Happy Birthday!

It is after midnight of December 24/25 and I am now officially in my 71st year, yesterday was my 70th birthday. One could ask how I feel about this and the answer is simple, no differently. This is the same answer that one would hear from just about anyone telling the truth about it. A better question would be how do you feel now compared to when you were 40, or 50, or 60. That is a more difficult answer to give.

One difference is in the quickness of wit; I am a lot slower now than before. I listen to/watch Conan O’Brien interviewing another young person, just for an example, and I notice how rapidly the exchanges are made. This is true not only of him but many others who are under say 50 years old.

 Another difference is an increase in my sensitivity towards others, especially in what I say. Earlier years would have had me making observations that I may have considered astute, honest, and constructive but in fact could easily have caused hurt feelings and hard feelings.

 A third is the level of understanding to which I have come when I observe the behavior of others. I can see/understand from where some people are coming and tolerate, even accept the different point of view, the different thinking, the different set of standards they are using to guide their actions/thoughts. There are other differences as well but these are the main.

One of my responsibilities now is to maintain this brain-body so that I can continue to fulfill the purpose of the being, who is the “my” in this sentence. The brain-body is the vehicle for development of the being. At some point in the lifetime of this brain-body, an eternal being entered it and took his place within; it could have been at any time in the lifetime from first breath to now.

 For a long time I thought it was first breath, and it may well be; but now I think it could be later, almost any age. I became aware of him somewhere in the mid nineteen nineties but he could have been lurking within from a much earlier time.

 The major portion of my development started during long walks but the antecedent activities were important as well; being introduced to the ideas of the 4th way; my short time with the Georgetown group; my readings all during the intervening times even up until now; and the exposure throughout my life to people who had an influence on me that went beyond the mundane. So, I don’t know when in-habitation took place but it may have come later than previously thought.

It could have happened after college, or maybe during same, or maybe much earlier in the younger years of this lifetime. My imagining as a boy included many of the scenes that came to pass later in my lifetime. There have been attractions to locations where we lived and visited; an attraction to Newport News, to the Chesapeake Bay, to Sydney Australia, to Chantilly France, to “the North” in England, to Louisville, to San Francisco, to Hawaii, and a much earlier attraction to sailing.

There are attractions to horses, cooking, French, and on and on. All of this could be coincidence or it could be permanent personae who simply enjoy seeing these locations in their current state and who enjoy continuing some satisfying activities that went on in their lifetime(s).

 In-habitation is much like any other set of circumstances in which we find ourselves, when it happens is not important, that it happened— is.  Just like when it happened is not so important, also not is what has happened to date. Important is what happens from this date forward in this lifetime. When one considers a person like Jesus Christ, and there were more than one like him in history, who reaches a point of development that transcends physical existence; one realizes that this won’t be the last lifetime for this being.

In a big way, as I sit here and ponder the possibility of living another lifetime in the circumstances that are shaping up for the future now, I am not all that enthused about it. But then, I won’t be the one who will make the decision, it is the being within that continues to exist after the death of this brain-body.

 There has been a great deal of development taking place over the past 15 or so years, not nearly enough to expect being accepted into the ranks of the purely spiritual world, where a being can continue to develop without a brain-body in-habitation.

 So the being that continues, with perhaps the old and some newly made permanent personae, may look upon another lifetime with enthusiasm and the anticipation of making the most of it regardless of the situation that may exist in the world at that time.

The reluctance felt is caused by what are seen as the projection of the current set of conditions and extrapolating them into the future. The experiences of this lifetime are such that the conditions that can be projected to exist are frightening.

 But this is why the fabled drinking from the river of forgetfulness was invented. It is a way of accepting a new lifetime; it is also an indication that memories, pegged to emotions, die along with the brain –body; and yet, there are some memories that have come through from previous lifetimes. These are usually snippets and not extensive emotional experiences. These little memories are candy to the permanent personae.

 I, the all inclusive self, don’t necessarily want to have to cope with ever expanding technology that can distract one from his development; but if presented with a new, fresh brain-body, unaware of the experiences of this lifetime or any previous, I may look at, for example, holographic projections of sporting events or theatrical productions with excitement. The master function, who is totally concerned with getting to the next level, is not phased by what happened, for good or ill, in previous lifetimes. He is moving on from here as soon as he is ready.