Reincarnation: a Passage Through Time

By Robert Colacurcio

This book invites readers who consider themselves savvy investors in their long term future to give some serious thought to the lifetime(s) that may come next. The authors approach is to investigate the essential relationship of the human soul to time. Whether the reader currently believes in one lifetime or many, the relationship of the soul to time will condition whatever comes next on the other side of the portal of death. There are many nave portrayals and gross misconceptions about what comes next, whether one believes in an eternity in heaven or an indefinite number of reincarnations. This book tries to get beyond many of these limited conceptions. Too many people have only childhood information to work with when thinking about their long term future. Unfortunately, everything you need to know to make savvy investments in your long term future was not taught in kindergarten

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493151363

Robert Colacurcio

Robert Colacurcio has been practicing the methodology of the Buddha’s spiritual technology for over thirty five years under the guidance of some of the most accomplished meditation masters in the Vajrayana lineage of Buddhism. Earlier in his life he studied to become a Jesuit priest, and earned his PhD from Fordham University in philosophy. His spiritual background includes two years at the New York Zendo, extensive study in the Human Potential Movement under the direction of Claudio Naranjo and Oscar Ichazo. His journey then took him to a Sufi commune learning the disciplines of the Russian savant, G.I. Gurdjieff. He is also deeply indebted to the works of Carlos Castaneda, Robert Pirsig and Jane Roberts. He currently lives with his wife, Carol, in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia, and delights with pride in the growth and constant source of revelation that are his children and grandchildren

Book preview

REINCARNATION

A Passage Through Time

ROBERT COLACURCIO

Copyright © 2014 by Robert Colacurcio.

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4931-5135-6

eBook 978-1-4931-5136-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 04/03/2014

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter One

Two Opposing Positions

Chapter Two

The Artifice Of Time

Chapter Three

The Politics Of The Soul

Chapter Four

Dispositional Space: The Temporal Distension Of The Present Moment

Chapter Five

Finding Timelessness Through Innocence

Chapter Six

The Unique Timelessness Of The Human Soul

Chapter Seven

The Crack In Our Picture Of Heaven

Chapter Eight

The Soul As Spirit-In-Matter

Chapter Nine

The Hardest Habit Of All

Chapter Ten

The Virtual Self And The Passage Through Time

References To Chapter One To Ten

Final Dedication

This book is dedicated to my beloved wife, Carol Jo, who has accompanied me on my evolutionary trajectory through time in many lifetimes.

Introduction

It seems to me that people in America either easily entertain the idea of reincarnation or they instinctively oppose it as something that ought to be opposed. This book aims to discuss the idea of reincarnation so that those who easily entertain the idea can finish with a deeper understanding and those who oppose—assuming they choose to read in the face of their opposition—can also have a deeper understanding. In the end, the idea of reincarnation is not coercive. The ideas that clarify the understanding of reincarnation are not compulsive the way a conclusion to a logical syllogism might be. It seems to me, that in the end, there are temperamental differences among people that are more persuasive than the influence of ideas. However, I still hope that the person who remains temperamentally opposed to reincarnation will finish with a deeper respect for those who hold an opposing view. In this sense, their temperamental difference of opinion will no longer be a covertly militant opposition, just an amicable attitude of disagreement.

In a later chapter I will be discussing the historical reasons why the Church stopped the teaching of reincarnation in the 6th century. Since that time, all Christians in the West have been taught to believe only the idea of one lifetime that has eternal consequences either in heaven or hell. Fifteen hundred years of being conditioned to believe one idea is a long time. If the idea that the earth is the center of the universe and that the stars are perfect geometric shapes fixed into a crystalline dome surrounding the earth—if these ideas had been taught for 1500 years, people would be culturally conditioned to instinctively accept them as true. Oh, wait. They were. That was the teaching of the educated elite up until the time of Galileo. So, one of the ideas to keep in mind is the idea of cultural conditioning.

Fifty years ago Dick Tracy’s watch allowed him to communicate long distance. This was a fascinating fantasy. Apple and several other tech companies have recently introduced a wrist band version of the smart phone. In some aboriginal tribes that are still tucked away in remote jungles, the idea of long distance communication by phone itself is inconceivable. Smoke and drums are the only way to do that. Cultural conditioning puts momentary limits on the reach and range of what the mind is able to entertain as a possibility. The point is that if we in the West had been taught the idea of reincarnation as the cultural standard—the way it has been for millennia in India—we would take to it as naturally as the people of India do.

Besides cultural conditioning, there is fear that limits the reach and range of the conceivable. When I was a child, the Catholic Church was still teaching the doctrine of salvation only within its dogmatic parameters. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus est is the pithy Latin turn of phrase that makes the claim that outside the Church there is no salvation. The nuns in my primary school told me never to darken the doorsteps of a Protestant church. I must resist any curiosity or a friend’s invitation to go there for a Sunday service. My immortal soul would be in jeopardy if I did. Can you imagine the mind of a child being skewed with fear this way? I was in my late twenties before I sat down with my Protestant friends at one of their worship services. Fortunately, the Catholic Church, with no little chagrin on its face, has recalled that exclusivity doctrine. It has a way of being able to recall truths that no longer hold water let alone hold up to scrutiny. It no longer conditions or puts this kind of fear into children learning the catechism. But that doctrine was taught as the truth for centuries. So, if it can recall the truth about outside the Church there is no salvation, why not the truth about we only live once?

The folks who can easily entertain the idea of reincarnation may paradoxically contribute most to its complexity and the difficulty of clarifying and deepening an understanding. These people may have actually given some critical thought to what happens to life after death. They have seen through some of the clichés about heaven, for example. They have considered the problem of meeting up with relatives and loved ones again. Wanting to be alive in their prime to enjoy what heaven has to offer, they wonder what age will their parents and grandparents be, who of course would also want to be alive in their prime. They wonder about the idea of eternal rest because, after all, eternity is a long time. Wouldn’t something like stagnation and boredom begin to set in? Life on earth may have been a vale of tears, but there’s no denying that without its trials and tribulations, there would be no satisfying triumphs, let alone the opportunities to develop the virtues and qualities which merited heaven in the first place. Heaven as perpetual easy street might be fun as an extended vacation, but that conception of heaven doesn’t offer the opportunity for any real development of the mind and heart. How will heaven as eternal rest compensate for the lack of obstacles and challenges, which have always been the essential conditions for character development? So the conclusion starts to creep into the minds of these folks that something like reincarnation might be preferable to the clichés of heaven.

However, this train of thought can be brought to a screeching halt by the fear and uncertainty of what reincarnation might mean. After all, maybe what has been portrayed as the platitudes of heaven would be preferable to a round table of suffering that might be served up in some unknown or unfamiliar physical form. Perhaps, if there was a way to control the incarnate form one would assume the next time around… . Still, there’s no denying that each of us makes some bizarre and wildly mistaken choices in life. What if in a moment of confusion, the bucolic life of a cud chewing cow looks very inviting, and the result is a life as part of a herd being raised for steak and hamburger! So, even for those who easily entertain the idea of reincarnation and can juggle some of the ideas pro and con that surround it, there is still a fear that lurks behind the uncertainty that comes with the prospect of reincarnation.

The eternal either/or of heaven or hell at least has clarity to recommend it. In this scenario, the game of life has clear winners and losers. The stakes are impossibly high, granted; but there is something about this winner-take-all scenario that has a hidden safety valve. The Owner of this high stakes casino called The Game of Life is not a heartless entrepreneur. Even if I should end up losing everything, maybe he won’t throw me into that dark pit where there is endless weeping and gnashing of teeth. Merciful judgment is a possibility. Not only that, but hell itself may just have been presented as a scare tactic. Maybe there is no such thing. A lot of people today feel that way. So given the choice between the eternal heaven or hell scenario with its safety valve options and the scenario of indefinite reincarnate futures based on the merit of my own decisions, the safer choice may be the heaven or hell option.

This book will discuss some of the many ways that our passage through time conditions whatever future there may be. Passage through time certainly conditions the way we think about future scenarios in the afterlife. Einstein once remarked that we humans may have created the idea of time just to keep everything from happening at once. It may be that time itself is not only the yellow brick road but the veil itself that hides the wizard. Passage through time may prove to be the great illusion. Perhaps the illusion of time is what conditions us to think of either the heaven/hell scenario or the reincarnation scenario as plausible. The reality, if we can get even a glimpse of it,