Earlier in my life I was completely into the karma thing.  And all it did was....well it just depressed me and made me not want to go on in life.  What's the point...everytime I made a mistake I was going to have to pay for it later?  Forget it then, I don't want to pay twice and feel guilt for the mistake I made and then have to go through the actual experience again.

So then I thought...maybe we only experience what we did to someone else if our soul decides it would be beneficial to our growth or just because we want to experience it...and not an actual set in stone law we all have to follow through on.

Or maybe we only going through harsh experiences because we have been taught that is how life is, and our very thoughts attract it into our lives.  Where if we only expected and focused on good things, then we would only attract that into our life (that would take a lot of unlearning and a lot of faith on our part to accomplish.)  I think this goes along the lines of -stop playing the victim.  (The exception to this in my mind is when a loved one dies...I don't believe our thoughts attract this into our life...therefore I'm not completely sold on this philosophy or maybe just don't understand it completely.)

Then I got a message from my great grandma (died when I Was 11) in one of the exercises that you do in a Bruce Moen workshop, and I've been thinking on it ever since.  She just said, "Have all the fun you can in this life, and I will see you in the next." (Thanks Joe for passing this important message on to me from my great grandma).

Don't ask me why this 'simple' message had the effect on me that it did.  But it had never occured to me to 'have fun' while here.  What did she mean have fun?  But life is suppose to be hard work, and sacrifice, and ....have fun?  Because it came from my great grandma who I admired and loved, I took it to heart.

While trying to apply it in life I started seeing situations in a different light and just feeling different about how things really are.  And just as you mentioned  - even wondered...do we just come here to experience different things?  Is it like a big playground?  Maybe there isn't good or bad or right or wrong...just experiences.  

Or here's another thought, one of my favorite quotes (I'm doing this from memory so excuse me if I blunder it) from the 3rd Matrix movie.  The oracle said, The decisions have already been made....the reason you come here is to find out why you made the decisions you did.  Well that's a different way of looking at it.

Or maybe for each life there is an infinite number (or somewhere in that neighborhood) of "yous" all living out every possible choice or decision you could ever make and is experiencing every possiblity?  That way we play the good guy, bad guy, stupid guy, ignorant guy, brilliant guy, all within the 'you' you are now.  Then mix that with the thousands of different lives 'you' have had at different time periods..and wow...that would certainly be something to write home about.  I know personally my mind has a hard time wrapping around that concept...but it doesn't mean that it isn't possible.  We don't want to limit our possiblities with only things our human minds can comprehend.  

What do these all have to do with each other?  Nothing.  I haven't come to any conclusion on any of this, and this is where my thoughts are scattered at the moment (welcome to my world...muwahahahah).  I look forward to reading what others have to say on this, and hope to have some new thoughts to ponder on this topic.  

Jenn

Axel - I am more of fan of referring to life as "experiencing" rather than "learning".

experience seems to fit better with the idea of free will and that destiny is not set in stone. 

curiosity of course is the driver for experience and explains why you would rather experience the unexperienced (for example a life as a murderer or vagabond) rather than just spend life after life as Justin Timbalake or Cameron Diaz...

I really like the following interpretation or view as to the meaning of life:

Quote:


I think we come here for the experience and in particular the desire to know more of ourselves in each of these various experiences.

10 points if you can guess who the quote's from? 

Scott

I think you should not overlook the Karma thing as this is a very old old doctrine of the very earliest and as our human thoughts all revolve around good and bad then why not have a judgement on your acceptance from this life into your next state of awareness, the judgement will determine your human life mostly good or bad and weigh them up! Most people i come accross in life will have no problems with their karma as they mostly live honest lives! Why worry about karma if your life has mostly been good! You must live over 50% of your life bad to be in a hell state!(or so i believe)
Just my thought on how belief of karma can make you a slightly better person knowing it has a detremental effect on your next state of awareness! Just making an effort to be good and honest in life is more than enough on judgemental day, Small wrong's we all do in life can not be more than the love for familly and others on a percentage scale throughout our exhistance! I think the Karma thing is to protect ourselfs from doing seriouslly bad thinks! That does detter me from doing them!
I hope i havent offended anyone if my interpretation of karma is wrong by their knowledge! but it helps me!
Shroom

Now I do recall two cases that have a karma-like quality.

A German fighter pilot who was shot down in England during World
War 2 was reborn as an Englishman. This is well documented.

Admiral Yamahoto, who planned the Pearl Harbor attack (not sure I
have his name right) was reborn as an American. He traveled to
Japan, recognized the place, and last I heard lives there.
(I don't have the documentation of this handy.)

Being reborn as the children of your enemies has a nice touch to
it.

A lot of interesting ideas being shared in this thread.  I will add my own two cents.

I think life on earth is more about learning than experiencing, but it is both.  I think for many people, coming to earth might be mostly about learning how to find God, truth, goodness, and love in a place where these things tend to be obscured and overshadowed by falsehoods and evil.  It's about learning how to recognize what is important, and about building willpower to become a source of light rather than just a receiver of light.  Learning to choose between options, to choose to serve others rather than self, to choose the difficult path of faith and hope rather than cynicism and negativity.  Learning to build heaven within, when the world around you can seem like hell.  Building spiritual muscle, with which to create and do wonderful things in the afterlife that we can only dream about here.

The real fun begins after we die.  That's when we get to be in heaven.  Earth is only preparation for the bliss that awaits us.  It's a character-building experience.

Those are some of my thoughts.

Freebird

Quote:



Hi Dave.I disagree with your statement.I don't think that we manifest here to learn,because,if we are PERFECT,EXTREMELY VAST and POWERFUL higher selves or beings,then i don't see what we could learn.For example,you don't learn how to have your breakfast,because once you have done it once,you know how to do it the second time.You don't learn how to watch the TV,because you just need to do it once and then you remember how to do it.And as you know,dear Dave,the actions in our lives are very repetitive.
That is why i think that we manifest to experience different emotions and actions,like a game,when you take your playstation and press "START",then you play,you have fun until you get bored.And once you get bored,you finnish your game (like when we disengage).
  All these beliefs about "learning" come from all these corrupted religions,whose aim has always been to frighten,brainwash and control people. In my view,freedom is valid even in the afterlife.

well said Tim, worth more than 2 cents, my pov. nothing teachs me like experience. for instance experiencing giving birth. nothing quite like it. i doubt I'd have learned anything about how a heart can become so full with love that it threatens to spill water from the eyes from the grief of loving too much. I wouldn't trade this life for anything better, not even the bliss of heaven which does not exist for me in traditional conjecture. Tim is right. we can amaze ourselves for the gain of experience.

Dave, I did regress myself much later. but I don't put it in your professional terms. I later saw this life as a part of me, as a part of an experience I understood intimately associated with my pattern of being. I saw many lives as energy fields which overlap, as when we lay the body down, we become and are an energy field, or ball of light if you wish. words are hard to communicate with. I surely am knowing that.