Enlightenment and Rebirth.
When your mind and heart are truly open abundance will flow to you effortlessly and easily.
Question:
My question is about the Astral and Causal planes. Some people believe that when you die you automatically become enlightened – or should I say you are back to being pure consciousness immediately after death, until reincarnation. Others believe that just because you die, doesn’t mean to say you have become awakened – they believe you go to the Astral plane where you gain more understanding of your last life, and stay there until your next incarnation into the physical. They believe that if you don’t awaken during your Earth lives (however many you get) then you have to go through all your Astral life times, and if you don’t fully awaken during those lives, then it’s on to the Casual lives where finally you achieve enlightenment… Or if you do achieve it here in the physical, then you can bypass all the other planes/dimensions of existence and live as your essential nature – be pure consciousness. So my question is even if we don’t awaken during this life does death awaken us, and we remain awake until our next life, or are there other levels of existence before enlightenment and after the physical? – assuming you remain unenlightened during your physical life times and can’t see the illusion of time and space?
Response:
Consciousness persists after the death of the physical body, but the experience of death does not awaken to our essential reality, that is it does not produce enlightenment. The main idea to bear in mind in all this is that the entire phenomenon of spiritual growth, life experiences, and rebirth is all driven by the force of evolution bringing about our enlightenment, the full awakening of consciousness to its own true nature. When one is enlightened there is no more need for rebirth.
Don’t get too wrapped up in esoteric theories about astral planes and causal bodies. All these are just realms of experience that correspond to our state of consciousness. After death experiences, like embodied experiences, all take place within our consciousness. We mistakenly believe that all these experiences are externally based and are being imposed on us when in fact it is our own consciousness that is driving the process.
The wheel of birth and death in Sanskrit is called samsara. It is the endless cycle of action and reaction. When we come to know our true self as non-local, pure consciousness, then we realize that we are that consciousness that pervades all existence, all creation. With enlightenment we get off the wheel of samsara by realizing that we are that wholeness of life that transcends it.
Love,
Deepak
