Re: Allowing myself another non-skeptical message on this thread
Titus Rivas said:
quote:
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Thus if we could remember our previous lives then we will define our selves to a large degree upon previous ways we have defined ourselves, which were defined under particular circumstances. If however we forget our previous lives then the one consistent influence over successive incarnations will be the intrinsic self or soul. Over many many lives this is the one factor which will shine through, and even though ostensibly ones personality may vary radically from one life to the next, there will be a common essence from life to life. This might be discerned in more enlightened souls. For example, if a person in any particular life is a kind and loving person, and this is not a false front so that you are acting the role so that other people will think and treat you in a certain way, but rather is an expression of your intrinsic essence, then one might expect this kind and loving nature to be evident in successive incarnations.
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I disagree, as you already thought I would.
Er . . no. I thought that you and everyone else would agree with me once you had read my explanation. I really don't see how it is possible to dispute my reasoning. Mind you, the same happened with my paradox ie I thought that everyone would change their mind once they had read my explanation. Looks like it's happened again!
In my ontology, one soul is not say essentially more loving than another. The structural differences come about as a result of the history of a personal soul. They are developed or acquired traits rather than ultimate ones.
I feel the differences among souls amounts to more than everything we have ever experienced. But in any case this is not relevant to my argument. The kind and loving soul I mentioned might well have acquired this "structural difference" due to that souls experiences in previous lives. My argument need not imply that the soul did not acquire the kind and loving nature in previous lives. But once acquired, then in successive lives thereafter, this kind and loving nature will shine through.
This is precisely one of the reasons why historical knowledge of one's own previous life is so important.
We don't need to consciously remember to be effected by our experiences.
We've become what we are because of our history. Not only in a passive way of what happened to us in the past, but also through our past decisions. In my system, the present brain and body are much less important for where we stand today than this what I sometimes call multivital heritage, i.e. heritage of many personal lives.
Well, as I say I think there is more difference to souls than personal history. But all this is wholly irrelevant to my argument anyway.
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Forgetting our previous lives, in my opinion, is the most profitable for aspiring towards and reaching that goal.
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I don't see how.
{shrugs}
Well I explained why in some detail in my post yesterday. Rather than me elaborate, it might be best for you to specify what you don't understand or disagree with, and then take it from there. I do disagree about souls all being the same prior to any experience whatsoever. But obviously that is not relevant to the point of contention.
The more conscious knowledge we have of what it is like to be in a certain situation etc., the easier it will be to empathise and sympathise with another person in that situation.
Indeed I agree. But this in itself is vastly insufficient to negate the extreme disadvantages of remembering ones past lives. And besides, it's so "mechanical" isn't it? I mean the idea that I won't say treat a person badly because I was once treated the same way so I can empathise and sympathise! The sympathy and empathy should exist regardless of any conscious recollection on our part of undergoing similar experiences.
For me amnesia is like useless pain: it's the result of a larger, meaningful system, but it isn't meaningful itself and it should be undone if possible. For me frying to find a deeper reason for it, is like finding a deeper reason for feeling excruciating pain at the dentist's practice. I'd rather use some "anaesthesia".
Well here you're simply stating your position without justifying it. Nothing you have said appears to have come to grips with my argument whatsoever.
You're as bad as the materialists!
Sorry Titus, but I feel quite strongly about this issue. On a personal level I would absolutely
love to remember my previous lives. But I scarcely think that doing so is advantageous in terms of "soul making"
PS If one were a complete bastard in a previous life, would you still say it is advantageous in remembering? I mean advantageous in terms of "soul making"?
