Future Life - But No Past Lives?

If our spirit has not lived before, from whence did it originate? Where did it come from? If we didn't have the momentum of either a collective or individual spiritual past life to propel us into this one, are we therefore only accidents of nature; random romantic moments between eggs and a sperms? Dust to dust?

And if in fact we are just physical accidents, where did the original egg and sperm come from? What was the first source? If we say that God created the first egg and sperm, then are we merely a continuation of that physical reproduction? Are we merely organisms that feed and reproduce no different from bacteria?

Or does God infuse the sperm and egg with a spiritual soul when they merge? Or maybe , each egg and sperm has an individual soul before they merge. If not, are they soulless until they merge, even though they are separately quite alive and purposeful with a definite consciousness? Are plants soulless? Are our pets soulless? What determines soulfulness. Do souls actually exist? Or is there something else that propels the activities of beings?

Recent surveys indicate that 25% of Americans believe in past lives. A large percentage of those that don't believe in past lives however believe in a future life, and this seems to be a contradiction. How can we have a future life but no past life? How did we suddenly appear out of nowhere to become an eternal entity?

Nothing that we know of in physical existence can be fundamentally destroyed or created; we can only play around with the changes and mutations of matter, so therefore, if we do continue on eternally, we can only do so as spiritual beings. But where did our original spiritual ground come from?

Let's say that God created our original spiritual ground. But -was it an independent spiritual ground that we were born from, or a collective one? If it was individual, then wouldn't we necessarily have a spiritual past? If it was a collective spiritual ground, then does that turn into an individual spiritual existence when we are born, a soul, or do we just think that we are individual?

This instant of eternity, this brief life span of 100 years, is this what determines our eternal life? Considering the broad scope of eternity and infinity, and the limited scope of human intelligence, the brief span of 100 years to get our act together doesn't seem reasonable, or fair! No room for errors here.

Let's say, though, that we have come from a "collective" ground of God's spirituality, and therefore have no individual past lives. Then, when we die; do we merge into the oblivion of that collective ground again, or do we become an individual spiritual entity for eternity with no further need for development?

Or, do we have an individual spiritual past that transfers its qualities into the present lifetime where we can work on developing our spiritual qualities further, and then carry those forward into our next lifetime? Or maybe we are born out of a collective spirituality, then become an individual entity of earth, and then continue working on our spirituality when we die and go to the next world. Or perhaps we automatically go to a spiritual heaven for eternity regardless of what we do. But is it a collective heaven, or an individual heaven?

If it is a collective spiritual heaven, we could not experience it as an individual since all experience requires consciousness, plus a subject (individuality-ego) and an object (the other). Since there would be no experience at all in a collective spirituality, it would be eternal. If it is an individual spiritual heaven, however, it could be experienced because there would be a subject and object, and therefore couldn't be eternal; it would have to be grounded in time.

What if from the collective consciousness, which could be said to be God's spiritual collective, an idea of ego-individuality is born. But what if this is an illusion; an illusion created by the sense organs of our bodies. And what if it so strong that it carries through from existence to existence, or until the illusion of individuality, or ego, is understood as an illusion, after which the individual merges back into that which cannot be experienced, which is pure awareness or reality - the spiritual collective - or that to which we originally belonged before the idea of individual existence came about?

Maybe this prevailing idea of "me" - the "I" thought and its resulting karma - is what propels us from lifetime to lifetime. If this is true, then the idea of enlightenment, where we see through the false self, would have great validity, as would Nirvana, that state of pure awareness without consciousness that perhaps is the quintessential eternal freedom. But what is the truth of the matter?

The truth of the matter is that all of the above assumptions are worthless. (Should have told you sooner, ay?). All of the above theories are merely thoughts, opinions, and speculation. They are worthless because they fall into the realm of physical existence, our physical minds and brains, and cannot touch the reality that lies beyond physical existence.

Whether there are past lives, future lives, or neither, doesn't really matter. What matters is now, this very moment now when you are looking at you computer screen. This is where life happens. There was a past; what you did a few minutes ago, and a future; what you will do a few minutes from now when you are finished with this article, and in between is reality. The past, and past lives; the future, and future existences, are not real. The one who thinks about the past, present and future is not real. Only the pure awareness of this very moment is real, is truth.

Be in the moment if you can. You cannot be in the moment if you are thinking. You cannot be in it if you are immersed in emotion or memories of the past. You cannot be in it if you are projecting yourself into an uncertain, or exciting, future, You can only be in this precious moment when everything about you is gone. Therein lies the perpetuity of the pure moment because time stops when consciousness stops, replaced by untainted awareness.

And this is the place where fear and worry cannot establish a toehold. This is where you can find freedom; from past lives, future lives and all lives, This is where you disappear, and in the place of your disappearance is the spiritual life - is eternity.

E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit [http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com]