of the third eye. It is also used as a reference in the understanding of the 613 body parts of the "partzufim".
The uniqueness of the partzuf is a combination of Light with the worlds of existence plus the focus of stars, whether great stars of the universe, corresponding parts of earth, or the gemsets of generations, within human DNA. Referred to as a "sefirot" of genus, a family tree of three generations as the human is re-forming.
The mystical school teaches that, to reincarnate, the face of 613 body parts must be complete, through the completion of the 613 mitzvot (Jewish rules for living and spiritual wellness)
In the Old Testament (Torah) many references are made to a "reward" that humankind may receive. The many ways of mentioning this great gift allude fairly consistently to the concept of reincarnation, which offered a whole new body, and life in a sheltered time of joy and innocence.
2 Kings 32- 36: Elisha and resurrection.
Elisha through the knowledge of reincarnation, capably returned a child from the dead. His healing motif was to lie full length against a deceased child, and to assert that the being had died, but that they were, indeed, reborn.
In the realization that the spirit had led a life before that of his child self, the spirit ran through a record of his reincarnating to the life of the child receiving treatment. The child was returned from the dead through a conscious appreciation of life continuum, and also by faith in the life function.
It is not well-known to Christian thinkers, but resurrection from a death state is also recorded within Torah (called Old Testament in Christianity) as well as the resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament (Christian records after the birth of Jesus).
Restoring a persons' spirit to their existing body is not true reincarnation, but the knowledge of reincarnation had to have been within the healing concept that brought the child back, through the faith and knowledge of Elisha.
Christian New Testament: Peter 1:18 to 19:
"It was not with corruptible things that you were delivered:....but it was with precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, even Christs'."
PETER 1: 1- 23, 1 Peter 1:23-26.
23: "For you have been given a new birth, not by corruptible, but by incorruptible (reproductive )seed through the word of the living and enduring God."
2: "Accordingly, put away all badness... and (2) as newborn infants form a longing for the unadulterated milk belonging to the word."
The disciple, Peter discussed the gift of new birth through reproductive seed, (human conception) which was called "incorruptible" seed.
It's simple, he mentions that we have another chance at life through rebirth. He is speaking to those who will have a chance at the "unadulterated milk" in a newly innocent way. His "milk" meant the flow of goodness or bliss (Called 'amrita' in the East) coming from the great Oneness, or one Supreme Deity called what word suits whatever nation.
(hint hint) Peter continues, in Chapter 4, to talk about "falling", that is, dying. I love the "If two lie down together" reference:
Peter, Chapter 4: 10 to 12
"if one falls, what if there is no other to raise him up? of course, if two lie down together, they also certainly will get warm, ..and a threefold cord cannot be quickly torn in two."
Someone may have asked Peter, who will raise someone who has died, what if no-one's there? Perhaps they are asking how they can bring themselves back to life if they have passed. Peter says, "of course, things will warm up if two get into bed and co-produce a new child.
I feel that he is referring to the idea that one may rise again, but this time, it will be through the union of man and woman, and that the persons' spirit would come back in baby form. It seems like the best equation, otherwise, if all that God had in mind was to offer the "milk" of bliss, there would be no talk of resurrection.
You would pass away into bliss-amrita. The end. In fact, what could be tangible to a soul, once the body is passed? Does it seem normal to lie down together as two during the time that a person has passed away, without either the healing concept of Elishas', or of the mundane calling to renew life through parenting?
By 'threefold cord', Peter is mentioning not just the umbilical cord of the new child made by union between man and woman, but also the bond between mother, father and child.
There is a difference of opinion with regard to the expression used in New Testament as to what "incorruptible" meant in those early days.
In this dialectic by Ephrem Chiracho Ouchula the text explains that:
"Here the word used for “incorruptible” in the original language of the New Testament Scripture is aphthartos, the same word that is used in 1 Peter 1:4 to describe the imperishable nature of the believer’s eternal inheritance.This Greek word refers to something that is not liable to corruption or decay, i.e., uncorrupted, or imperishable."
Published in Bible Witness, Vol 5 Issue 2 (March - April 2005)
Another translation, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, asserts within the Biblical tranlation, in square brackets, that the word "incorruptible" relates to reproductive "seed". This relates to a reference in New Testament,..there is quite a conversation about what is corrupted, meaning "that which is dead" versus what will arise via the incorruptible:
1 Corinthians 15: 35-38...(36)"What you sow is not made alive unless first it dies..(38)But God gives it a body just as it has pleased him, and to each of the seeds its own body..."
1 Corinthians 15: 42..."So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised up in incorruption..
1 Corinthians15: 44..."It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual one."
One needs to read all of 1 Corinthians :15 to get the general idea that childbirth was also considered to be a holy gift as well as the rebirth into the Word in a higher sense.
Paul was talking in an earthy fashion to regular people, yet exalting the Creation through humankind and true rebirth.
Again, in 15:52,
"Look! I tell you a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep [in death] but we shall all be changed. For this which is corruptible must put on incorruption and this which is mortal must put on immortality"
In the Jerusalem Bible (1971) 1 Corinthians 15: 35 is a bit more earthy still. It is listed under the title "The Manner of the Resurrection".
(35) "Someone may ask,"How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come back?".
(36)They are stupid questions. Whatever you sow in the (37) ground has to die before it is given to new life and the thing that you sow is not what is going to come; you sow a bare grain, say of wheat or something like that,
(38) and then God gives it the sort of body that he has chosen; each sort of seed gets its own sort of body."Genesis, Old Testament, or Torah: Covenant made in the One:
15: 1-5, 13 to 16 "You may know for sure that your seed will become an alien resident in a land not theirs, the nation that they will serve I am judging...(that is, Egypt and slavery to come)... but in the fourth generation they will return here ( that is "israel" )
(NT) John 8:58
Was this the intention of the following sentence?
Had someone asked of the apostle John, "John, what was your name before you were born?"
Does anyone remember living before the life of a famous character, now here to tell the tale? Is there relevance to this statement other than to say (as Moses has said before him)...I was alive before all of this happened? Was he saying for the wind and the stars?~e.g.:
"before Abraham came into existence, I have been."
Bye for now!
Sue