Truth And Miracles: A Course In Miracles: Reincarnation Does Not Lead To Evolution by Nick Arandes

I am told that the purpose of reincarnation is to evolve, does that mean that as I move from lifetime to lifetime I encounter more pleasant experiences?

There are few ways of looking at that question. First I am going to use conventional language, one mostly employed by the world's teachers, then I'll share my understanding of the question viewed from the Course's perspective.

With the idea of the existence of karma, it is believed that if you do good deeds for example, your next reincarnation would be much pleasant because you are evolving. And off course the opposite applies as well. If you misbehave, you'll experience the repercussions of your actions in another lifetime. Which to me simply reminds me of the theological approach to God. One that says that He loves me but if I misbehave I'll be sent to hell. So the way many spiritual teachers justify their karma beliefs is by saying that God gave us freewill, and based on that, we are the one choosing to behave or misbehave.

That in itself, opens up a new can of worms because it suggest that we know what decisions are best for us at any moment. Although there could be some truth to that, the question then is, what if I was raised in a very negative environment as opposed to a very nurturing one, wouldn't that affect my decision-making process? And would God take that into account? Then they would say that the reason I was born in that environment is because I had bad karma from a previous lifetime. That being the case, let's start from the beginning by quoting an excerpt from one of my previous books entitled The Truth About Karma. But before sharing that with you, please keep in mind that my writing back then is not reflecting where I am right now. So just read the following excerpt knowing that I was coming from a place based on old beliefs before I was introduced to the teachings of A Course In Miracles. That being said however, it does show you my outside of the box thinking, which is why I could never resonate fully with most teachers.

"So let's say it is true that people's response, reactions, or choices towards a set of circumstances in previous lifetimes were conducive to having karmic experiences in the next one, my next question then would be; At what point did some souls start making decisions that began the process of generating challenging karmic experiences for themselves? To put it in different words, who were the first to make the kind of decisions that would lead to the birth of negative karma during their evolutionary path, while others chose the good karmic route? And what propels each group to make such decisions?

This is what I am getting at. Some people were born in very nurturing, loving and supportive environments while others didn't have such positive experiences. That being the case, people are going to respond to life experiences in different ways depending on the types of struggles they encountered growing up.

Children who have been beaten and molested cannot be expected to feel as comfortable with trust issues as those who have been loved and nurtured. For someone who didn't have the financial resources to even enjoy some of the things most of us take for granted such as food, nice clothing, shelter, etc., would it be reasonable for us to expect them to easily adapt to life with cheerful and positive expectations like those who had it all since birth?

Please I want you to understand that I am NOT implying in any way, shape or form that because someone didn't have a positive childhood they should use that as an excuse to remain a victim and not grow. The point I am trying to make here is, if people are building karma that will follow them for eternity, wouldn't it make sense that at least each one of us had the same start?

Another argument is humanity had the same head start millions of years ago and with time each individual has accumulated karmic debt based on past actions. My argument would then be, Did we all start with the same BRAIN and the same THOUGHTS, the same parents, same neighborhood, same friends, same cultural values, the same EVERYTHING?

In my opinion, we all have evolved at our own pace and have come from different cultural, demographic, social and spiritual backgrounds. So to me, this accounting system does not make any sense."

Now let's get to the question by asking another question. What is the purpose of reincarnation? The answer is, to hide from God. Or should I say, to belief that we can hide from God. And in hiding from God who are we really trying to hide from? Ourselves.

See, the purpose of the body is to hide all this guilt we have about ourselves and God. We believe that God is not happy with us because we have forsaken him. Yes, I know, we think that He has forsaken us. But the reality is we are the ones who have forsaken Him by creating the belief that we are separate. And how did we pull that off? By creating the illusion of a body that makes us feel separate from one another. So going from lifetime to lifetime is not an assurance that the next one is going to be better than the previous one, it is just going to be another dream with it's own set of challenges.

If you read the stories of people who have experience previous lifetimes, they say that in one they were kings or queens, in others they were slaves or servants, in others they were monks, in others they were superstars, all happening in no particular order. And now here they are having whatever experience they are having. That shows you that no matter how good or bad you think you are, as long as you continue to believe that you are guilty and not worthy of the love of God, you'll just create another dream where you think you can hide from God. The good news is that the unconditional love of God will never let you hide for long. That's why the Course reminds us that we are going to wake up anyway. The question is, and here is where freewill play its part, how long do we want to postpone our suffering? That's why the course says in the introduction: "Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means that you can elect what you want to take at a given time." It is another way of saying that your own nightmares will force you sooner or later to ask for help. That's when you are ready.

I like to look at it this way, if you are holding a baby in your arms, and she is sleeping, the baby in her dreams thinks that she is hiding from you, but is she hiding in reality? Same with God, we are always in Her arms. Each lifetime represents our dreams; the places we are hiding from for fear of waking up. The reason we are afraid to wake up is because we belief that if we do God is going to punish us for falling asleep or for creating the nightmares we've created as opposed to choosing being with Her. So if you think that because you behave badly in the dream that does not exist anyway, and as a result you are going to hell or God is going to punish you, that guilt will prevent you from wanting to awaken. That is the hidden guilt that is projected by you coming from your false sense of self also known as the ego. The forgiveness of yourself is what liberates you from that guilt so that you can wake up to Reality. In that moment you'll laugh so hard while saying to yourself; How could I possibly believed in all my dream figures? How could I possible believed that I was somewhere other than home? How could I possibly believed that God did not love me? How did I convince myself that I was anything less than Who I really am?

Nick Arandes was part of the self-help movement for close to 20 years. Published 4 books, produced CDs and DVDs, wrote countless articles and touched the lives of many wordwide BEFORE becoming homeless, broke and diagnosed with a thyroid tumor. Then something happened that forever changed his life! His miraculous way of achieving perfect health without any medical intervention and financial success with effortless ease led him to the creation of his Manifesting Miracles Course online at www.FulfillYourDreams.com, which to this day continues to transform lives worldwide! To find out more about his work, also make sure to visit his website: www.TruthAndMiracles.com