Today, I will discuss non-duality and reincarnation. Let’s begin with reincarnation. My initial encounter with the concept of past lives occurred during my early exploration of spirituality. In my late teens, I attended a weekly meditation and spiritual group where past life regression was a prominent practice. Over the years, as a member of this group, I underwent numerous past life regressions. I also learned how to facilitate them and conducted regressions for others. Through my own experiences of remembering and reliving fragments of past lives and witnessing the healing that took place, I cannot deny the existence of past lives. For me, reincarnation is a factual reality.
Reincarnation as an Expression of Non-Duality
Some people believe that non-duality somehow excludes the idea of reincarnation, but that’s not the case. Reincarnation is simply another level of the game. Just as there are numerous body-minds in this world, it doesn’t affect the self, which encompasses all bodies and minds. Whether there are more subtle bodies beyond the physical body, such as astral and causal bodies, is inconsequential to the self. It’s akin to Russian nesting dolls, where the outer shell can be discarded when worn out, while the inner shells remain. A new outer shell can then be put on, allowing the two inner shells to continue. Alternatively, the two inner shells can be removed, and the innermost shell can move forward. None of this contradicts non-duality because none of it pertains to an individual “you.”
Beyond Individual Identity: Rethinking Past Lives and Reincarnation
During my awakening in 2005, the illusion of duality shattered, and the belief in the separate “me” collapsed. This realization made me see my previous work with past lives differently. It wasn’t about me anymore. Unfortunately, many people who delve into past lives and reincarnation become excessively attached to the idea of the individual self. They say, “This was my past life, this was me,” which only strengthens the sense of self and perpetuates the illusion.
Letting go of this attachment can be challenging. However, for me, the realization that there are no other past lives diminished its significance. It became similar to examining any historical figure’s life.
I could read a biography of someone from the past or a biography/autobiography of a living person, and it would be the same as exploring a past life. Whether it’s someone’s current life or a past life, neither of them is “me.” Looking at someone else’s current life is obviously looking at someone else, but even when exploring my own past life, there is no “me” in it. It’s like looking at someone else’s experience because there is no self-identification. This current life, although it appears as a body-mind living a life, is not a “me.” It is simply a body-mind system existing without a self.
Equal Significance of All Lives
The self encompasses all body-minds. It is the totality of existence. There is no “other” in this context. Therefore, all lives, past, and present, are equal. It doesn’t matter if they are current lives or past lives because there is no “me” associated with any of them.
There is no identification. It is not to say that there couldn’t be more subtle bodies moving from one physical body to the next. However, this is merely part of the play, part of the game. I don’t view non-duality and reincarnation as opposing or mutually exclusive concepts. They can coexist. With non-duality, there is no personal ownership. It’s not “my past life,” but rather a past life, just as our current lives are equal and not identified with. I hope this explanation sheds some light on how non-duality and reincarnation can be understood from this perspective.
