Originally Posted by ArrJay

It’s often said we are here to learn from our various lives. However, if the universe is 12 billion years old or whatever the latest estimate is, if our souls have been around for a long time, in the context of billions of years does that imply an individual has had many millions of lives and still has to keep on learning?

Or is it that we have come out of some sort of soul factory more recently (say, the last thousand years for example) which would appear to be a more realistic time period for learning what needs to be learnt?

If as I believe, a lot of human behaviour is driven by unconscious forces in our own minds, the result of how we were parented, how can you learn from something that will to a large extent always be out of our control? Free will or the capacity to make life choices will always have to occur in the context of what you are, which is largely a product of how well your parents loved and managed you at a time when you were very young and had little control over your life

Moving on to the next conundrum, Earth is a small planet in a massive universe. Do we reincarnate back here all the time or could we end up anywhere in the universe? If there are untold parallel universes and/or dimensions, can our soul be reincarnated in one of these other universes or dimensions?

Or are the answers to these questions simply too much for our limited human minds to properly come to terms with? Does it really matter if we don’t really know the answers? If you think you do in fact know the answer to the questions, how do you know and what has been the driving force in your path to such profound enlightenment?

Just putting these questions out there in the hope people who are much wiser than I can answer them, put them to rest or tell me I’m wasting my time trying to answer the unanswerable.:icon_scratch: :smile:

Originally Posted by Busby

It is more than possible that we really only do know the absolute minimum. Just enough to get us through the day. This possibility doesn't however mean that searching for answers is pointless, at some time in the future something has to 'give' and we'll have a better idea if we are a little prepared to comprehend easier just how we came to be here. There is no doubt in my mind that this will one day be achieved.

Originally Posted by Busby

Personally I am not of the opinion that we are here to 'learn', this seems to me to be a weak reason for the development of mankind. Weak because it is something which could be rectified in a second by any creator thus avoiding all calamities and suffering, all of which serve no purpose in a universe which is supposedly one created by a loving god.

Originally Posted by Busby

It is more than possible that we really only do know the absolute minimum. Just enough to get us through the day. This possibility doesn't however mean that searching for answers is pointless, at some time in the future something has to 'give' and we'll have a better idea if we are a little prepared to comprehend easier just how we came to be here. There is no doubt in my mind that this will one day be achieved.
Personally I am not of the opinion that we are here to 'learn', this seems to me to be a weak reason for the development of mankind. Weak because it is something which could be rectified in a second by any creator thus avoiding all calamities and suffering, all of which serve no purpose in a universe which is supposedly one created by a loving god.
Actually my own experience indicates to me that we do already know everything there is to know, this being reflected in the world by the thing we call development/evolution and so on - other words can be used here.
For me there are only two states of being, one we know as the physical and the other we know as the mental. These are present at all times and in all places at all times. They are obvious. We don't have to kid ourselves that there is something supernatural lurking about in the undergrowth. That mental world in which our thoughts, ideas, talents, discoveries, pleasures, preferences… is the basis for the universe.

What fascinates me personally is the billions, trillions of years (as we understand time) which passed before the BigBang happened. What a waste???

The answer you are seeking you'll have to find out for yourself.[2] There are 8 billion of us on this planet and each of us is right in what he or she believes. So don't go looking for wise men or wisdom, you'll never find it outside yourself.

Nobody knows.[1]

Originally Posted by ArrJay

It’s often said we are here to learn from our various lives. However, if the universe is 12 billion years old or whatever the latest estimate is, if our souls have been around for a long time, in the context of billions of years does that imply an individual has had many millions of lives and still has to keep on learning?
:

Originally Posted by EmergingPath

I am in passionate agreement with you on this point Busby! To your last point, if you feel that one day something may give and you will be able to better comprehend more about how we came to be here, then you would agree that some people may already have achieved that, and are further down that path of knowledge than you or I, no? Or do you feel we will all “get it” at the same time in a universal awakening?



[I]The one real tool we have to attempt to understand that which surrounds us is imagination. A very underestimated aspect of daily lives. So yes, personally I can imagine that there are 'those' who are on other and higher octaves (as I like to call them), maybe for them, as for us, life is a natural state of affairs.

[/i]

If It’s the former, then seeking out those who may be further down that path of understanding is a worthy endeavor.




There have been those moments in my life when I've been sure I have been 'touched by such forces.



I agree that we each know what resonates with us as “truth” and “looking” to others for the answers is not going to provide you with everything you need, but may provide some pieces that fit into your unique puzzle of understanding.

Having said that, it is my belief that we should all be very skeptical of those professing that they have all of the answers and are THE path to enlightenment, as many are professing that knowledge solely for their own self aggrandizement.



Enlightenment as we tend to understand it is almost certainly only obtainable after long processes of mind widening.



On this point I would differ with you as you leave out probably the single most important factor, and that is “free will”.

Like you, I believe that a loving God could eliminate all suffering and pain in a moment, but then we would all just be “robots”, programmed with all of the answers and no need for emotions nor any wish or reason to experience anything that this world offers us in this incarnation, both sorrow and happiness.

I feel that a loving God may show you the way, but in giving you free will, allows you to drive your own actions.

For good or bad, free will is a key to understanding why a loving God would allow pain and suffering, joy and happiness. In my opinion, free will is what makes everything around me make sense. So ”learning” is how we accept what is right and wrong, and we learn from our experiences. And we have experiences because the answers we seek are hidden from us, and in our free will we make choices. And we learn from those choices or we don’t.

And through the pain, suffering, and happiness, those that find enlightenment through their choices and efforts are rewarded at the end with a full understanding as to why things are they way that they are…



[I]I'm not so sure that a loving god can be so defined. In my world there is no supernatural being but everything is a result of natural processes led and fed by awareness.

[/i]

Just my opinions :smile:

-EP