From One Step to the Next 

When we meditate and make the mind calm and quiet, the ego dissolves. When there’s no thought, there’s no ego. Ego gives rise to thought. Thought gives rise to desire. Desire gives rise to attachment. Attachment gives rise to the concept of the limited self. The concept of the limited self gives rise to unhappiness, frustration, birth, death, and rebirth. It is only when you realize that you are not the body and that you are not the mind, that you are not that which is perceived nor that which perceives, that you will be free from the snares of illusion.

To become free it’s necessary for you to become conscious of the fact that you’re not human. We like to feel that we’re human beings. We like to feel that we love and care. We like to feel that we have parents, that we have children, that there are those who love us, that there are those who need us. We like to feel that people say good things about us, that after our death others may remember us with fond memories. We like to feel that we serve some purpose in this world, that we aid others, that we help others. This is all an illusion. This is not so.

You are quite immortal and you are supposed to be, but you are also quite human and you are supposed to be. You are really neither. All is a play of existence, world upon world, scene upon scene. The play goes on forever. We wake up in one lifetime and we play a role. We wake up in another lifetime and we play another role. We wake up forgetting, gradually remembering and then we fall asleep again, and we dream another dream of immortality.

Sometimes we come across great obstacles. In our discrimination we feel that life has no meaning and no purpose, which is absolutely true – life has no meaning and no purpose. We then feel that life is purposeless, that there’s no reason to try, that life is empty. This is another illusion. The illusion of happiness is one illusion to be avoided. The illusion of unhappiness is another illusion to be avoided. The illusion of purpose is to be avoided. The illusion of lack of purpose is to be avoided.

Self-honesty is absolutely necessary. And the main point of self-honesty that you need is to ask yourself: Am I really happier? Do I feel better about my life? Do I feel more relaxed?” Even though the circumstances of life are sometimes pressured and chaotic, aside from that, just “Do I personally feel better? Have I reached a mental state this year that’s vastly superior to the mental state I had last year?” If the answer is no, then you’ve got to start your spiritual practice, over. You’re not doing it right, and certainly your practice will not lead to a better incarnation or whatever you want to call it.

In other words, I think all incarnations are this incarnation.  And the primary purpose of reincarnation, the knowledge of it, is that it assures us that life is worth living, that all this is not vain and futile, and that the spiritual practice that we do in any given life is not a waste of time. Life is not a one-shot deal. It is forever, and things do count. But to be so simplistic as to think that you can just go out and help a lot of people and somehow get a better life, that’s not reincarnation as I know it. That’s fantasy. A better life comes from being happy and from inner realizations. Now if helping others adds to that, well then, it’s great. But postponing happiness – suffering, in other words, intentional suffering and the postponement of happiness – is not yoga or Buddhism, and it will not lead to a better incarnation.