' Rebirth and Reincarnation '...

The Long Path idea of reincarnation is illusory.

The Short Path idea of it is that it is an undulatory wave, a ripple, a movement upward onward and downward.

Since there is no ego in reality, there can be no rebirth of it. But we do have the appearance of a rebirth.

Note that this applies to both the mind and body part of ego: they are like a bubble floating on a stream and then vanishing or like a knot which is untied and then vanishes too.

We have to accept the presence of this pseudo-entity, the ego--this mental thing born of many many earth-lives--so long as we have to dwell in that other mental thing, the body..

But we do not have to accept its dominance; we do not have to perpetuate its rule, for all is in the Mind.

Where then are the reincarnatory experiences?

Appearances which were like cinema shows. They happened in a time and space which were in the mind.

The individual who emerged lost the individuality and merged in the timelessness of eternity. This is the unchanging indestructible Consciousness, the Overself.



-- Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth >
Chapter 2: Rebirth and Reincarnation > # 220
Paul Brunton