Reincarnation giving a chance at a dream life

[SomedayorNexttime]

Something has been bothering me lately. I want to accept death fully, but I've started leaning into my more delusional side again and I want to share my thoughts with other people.

I've been diving deep into conversations about reincarnation and any adjacent spirituality that talks about a new life after death. Not necessarily heaven or hell type stuff, but reincarnation type stuff. Forgetting everything and starting over from birth.

I'm worried that if it's real, CTB would "ruin my karma" and I'd come back onto this planet with a worse life and less ways out of it as a result of my past life death, to "teach me a karmic lesson." Something relating to this is how my "karmic tail" is 9-9-18, and that's associated with isolation and professional underdevelopment (and yes, I relate to that very heavily). Said karmic tail is related to CTB or untimely passing if someone fails their "karmic test." But some people can have the karmic tail that means they CTB in a past life, and many of them are attractive and wealthy in their current life, so I don't know. Am I crazy? Am I reading into this too much?
I also read some people's take on how to become a person with abundance and success in the next life. Many said if you give money, you'll come back wealthy since you "sent out that energy" and got good karma. If you want to come back attractive, they say to compliment people or "learn to find the beauty in yourself and others."They say whatever you're good at in this life could be a job in a next life. They also say that you tend to come back as the kind of person you threatened the most or gave the most trouble, like an abuser coming back handicapped or a bully coming back as a laughing stock. They also say on top of this that you can't clear bad karma, you have to ride it out until it's "cleared." Some people even said what you think about just before death is what you'll become in another life, like if you think of a song, you could become a singer, or if you think of your loved ones you could become a caretaker for them. I could go on and on about how much of this type of stuff has been floating in my head. Feel free to ask your own questions and answers too.

It makes me wonder what I'd be if I CTB and came back. What would a loser like me be? Well, I used to give money out for fun and didn't care if I ended up broke, so maybe I'll come back wealthy, I hope. I did call people good looking a couple times but have been called ugly plenty times. Would that make me come back as the opposite? Someone prone to an ego and an attractive appearance that stands out? I am isolated and have withdrawn on purpose, so would I be someone people want to be around? Since I'm always online with no life, I'm constantly viewing other people's stories and posts. Maybe in a next life, I'll be the one observed. Maybe a celebrity? Or an Internet personality? And I have argued with plenty of people before. Maybe because I threatened them, I could be criticized in the next life? And can I pick my appearance if I imagine it on my death bed right before my eternal rest?

This stuff started making me ask more questions. If this reincarnation, "karmic tail", "test for the soul" stuff is real, why are there so many people living similar lives to me, broke, poor and isolated? Were there a lot of bad people and I just happened to be one of them? And would I even want to be reincarnated? This world is a dump. Just imagine coming back onto the planet in the year 2108 trying to make a living! What would people even do in that time??? Eat pollution for breakfast with a side of societal collapse and AI singers?

But here is the main reason why I even care so much about this crap: I am drawn to this idea that maybe there is a way for me to live a life that makes me happy. Maybe I really can live a life that's full and filled with comforts. That if I try now to be a better person, I can be privileged and hot and smart with a full life. If I just get the formula right, I could maybe live the life I dream about. It's just hope for me that I can be something I can't be here.

I'll bet $10 this stuff isn't real and I'm overthinking. If it's fake then that's that, I'll accept nothingness with open arms once I get this life over with. But if this stuff is real, I hope that 2108 isn't too bad. :)

 

[Carrot]

Are you worried about heaven or hell? Are you worried about not having two coins for Charon and not being able to cross the river Styx?

Why? Why not? What makes you believe in reincarnation, but not other theories about what happens after life?

If there is no evidence, I prefer to ignore it. Anything can happen after life, we do not know. People have interesting theories and ideas what could happen after death, but we don't know for sure.

I think it helps a lot of people to believe that everything makes sense even if we don't understand it, that there is justice, maybe over multiple lives. But since there is no evidence for any of this, I don't let that occupy my mind at all. I focus on facts.

If you believe in reincarnation or for some reason are absolutely sure that it is a thing, then go ahead and live your life that way. You can always climb back up after reincarnating, right? It this ultimate balance turns out to be true, then you will suffer a lot in your next life, and then you're next one will be decent again, right?

 

[avalokitesvara]

You've got it all wrong. You think that being privileged, hot and smart and rich, will make you happy. That the goal in this life is to achieve those things, or if not then pin your hopes on having them in a next life as some kind of compensation for not having them in this life.

Being wealthy, privileged, attractive and rich are not the conditions of happiness. If you have them, sure, you can cushion yourself from some of the kinds of suffering experienced by poor ugly people. But 1) you experience other kinds of suffering specific to those qualities of life (for example, if being wealthy made you happy, why do rich people always want more money? think about it) and 2) you will one day be afflicted by old age and illness just like everyone else, you will lose your beauty, and your wealth won't matter one bit when you are looking death in the face (hence why being superrich and transhumanist often go hand in hand. These people want to transcend human life spans because they know death makes a mockery of the thing they have devoted their life to, their wealth).

IF there is some kind of karmic link between births, the process is NOT going to be one where there is some kind of offsetting or mirroring of your material conditions. IF it exists, it would be for your spiritual growth, to grow more awakened and enlightened and to learn that happiness does NOT come from material things and privileges, but from our attitude and detachment from desires and aversions. This is the process basically as it works in theravadan buddhism. And you'd have a long way to go, because you think that being wealthy and attractive are goals to achieve.

However... We are just physical cells. The self is a construct of the brain. When the brain cells die, the self ceases to be. There is nothing to be reincarnated- how could there be?

Karma, instead, is the conditions of the world that we are a part of, which are experienced by the new beings that are born. Each person IS you. It's not that you are some linear thread of one person followed by another. It's that every single person who lives and has ever lived and will ever live IS. YOU.
Your ME is your brain's sense of itself. Every single other person's interior ME is not just the same as yours but very concretely IS yours. We are myriad myriad expressions of the same self.

So if you live your life exploiting others and creating hells on earth, it doesn't need reincarnation for that to mean that you will suffer in a next life. YOU (the YOU of the person being exploited) are already suffering, right here right now.

If we do good, help each other, and don't exploit and abuse each other, we create our own heaven on earth FOR OURSELVES. I helps and supports I. If we exploit and abuse, we create hell FOR OURSELVES. I abuses and exploits I.
And the accumulated karma of humanity means we are very stuck in hell. Most people are not spiritually awakened enough to see this. But if every single person committed to spiritual growth, we would change that. In our own lifetimes, it can only happen there.

 

[SomedayorNexttime]

Are you worried about heaven or hell? Are you worried about not having two coins for Charon and not being able to cross the river Styx?

Why? Why not? What makes you believe in reincarnation, but not other theories about what happens after life?

If there is no evidence, I prefer to ignore it. Anything can happen after life, we do not know. People have interesting theories and ideas what could happen after death, but we don't know for sure.

I think it helps a lot of people to believe that everything makes sense even if we don't understand it, that there is justice, maybe over multiple lives. But since there is no evidence for any of this, I don't let that occupy my mind at all. I focus on facts.

If you believe in reincarnation or for some reason are absolutely sure that it is a thing, then go ahead and live your life that way. You can always climb back up after reincarnating, right? It this ultimate balance turns out to be true, then you will suffer a lot in your next life, and then you're next one will be decent again, right?

You sound a lot more rational than me I just want hope that I could have a nice life or try again. My head is just a mess right now

You've got it all wrong. You think that being privileged, hot and smart and rich, will make you happy. That the goal in this life is to achieve those things, or if not then pin your hopes on having them in a next life as some kind of compensation for not having them in this life.

Being wealthy, privileged, attractive and rich are not the conditions of happiness. If you have them, sure, you can cushion yourself from some of the kinds of suffering experienced by poor ugly people. But 1) you experience other kinds of suffering specific to those qualities of life (for example, if being wealthy made you happy, why do rich people always want more money? think about it) and 2) you will one day be afflicted by old age and illness just like everyone else, you will lose your beauty, and your wealth won't matter one bit when you are looking death in the face (hence why being superrich and transhumanist often go hand in hand. These people want to transcend human life spans because they know death makes a mockery of the thing they have devoted their life to, their wealth).

IF there is some kind of karmic link between births, the process is NOT going to be one where there is some kind of offsetting or mirroring of your material conditions. IF it exists, it would be for your spiritual growth, to grow more awakened and enlightened and to learn that happiness does NOT come from material things and privileges, but from our attitude and detachment from desires and aversions. This is the process basically as it works in theravadan buddhism. And you'd have a long way to go, because you think that being wealthy and attractive are goals to achieve.

However... We are just physical cells. The self is a construct of the brain. When the brain cells die, the self ceases to be. There is nothing to be reincarnated- how could there be?

Karma, instead, is the conditions of the world that we are a part of, which are experienced by the new beings that are born. Each person IS you. It's not that you are some linear thread of one person followed by another. It's that every single person who lives and has ever lived and will ever live IS. YOU.
Your ME is your brain's sense of itself. Every single other person's interior ME is not just the same as yours but very concretely IS yours. We are myriad myriad expressions of the same self.

So if you live your life exploiting others and creating hells on earth, it doesn't need reincarnation for that to mean that you will suffer in a next life. YOU (the YOU of the person being exploited) are already suffering, right here right now.

If we do good, help each other, and don't exploit and abuse each other, we create our own heaven on earth FOR OURSELVES. I helps and supports I. If we exploit and abuse, we create hell FOR OURSELVES. I abuses and exploits I.
And the accumulated karma of humanity means we are very stuck in hell. Most people are not spiritually awakened enough to see this. But if every single person committed to spiritual growth, we would change that. In our own lifetimes, it can only happen there.

WOW. I'm going to remember this. I'm happy this post attracted someone that knows more about this than me.

So you say other people are also the "same self", so other people's experiences are also mine… and that humanity's karma is why we are in a hell. And I got it all wrong, and because my goals are to be wealthy and attractive or I hope that I can have that in another life, I'll have to work on myself a lot.
Lol, I wouldn't say being a hot, wealthy, skilled person is my goal, they're unattainable for me so I don't try at all. But I can see why my interest in wealth and beauty and what-not would hold me back from spiritual development. But I really can't help it. I hate my life so fucking much and I am practically incapable of liking it. So reading this for the first time made me think for a second, "Damn it, maybe there's a chance I have to do this BS all over again because I didn't learn anything from it."

Maybe that thought of mine isn't right either. Idk. I guess I hope spiritual growth for me means I can have a life I want while learning the dark side of beauty or wealth. Whatever it is, I can't have that kind of growth in this life, my brain just isn't wired for it. Maybe it's delusion for me or it's just immaturity. I just want to pass away the right way, and before I CTB I want to give whatever I can so that IF I come back, IF there is another chance, I'll have fun.

If there is a slim chance I come back to earth and I have to come back in the same shitty conditions to learn anything, I'll just CTB as per usual. I personally just don't get what I'm getting out of not being happy.
Someone said somewhere that you can pick whether you reincarnate or not, so I hope I can opt out of coming back as a failure of an human being again.
But you also said that the self ceases to be. That's what I took note of after a couple of rereads. If I really just become worm food after all this crap then that's fine. Maybe it helps humanity's collective karma somehow.

 

[brokenspirited]

I just want hope that I could have a nice life or try again.

I too, have a similar desire.

 

[Manfrotto99]

I had to give up on the idea of karma as it seemed I would just end up in the same position again in another life if I CTB or likely still an even worse one. The idea of it totally does my head in. Trapped for eternity in this pain and struggle - until I learnt to let it all go and just be... but how can I while I'm trapped in the midst of it! If I can't get through it now, why would I in another? Seems very pointless and cruel. Instead I chose to put my believe in Christ who takes it all on the cross - so I can be free of the pain and struggling.... if not in this world, at least in that which is to come :)

Then again, if Karma exists and I did have to go through it again, perhaps I would be much wiser and hopefully do things differently.