Who Were You Before You Were You?

Even though we all identify with a very limited slice of time and space, equating “me” with one body and one mind, in reality you also live outside yourself in the field of awareness.

The Vedic seers say, “The real you cannot be squeezed into the volume of a body or the span of a lifetime.” Just as reality flows from the virtual to the quantum to the material level, so do you. Whether we call this reincarnation or not almost doesn’t matter. The package of body and mind that came before is a stranger to you now, and the one that might arise after your death is equally alien.

On a deeper level, millions of seeds have already been planted. Some are the thoughts you will have tomorrow or the actions you will follow a decade from now.

As we watch those seeds sprouting in the fertile field of time and space, awareness wakes up to itself. This is how a single fertilized cell learns to become a brain – it makes up to itself, not on the chemical level but on the level of awareness.

Imagine that expanded awareness is normal. Time and space could just be convenient concepts that hold true in the material world but dissolve gradually as you approach the quantum level. This is what I believe reincarnation is about.

All of the virtual and quantum levels are open to us all the time. To navigate them completely is impossible; they open up to us according to our own needs and abilities. But no part is intentionally closed off.

It is more normal to learn from the past than not to, and people who shut out their former lives are shutting out lessons that give this present lifetime its purpose and meaning. For someone who has absorbed these lessons fully, there is no need to go beyond this lifetime, and yet such visitations are still part of the natural order of things.

Adapted from How To Know God, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2000).

Read more: Deepak Chopra's Tips, Spirit, past, space, time

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Vicky L.

4:35PM PST on Jan 16, 2012

I have a general belief in reincarnation. I believe I have to keep doing 'this' until I get it right. I have a loooong way to go.

send a green star

Elisabeth T.

2:37PM PST on Jan 12, 2012

Great article and comments, thank you...

Anneke A.

11:52AM PST on Jan 10, 2012

If I would think all of his teachings through, I would not have time left to help defenceless creatures and do my jobs. Maybe I will when I'm myself, helpless?

Nancy H.

9:07PM PST on Jan 8, 2012

I'm Confused!

jayasri a.

8:58PM PST on Jan 7, 2012

Thanks for the info.

Shirley E.

7:35AM PST on Jan 6, 2012

The eternal part of us evolves and the evolution shows in the physical world by the way we change subtly in every passing moment. Just as we don't notice our hair greying or our skin wrinkling until it's a bit of a shock factor, neither do we notice that actually we are a bit more patient or a bit more philosophical or forgiving. There is a greater force at work than we are generally conscious of unless we actively connect to it in reflection and meditation.

Min H.

8:18AM PST on Jan 2, 2012

I worth it and i know what we.doing the Greats!

Past Member .

7:46PM PST on Jan 1, 2012

We have been here before and we will come again :)

Carole R.

3:05PM PST on Jan 1, 2012

I believe we are energy, a soul (or whatever you want to call it) that exsists beyond the physical body. When we die our energy (soul) goes somewhere, another dimension, heaven, wherever. I also believe we live many lives on earth, in this dimension.

iii q.

1:26PM PST on Dec 31, 2011

ty for your thoughts...