Newbie: Afterlife Questions

[ConfusedOne]

Hi everyone,

I am new to these forums, after reading everything about the afterlife I feel so relieved and happy that it was so close to what "my heart" believed in, even though I grew up with a Buddhist background. But, after awhile my skeptic and "logical" mind kicks in and I start doubting many of these things.
I started to question if this can truly be true, cause it seems too good to be true, is the afterlife that filled with love like the movie "what dreams may come"?

Seeing in buddhism, it shows that almost everything is suffering, can there really be a Summerland where we can stay forever if we wanted to?

Are there families/soul groups that were so happy with their past life as a family that they intend to stay in Summerland forever?

If there was a Summerland would objects be static or will it be dynamic according to how we feel that day?

Can we eat, play, or sleep like we do right now with our families and friends and stay the way we are? It sounds great to stay forever, especially when time does not exist, but I read that after our karma is used up, we are forced to reincarnate?

Cause since our way of thinking changes when we die, it seems inevitable for us to reincarnate.
Or can we stay in Summerland and develop our spirit if we wanted to?

Also I read that animals cannot reincarnate, but weren't we animals when the Earth first started and we eventually developed into humans?
Or can animal like a dog choose to develop human consciousness?
In the end, why do we want to develop our souls? Especially when sometimes our imperfections in life is our perfection.

And losing awareness when we become one with God, that really really scares me and really hard for me to accept, especially when we were granted awareness. So I researched more into enlightenment which is probably similar to Oneness with god and found this http://www.oshoteachings.com/osho-ev...emains-intact/

It seems like we lose our "ego" the act of comparing to others but we keep our individuality?


I apologize for asking so many questions, recently i've been so distraught over a death a loved one, and that triggered my fears of the reality of losing everyone I love to death eventually. I have talked to people of various religions and it seems that they are so sure of their belief is what it should be, even very "learned" individual I never get a general answer. I'm sorry if I offended anyone, I really don't mean to, I've just has been extremely anxious, confused, and can't sleep or eat. I am very shy, it has taken me a great deal of time and courage for me to post. This is the first time I ever posted in any forums.

Thank you and take care,

ConfusedOne

[mokandi]

Good questions. I look forward to the answers. The question that haunts me is this. We don't remember coming in to this world. How do we know we will remember it when we enter another place of existence?

[Roberta Grimes]

Welcome, dear ConfusedOne! All great questions, and questions that trouble many others too - I will answer each of them, but please understand that just reading my answers is not going to make your skepticism go away entirely. The only thing that will begin to convince you that what we are saying here is true will be for you to do your own research. I promise you that all your answers are there, and they will be consistent with what I am saying!

I started to question if this can truly be true, cause it seems too good to be true, is the afterlife that filled with love like the movie "what dreams may come"?

It took me decades of additional research and second-guessing to really convince myself that what the evidence is telling us is in fact correct, precisely for this reason. I kept finding more and more good news, and never any bad news - it really does seem too good to be true! But it is true. Eternal Mind is perfect love, and nothing else but Mind exists. When you really get that, then believing that reality can be this perfect becomes easier.

Seeing in buddhism, it shows that almost everything is suffering, can there really be a Summerland where we can stay forever if we wanted to?

Every earthly religion is man-made. The great ones are based on the teachings of advanced beings who knew and taught the truth, but then - inevitably - human foibles crept into them. We have debated the role of suffering elsewhere here, but the best that can be said for it is that out of suffering can come spiritual growth. It is not of God, though. It is part of no divine plan. God is nothing but love, and the Summerland is an expression of God's perfect love. Hey - let's build a religion on that ;-)!

Are there families/soul groups that were so happy with their past life as a family that they intend to stay in Summerland forever?

We are eternal beings who are part of soul-groups, and those soul-groups are part of larger groups-of-groups. Each of us has nearly infinite eternal friends! In the Summerland, we remember that. We don't feel the need to live tightly with just a few people, the way we tend to live on earth; but rather, once we graduate, most of us want to open ourselves wide in love and acceptance of everyone around us. Love there is like candy lying everywhere around us, like Christmas morning a thousand times over. In loving people far beyond what had been our last earth-family, we aren't loving our core soul-group any less; but rather, the more we love, the more we are able to love. That is our beloved Mikey's message, and it is the sum total of what we learn from nearly two centuries worth of afterlife evidence.

If there was a Summerland would objects be static or will it be dynamic according to how we feel that day?

If I understand your question, dear ConfusedOne, I think it's somewhere between static and dynamic. There is a stable, solid-seeming set of Summerland realities, but they are more easily affected by mind-energy than is our reality here, so apparently they can be changed as the spirit moves us. But there is no night and we never sleep and we never have a bad day, so the spirit generally moves us to make it all continuously more and more beautiful!

Can we eat, play, or sleep like we do right now with our families and friends and stay the way we are? It sounds great to stay forever, especially when time does not exist, but I read that after our karma is used up, we are forced to reincarnate?

Dear friend, to understand what is really going on, we must get beyond thinking in terms of limits. Limits are everywhere on earth! But once we are beyond this reality, and beyond time, there is really no limit to anything. I have never seen evidence that we have karma (in the earth-sense) to be used up, nor have I seen evidence that reincarnation is an automatic process. True, there is a bit of evidence that someone who has badly botched an earth-life will be urged rather strongly to get back in the game asap, but that evidence is rare and anecdotal. It is so hard for us to think in terms of no-time! Yes, we apparently live many lifetimes on earth. But without time, it is not wrong from our perspective to think that once we graduate, we enter a glorious Summerland forever. (We don't need to eat or sleep, I should add, and essentially everything we do there feels like play!)

Or can we stay in Summerland and develop our spirit if we wanted to?

There is evidence that we can choose not to reincarnate if we hate the thought of doing so, but spiritual advancement happens so much more slowly without reincarnation that apparently nearly everyone chooses to experience multiple earth-lifetimes.

Also I read that animals cannot reincarnate, but weren't we animals when the Earth first started and we eventually developed into humans?
Or can animal like a dog choose to develop human consciousness?

This is a question that has forever tantalized me, dear Confused! Human consciousness and animal consciousness are apparently fundamentally different, so - no - human consciousness did not originally evolve from animal consciousness. There is some slight evidence that an animal which is very much loved by a human being can begin to develop human consciousness, but on the other hand there is a lot more evidence that animals are of a different - not lesser - consciousness, so human development is not necessary or desirable for them. I think the second choice is probably the correct one, but I really don't know for sure.

In the end, why do we want to develop our souls?

The entirety of human spiritual progress seems to be encompassed in learning how to love. It may be more complicated than that, but so far I don't think so. What we know here as love is just the palest shadow of the love that awaits us as we grow spiritually! If you have ever loved anyone very much, try to fill your mind with that feeling of loving... and then imagine that feeling multiplied by a hundred thousand million times over, and you will understand why we all yearn to develop spiritually and return to Source!

It seems like we lose our "ego" the act of comparing to others but we keep our individuality?

Your ego is not you. Think of your ego more as a ball and chain that keeps you down - you are better off rid of it! And your individuality doesn't require that you keep yourself separate from other people. When we seriously study A Course in Miracles, eventually we come to the point where we begin to vanquish the ego and it starts to fight back, hard. I remember the terror of that as something like what your question here suggests: the ego fears oblivion, so it makes you fear oblivion. I can remember praying desperately for some way to get past that terrible fear, which is at its heart a fear of permanent loss of awareness. Extinction. No more me! Then one morning I woke up with a new understanding which has been with me ever since. My guides had said to me in the night, "You will always be aware. When you return to God, you will have God's awareness." That is good enough for me!

Thank you for asking such wonderful, thoughtful questions, dear ConfusedOne. There is no need for shyness here! You will find that the people here are loving and accepting and eager to help you grow in understanding. Again, welcome!

[ConfusedOne]

Hi Mokandi, Hi Roberta,

Thank you for all the great replies, it was really helpful and slowly I am beginning to realize that there's so much more to life. I wanna make the best out of life, so in the eternal life I have memories and experiences to share with family, friends, and everyone. And hopefully, we when we get there, our life experiences of what we felt, touch, learned will let us create the dream world of happiness that we wanted throughout our lives.

I've been so worried for so long, I forgot that I have a life to live, no matter how old, I think we can still live and learn from what this universe has provided us.

I look forward to Summerland and reuniting with all loved ones with our beautiful memories.

Thank you again,

ConfusedOne

[vic smyth]

...god is nothing but love, and the summerland is an expression of god's perfect love. Hey - let's build a religion on that ;-)!

"if you build it, they will come."

(Drat, I tried to post this in all caps as if it were a message from God ala Field of Dreams, but it wouldn't let me do it.)

[Andrew]

If religion really focused on God's perfect love, rather than on outer ritual and pointless superstition, I really wouldn't mind it so much. I think that eastern religions are definitely further on that path than the western ones are.

[Anthony54321]

The greatest evidence to support life after death is the documentary the afterlife investigations, even the hardest sceptics will challenge their beliefs after they watch the film which presents the most compelling evidence so far for the afterlife.

[buddha1972]

Roberta,

God bless you for your research and loving answers. With patience and study, the answers are there and Roberta is right on. You are very much appreciated.

[Roberta Grimes]

Roberta,

God bless you for your research and loving answers. With patience and study, the answers are there and Roberta is right on. You are very much appreciated.

And God bless you, dear Buddha! Thank you for your kind words. This research is so amazingly addictive, and as more and more people find this website and begin to contribute to it I love watching them grow. We are growing together. And I so enjoy their friendship! By the way, I notice that we are neighbors ;-)... do you ever find yourself in Austin?

[cass]

I like your answers Roberta - you have a very easy way of explaining things