all 1 comments

[–]beermeem 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I’ve found Hinduism to be (loosely) a good way to look at this. In practice, their caste system is an absolutely atrocious way to construct a society but I do think they get the concept of karma generally correct.

Theoretically, people get somewhere between 50-75 human lives. This number seems rather arbitrary to me and I have no real attachment to it but I think it does well as a working theory.

We come into the world full of ourselves and slowly over time and experience realize the interconnectedness of all things. Across our lives, there’s three basic stages — the karmic lives, the middling lives, and then a state of grace and connectedness.

We do incarnate as other animals. My guess is we inhabit them for various reasons while awaiting for the next human life that is available and works for us. We certainly have karmic relationships — with lovers, parents, friends, enemies, siblings, that repeat and develop over the course of multiple lives.

IMHO, this is why it’s best not to cut anyone out of your life. If there’s trouble it will just come back around again later at which point we’ll have to go back in and figure it all out again later.