Can anyone explain to me, tho, why we forget everything about our past in this life? Would it not be much more helpful to the learning experience if you remembered?

Hi

also, what one thinks of as 'my self' is a concept that applies to physical life. Once we get back into the afterlife phase, we may retain attitudes or feelings (not emotions) but not so much the self or ego.  There, much of each individual life experience is shared, then discarded.

This world is relatively dense.        Boundaries are established here that aren't needed elsewhere to protect each point of consciousness (each 'self' --woops.).

A sense of that merging of self can be found in some NDEs and some other mind states retained from afterlife (some out-of-body) explorations. Discarding all the boundaries of the concept of self is not a giving-up, it's a gain.

Bets

Hmm, ok. It`s hard to wrap my mind around these things. For example, many Buddhist and people like Ken Wilber say we have something like an inner core that does not relate to our memories, feelings or thoughts that is our real soul. I just cant wrap my mind around properly what this essence may be - although I sometimes think you can feel it in other people.

Also, it would be nice to remember past lives, but granted, that would be a bit like "cheating"

bird, I get what you are saying, but in that same vein, there are friends of mine who do not credit anything I say about things they have not experienced themselves.  And that is fine...my guidance has said that they are not ready yet, and exposure to my worldview cannot harm theirs and the path they are living in this life.  Likewise, the understanding and learning I am experiencing in this life was planned and both me and my soulmates had placed various clues, calls, tells and situations which would awaken me to the direction and purposes we had planned before coming into this lifetime.

For the longest time, every woman I met with short dark hair and a petite frame would attract me like a bug to a lightbulb.  I no longer react the same way (lucky for the women!), but one of the women that fit that mold had an extremely powerful message for me, and repeated it to a truly dramatic effect 18 years later which effectively pushed me into my current situation.  Another that fit the description is my wife.  Both of them are longterm soulmates and we are following our lifeplans as the scripts they are.

I was meant to discover and learn about this topic over the course of this lifetime...I don't think the messages and signs resonate to anyone who had not intended to reach some level of understanding along these lines and in this lifetime.  In other words...I don't think you are cheating by investigating these things!

Yes, I appreciated that perspective too, useta.

From where I sit, I think that 'noninterest' can be a positive trait in a partner, if a person is an 'explorer', or if a person is considering new outlooks and 'ways of being'. It allows for more personal freedom for the 'explorer', for more freedom to pursue different practices and ideas. To be involved with someone who is actively trying to change your perceptions, your beliefs, etc. can be discouraging and nonproductive. I think we hinder each other's journeys when we do that, and it is very easy to do, even unintentionally.

that's super cool! how did you learn of you and your wife's past lives? i often wonder how my husband and i were connected previously.

Chrwe.\,
chrwe wrote on May 26^th, 2010 at 11:24pm:

Not sure where you got the idea that Buddhists believe that, not the ones I have talked to anyway.
For me their beliefs about having a soul are just a little difficult for the Western Mind to grasp.  Taken in the context of what we call our Higher Self it says we DO have a soul that survives death and continues to exist after life.   I think your confusion is in not realizing that we are each an individual expression of our Higher Self.  We were created to be self aware beings that are unique personalities by our Higher Self with a purpose that can only be fulfilled if our identity continues survive after "death."
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Again I would ask in which context, from what perspective could that statement give the illusion being correct?   I have only "one" physical body yet I appear to have hands that perform separate fuctions.  So I have no Body because I have Hands?  What if there IS "only one soul" and I function as that soul's hand or fingers.  Does that mean I have no soul?  Not from the perspective being both the hand and the higher self.
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Maybe the simple answer is that the "all awareness" you are "only a part of" are both different "versions" of who and what we really are.  You as an individual and you as Higher Self coexist, what you experience depends on which "version of you" you are focusing your attention through.
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In my opinion your belief that you lose "all self" is a basic misunderstanding of who and what you truly are.
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Basically, you are right, if at death we as a conscious, self aware being ceased to exist and all that you experienced was lost too, why would we exist at all?  Absolutely no reason too exist at all.  BUT, we do exist as a grand collection of the experiencers/experiences of every part of our Self!  So there must be something you are misunderstanding or not understanding about a reason to exist.  Because none of us would if their was no reason to.  Nature doesn't waste time nuturing useless life forms.

You are not useless.  You exist and will continue to exist long after the point where time and space no longer exist.  Maybe you could consider exploring beyond your present beliefs.

Bruce

In a way, it doesn't matter, because if a person takes a practice and follows it with any sincerity or imagination, the truth will present itself, one way or another. A simple practice, like looking into a candle flame, very primitive, just looking at small fires. Looking out over water and noticing what reflects, what moves. Who cares what they say? At a certain point, it all becomes a mantra.