Reincarnation,
Personality and the Soul
by
Julia Melges-Brenner. Copyright Sabrina Scott, Inc. All rights
reserved. Written for and originally published in Kajama.
Dear
Julia:
How
much of our personality carries over across lifetimes? Is it possible
for a totally introverted person to decide to be very extroverted in
his/her next life? Or is there a certain essence of us that is
constant, something that's like the nature of our energy? If that's
true, how can we tell which personality trait stems from our higher
self, and which part is learned from this current life experience?
Sherry
Dear
Sherry:
This is one of those
questions that are very hard to address in the amount of space I have
for this column, but I'll do my best. It's also such a profoundly deep
question that no one can answer it with any certainty, so what I offer
you here is simply my own concept of how things work, as incomplete and
imperfect as it must be.
You may be familiar with the notion that we are all composed of various
bodies: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. In this scheme of
things, the soul would be the spiritual body. We adopt new physical,
emotional and mental bodies each time we incarnate on Earth, and shed
those bodies when we leave this life. The spiritual body or soul is the
<q>lowest</q> or densest body we retain between lifetimes.
There are bodies beyond the soul, but these are less individuated than
the soul. Actually, all the bodies grow less individuated the "higher
up" we go. Thus the physical body is the most separate/individuated,
the emotional a little less so, the mental less even yet, with the
spiritual body merging toward greater oneness with All That Is. Beyond
the soul/spiritual body, there are finer bodies that have been given
all sorts of esoteric labels. At these levels, we are far more than we
conceptualize ourselves to be. As these levels of existence are beyond
the scope of incarnation on the Earth plane, for now, let's use the
four-body model of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
When we leave this life, the personality and all it has learned and
experienced is reabsorbed and integrated by the soul. (This is probably
happening throughout our lives, but when we die, the personality dies
with the physical body, so what remains is what the soul has absorbed.)
All the "good stuff" we gain throughout a lifetime - the qualities we
work on developing - are added to the soul. The soul is that part of us
that is the driving force behind the incarnation process, the highest
part of us that remains individuated from Source. Some people call this
aspect the Higher Self, as it contains all the wisdom we've ever gained
as well as awareness of our plans and goals for each lifetime. Each
personality we become throughout our various lifetimes is thus both
individual and part of the whole, much like the cells in our bodies are
individuated and yet part of a greater whole.
Our personality exists for one lifetime only. Its qualities are driven
by many different influences, such as the place and time of our births
(which we can study via astrology), our DNA/heredity, our parents,
societies, teachers and other formative influences. Of course, the
experiences we encounter also shape our personalities. This is
especially true of early experiences, which is why we tend to view the
personality as being formed in the first few years of life.
When we first begin incarnating on Earth, we are most individuated; as
we spiritually evolve, we identify less and less with the temporal
personality and more and more with the soul. When we reach a stage
where we are so identified with the soul that our vibration is too high
for the physical plane (and we won't learn much by being here), we stop
incarnating on Earth and begin to incarnate on higher planes of
existence.
This is sort of like flying to the farthest point on the globe in order
to go exploring, and then slowly making our way back home. The more we
travel, the closer we get to our starting point. By the time we make it
back, we'll have had all sorts of fascinating experiences and hopefully
be profoundly transformed by our quest. Then we do it all over again,
only this time, we choose a different destination and a very different
type of adventure so that we can broaden our horizons. Choosing a
personality and type of life experience is thus very much like choosing
a certain type of adventure. One time we may choose to be bold
explorers, scaling huge mountains; another time, we may choose to be
quiet seekers, secluded in an ashram; another time we may choose to be
generous servers, helping people build better lives for themselves.
When we admire someone, our souls are saying, I'd like to be like that person and experience what they are experiencing. In
order to do this, we may choose a setting with certain parents and
other influences that will encourage us to grow in this direction. It
may be something of a struggle for us if these qualities are very new
to us, but the more we accomplish our aim, the more we grow to embody
those qualities. We are therefore wise to pay a lot of attention to the
people and experiences we admire and feel strongly drawn to, for these
feelings are signs from our souls regarding what we are in the process
of developing in ourselves.
We are all in the process of embodying more of our souls/higher selves.
This requires learning to question what we've been taught, to think for
ourselves, and above all, to listen within to our "hearts." The more we
do this, the less we tend to change from one lifetime to another, for
instead of becoming whatever we are taught or learn to be based on our
physical experiences, we come from the soul within, which is ever
evolving but relatively constant.
Determining which aspects are of the personality versus which are of
the soul is fairly simple. It is the soul that asks deep questions and
ponders the meaning of life and our experiences. It is the soul that is
able to observe life with calm detachment. This is why meditation,
which helps us develop the inner observer, brings the soul forward. It
is the soul that whispers to us as the voice of our conscience and the
voice of our intuition. It is the soul that recognizes soul mates and
kindred spirits, and the soul that makes us feel drawn toward certain
people, places and experiences.
When we just know in our hearts what the "right" thing to do would be,
that is the soul speaking. This can be tricky, of course, because one
of our tasks is to question what we've been taught we
<q>should</q> do by outside influences in order to hear the
wisdom of the soul. When we realize that the right thing for one person
in a certain situation may be one thing, while the right thing for a
different person in the same situation may be something else entirely,
we begin to align with the wisdom of the soul versus the learned views
of the personality.
The part of us that loves and feels compassion is of the soul. I love
the term "soul-stirring," for it illustrates how experiences that are
particularly meaningful or moving will touch us "deep down" and
naturally bring the soul forward. Some of the qualities that are
hallmarks of the soul include peacefulness, inspiration, compassion,
love, altruism, integrity and faith. The more we evolve, the more our
personalities grow to reflect these qualities of the higher self/soul.
For the latest column, check out this week's edition of Kajama.
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