From: suzych@swcp.com   
      
   > >Me, I'm doing spiritual stuff part of the time, but have no problem with   
   > >the idea that I may come back as an atheist dentist in Fiji next time.   
   >   
   > Of course, you may not come back at all.   
      
   Always a possibility, of course.   
      
   > Or, you may come back as a   
   > Pope, a drug dealer, a chef, an artist, a wife beater, or a Amazon   
   > native.   
      
   Done 'em all, mate -- 'cept possibly the Pope . . .   
      
   > Considering the randomness of it all, I'm glad that I don't   
   > believe in reincarnation either.   
      
   Ah -- but it's not random.  I have chosen and will choose, so says the   
   version of reincarnation that make sense to me, lives that I hope will   
   bring me life-lessons that I still need to learn.  Sometimes it works,   
   sometimes not (and then I have to line up another life that I hope will   
   take me where I wanted to go), since one of the prime lessons of   
   incarnate life on the physical plane is the way sheer physicality gets   
   in the way and re-directs matters: and the role of chance in fardling up   
   the best laid plans -- and the unexpected lessons that come along as a   
   result.   
      
   > We are given not schedule. You could live another   
   > 50- years or get hit by a bus on the way to the grocery tomorrow. The   
   > universe has its own agenda   
      
   Not by my lights.  The "agenda" of the universe is to expand until it   
   reaches the point at which it reverses, shrinks, implodes -- and then   
   Big, er, Bangs itself back out there into another round of expansion.   
   Our part in all this is to be the highly conscious bits of "godhood"   
   that play out their inter-relations and perceptions among the struts and   
   girders of the universe's structure, which takes no account of us at   
   all.  Doesn't need to.  WE are the "account takers".   
      
   > My belief that there is no afterlife forces me into some very   
   > cool places. For one, I treat everyone better now (you never get a   
   > second chance to make a LAST impression). I don't eat fast food. My   
   > last meal will not be seved to me in a paper sack from a place with a   
   > clown on the sign. Everything I do has new meaning, because I will not   
   > pass this way again. I listen to my children. I don't argue about   
   > stupid stuff.   
      
   Great -- if only the rest of the world had come to such a sane, laid   
   back place (I have too, but only some of the time -- too impatient to   
   linger long, I'm afraid).  Some folks get to a similar place more   
   slowly, through years of meditation/contemplation.  I'm trying, but it's   
   tough -- I'm running pretty hot this life in terms of my perceptions and   
   reactions, so I'm learning what *that* kind of living has to teach (and   
   also my efforts to refine and damp it down).   
      
   One of the things I've learned is that we each know exactly what our   
   experience has taught us, good, bad, or indifferent.  Sounds like you've   
   had some strong lessons and taken the best possible knowledge from them.   
   I like to think I could do as well in your place.  As it is, I tortoise   
   along as best I can, listening to my dreams for echoes of past turns at   
   the tiller (tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, spy, milkmaid, steersman,   
   scribe, smuggler, etc etc etc).   The biggest lesson of all is that all   
   roads are right roads.  Yours sound good and strong.   
      
   > Thanks Suzi -  I've enjoyed this. But I really have to get back to   
   > work.   
      
   Aye, thanks to you too -- the one thing most of us get wrong most of the   
   time is not recognizing and greeting our fellow-travellers with respect   
   and with pleasure, although that makes the journey lighter all round.   
      
   best,   
   Suzy   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)