Being a bad person in past lives

[Luminous]

Do you think that everybody has to be a bad person at least once in their eternity of lives in order to spiritually evolve?

[Native spirit]

No i dont think so there is good and evil in all people but some dont carry out the part of them that is wrong,we are all put into situations where we think karma will prevail, for myself i go for justice if its not done i will not give up until it is,that does not make me evil or wrong,we all have a choice in life as to how we live our lives,every person we meet can teach us something .whether its right or wrong it us for us to decide,so the answer to your question in my opinion is no,

Namaste

[Visitor]

Hello Lumious.

The only past life that I can imagine, is a drunk that could never get sober.
Though that does not make him/me a bad person, but just a drunk.

[linen53]

Yes, for me I was a very destructive person many lifetimes ago. At the time I loved that incarnation, but now I am in the payback mode (karma).

It was a necessary incarnation for me, but I can't speak for any other individual. As Native spirit said some don't have to experience that side of living.

[Shems]

Originally Posted by Luminous

Do you think that everybody has to be a bad person at least once in their eternity of lives in order to spiritually evolve?

Well the fact that we keep incarnating shows that we still have something to learn on this physical realm of existence. There are also different levels of 'bad'. I might consider smoking bad because it poisons your vehicle and others around you. You might not mean to injure other persons but you do, hence 'bad' behavior. Of course, examples of 'bad' get more extreme than this.

Everyone here (on earth) makes errors, and errors have to be corrected and learned from. If you don't make a mistake, how can you learn your lesson? No one gets everything right on the first try.

From my own experience I see that we cannot understand life from every perspective until we actually experience from all points of view. That includes what you term as "bad", as well as good. Actually, those terms are moral judgments, again from a certain point of view. An example....to Americans, the terrorists which have been waging Jihad against Western culture are "Evil". To the terrorists, western culture, Christianity, and democracy are all from "satan". So, as you can see, bad and good can be viewed from different perspectives.

Some people cannot change viewpoints, prejudices, etc. in the same lifetime. If they are stubborn or set in their ways, they must come back in another lifetime and live life from the other point of view, which they despised in the previous lifetime, in order to be humbled. In this way we gain understanding and learn tolerance, compassion, and forgiveness.

Unless we go through the darkness, we cannot understand the light. Unless we go through suffering, we cannot appreciate abundance. Unless we go through abuse, we cannot tolerate the abuser.

I think everything that I would have said has already been said..lol
All I would add is that it's more important how you live your life now, what's past is past...know your dark side (we all have one) and own it, then comes control of it....mostly anyway!!

[linen53]

You make some very good points gpGemini, and clearly put.

spiritess, I try not to artificially control my dark side, and I do have one. To control that side of me would be to suppress the sum total of who I am. If I am not evolved enough to have a tiny bit of a dark side then that side of me needs to be expressed.

I agree the past is the past and we need to let it go whether in past incarnations or this one.

[Belle]

I love the posts on this thread! Just cos they say what I think but bettter.

I will add a point on forgiveness tho, we have to forgive ourselves if we were "bad". And most of us will have done something bad, most likely to the extent where there has been soul loss.

I found it real hard to comes to terms with havingi killed someone and also being able to forgive myself.

As for abuse / abuser, that is a current life issue and working with that is a minefield. We live in the today world and so my main focus is navigating through the today battles. I do regard the past battles and lives and joys - as somewhat metaphors. Whilst I agree with the belief in reincarnation, I don't think the information we are presented with is necessarily a dictated story but rather a metaphor or a painting or music - so we can understand a theme. For example : me killing someone in a past life. Did I literally kill him? Did I hire a hit squad to murder him? Did I wear him down with neglect and abuse so he faded away? It doesn't matter - the end result is - I was responsible for his death.

[sarek]

Perhaps this is why we normally can not see past lives. We have enough to deal with in one life, not to be burdened with what we did in other lives. I have been told I once was a banker, so there you have it.

Good and bad, in terms of spirituality means something entirely different than what it does in daily life. Good is that which enables one's being to grow, bad is that which hinders it.
Human notions of good and bad are often (if not always) subjective. To a cannibal, there is no moral reason not to eat another person.