Redemption. The Excerpt FIve

Ann and Rob. Redemption novel by Jacklyn A. Lo

I'd like to present the fifth extract from my novel Redemption. 

In this conversation, Ann requested Rob to explain the reincarnation principle to her.

****

“Tell me all about it,” Ann asked, steering her car through the city center. “I want all the info you’ve got on this reincarnation chain thing.” 

She’d left the café slightly later than expected and decided it wasn’t worth returning to the office. 

Instead, she went on a drive to clear her head and mull things over with a little help from Rob.

“Certainly, my lady,” he said, bowing his head slightly. “As you know, it has to do with your lifestream, which is made up of many individual lives. It’s a cycle of reincarnation. Birth, life and death, rebirth, life, and death.”

“But it’s not a never-ending cycle, is it?”

“No. Each life is built on the former lives, progressing towards the ultimate goal.”

“Of breaking free from the chain,” said Ann, interrupting him.

“Exactly.”

“What was it you called it again? It was named after a classic rock group, wasn’t it Oasis or something?”

“Nirvana,” said Rob, suspecting Ann was playing with him. “And the band was named after that ultimate goal, rather than the other way round.”

“So, is everyone caught in this reincarnation chain?”

“All humans are, yes.”

“And my work colleague, Peter?”  Ann asked after a moment of thinking.

“Of course. He will have had other lives before he was Peter, and no doubt he will have many lives after this one, as will you, my lady. And at this speed, that next life may come sooner than you expect.”

Ann glanced at Rob, frowning, “What do you mean?”

“The car,” said Rob. “You are traveling twelve miles an hour above the specified limit for this road.”

Ann sighed, easing her foot off the gas. “Driving too fast, moving too slow. I have to say, Rob, I don’t feel like I’m making much progress at the moment.”

“That day will come,” he replied, dishing out his most charming smile. “You just need to be patient, my lady. The little things matter just as much as the big ones. They all work together in the process of karma.”

“Little things like what?”

With barely a moment’s hesitation, Rob said, “Take your visit to the hospital this afternoon. You didn’t have to go and see your injured colleague. And yet you took the time to do it.”

“What little good that did? Peter didn’t even know I was there.”

“That is not what matters when it comes to karma. Whether people see your good deeds or not is of little consequence. It is what God sees that counts.”

“So, even little things help in my progress towards Nirvana? That’s certainly nice to know. But, still, I feel like I’m running on empty at the moment.” She paused at a set of traffic lights, momentarily lost in thought. “Rob,” she said suddenly.

“Yes, my lady!” said Rob, eager as always.

“Do you think I should carry on with this whole process of unearthing my past and finding out about my lifestream, about my true self?”

“As it says in the Bible: ‘Seek, and ye shall find.’”

Ann flicked the indicators to signal right and set off from the lights as if coming to a decision. “Can you map out the best route to the psychic’s place?”

Rob nodded happily. “On it right now!”

****

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What was it like for the people who sold their souls, and what did they gain from it?

This is another fascinating soul question on Quora.

Soul selling is a simplified name for the complex process of transferring Free Will from a person to Satan*.

The process of selling the soul is well described by a number of authors, including Goethe in the tragic play "Faust";

Faust

Oscar Wilde, in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the film "Dorian Gray" 

The Picture of Dorian Gray

and me, in the novella Tomo and The Soul Catchers, which became a base for the screenplay Heaven**.

Tomo and The Soul Catchers

In each of these cases, Satan is ready to satisfy any desire of the victim in exchange for his/her soul.

For example, due to such a deal, Faust got limitless knowledge, Dorian - eternal youth, and Cora - seductive beauty.

So, in principle, we can say that these guys got what they wanted from earthly pleasures. However, is everything so simple? Or are there side effects?

Yes, they are.

The soul becomes a slave of the Head of Darkness*, losing its own "voice", the freedom of further choice and decision-making.

The good news is that the soul will not be punished for its "bad deeds", meaning it avoids karma. On the other hand, it will forever lose the opportunity to become the Creator, "produce" souls, and the opportunity to become "first", since Satan (which the soul eventually become) is always "second" to God.

Also, for a short time, the soul avoids Degradation and the risk of spiritual death for the loss of energy. On the other hand, it will run the risk of spiritual death as a punishment for cruelty.

A young soul might say, "I enjoy earthly pleasures, I hate making decisions and don't like karma at all, so this might be great for me." But in fact, Satan's "kindness" is a well-disguised evil, and in all of the stories listed, the protagonist encounters side effects shortly after the deal and is deeply disappointed in what he/she has done.

After the soul's Earthly existence, Satan will continue to “work” on it sending it to study or labor in the hardened worlds to achieve the energies and goals that He wants.

The soul will not have the opportunity to choose a planet, body, etc., and the habitat and shell of the body can be really terrible.

One way or another, the process of selling the soul or the temptations of Satan stretches over hundreds or even thousands of incarnations and does not necessarily end with a deal, since the majority of souls still choose the direction to the Light, leaving Satan empty-handed. This case of Satan chasing the soul for five incarnations, is well described by me in the screenplay Redemption**, based on my novel Redemption.

novel Redemption

Note:

*Satan = Head of Darkness

** We are looking for an experienced producer and director

Spiritual Choice. Part II

Right Spiritual Choice 

In our God’s hierarchy, a Right Spiritual Choice is a Choice towards Light. 

One of the best samples of a Right Spiritual Choice is represented in the drama-horror movie The Rite ( 2011).

Multiple Spiritual Choices towards Light is the best-case scenario for any spiritual entity as it guarantees the least incarnations to achieve Liberation and membership in the team of Lights.

For example, a man has made Spiritual Choices towards Light during his five past lives. In the present life, he again goes for Light. As a result, he will reach extra Spiritual enlightenment, upgrade his consciousness, and get closer to the Final Exit.

Multiple Spiritual Choices towards Light and its consequences are well described in Jacklyn A. Lo's Redemption novel.

A Spiritual Choice is the biggest challenge in anybody’s life as it is tailor-made for a particular individual and couldn't copy-paste it for anyone else.

Sometimes we get only a fraction of a second to execute our Spiritual Choice and to define our future for the next several lives.

However, we can also get months and even years for the Choice and define our Spiritual Direction. In this case, we might apply to decision making and use our analytical skills and intuition besides evaluating our Spiritual Values.

Why is Spiritual Choice towards Light so hard?

The Hierarchy of God is the most demandable; therefore, requirements to get Into it are the toughest. 

For example, going to prestigious Harvard University, you need to present a great Grade Point Average and high entrance exam score. The same with entering God's Hierarchy - you have to perform well daily and make the Right Spiritual Choices on the top.

However, as anything in the physical reality, the Spiritual Choice towards Light has its own risk - Degradation. A danger of degradation can appear if a person underestimates the risks of physical reality. 

For example, a man gives his kidney to his dying wife (Compassion is a Spiritual Value of Light). The wife is recovering but leaving the man and taking his property*. Due to disability, the man, who was a sportsman, can’t continue his carrier.  Being psychologically and financially broke, he finds no use for himself and becomes an alcoholic. Alcohol and drugs shorten a life-project and continuously reduce energy potential, which has been gathered before. The man faces Degradation.

* The reason for the betrayal can be the man's similar act in one of his past lives, that is, the Law of Karma works. However, we cannot know for sure.

Wrong Spiritual Choice 

In our God’s hierarchy, a Wrong Spiritual Choice is a Choice towards Darkness. 

There are several types of souls making that Choice:

• A young soul up to the first 10 lives

• Young souls who do not know how to separate "the wheat from the chaff" often go astray, succumbing to the temptations of the physical world. 
• Very often, such a soul ends up in prison. 
• Films samples:  Papillon (2017), Days of Heaven (1978), Badlands (1973)

• A mature soul with a direction towards Light:

• If a mature soul striving towards the Light makes an erroneous choice to the direction of Darkness, then the Law of Karma comes into force, which allows the person to return to the error and work it out. This Choice prolongs his path to the Final Exit. Negative karma always brings suffering.
• The Wrong Spiritual Choice and following Karma is well represented in the following films Bram Stocker’s Dracula (1992), The Machinist (2004)

• A mature soul makes his final Spiritual Choice towards Darkness:

• This is the last Spiritual Choice of the person. The soul might come back to the Earth or other dense world again, but without Free Will. The soul will be executing the Will of Satan.

Degradation

Degradation is the worst-case scenario for Spiritual Choice. 

Degradation characterizes by the constant loss of the previously gathered energies. As a result, it leads to a spiritual being's unprofitability and, ultimately, his soul’s decoding, i.e., Spiritual Death. 

For example, a man has made Spiritual Choices towards Degradation during his four past lives. In the present fifth life, he goes for Degradation again.  As a result, after his physical death, his soul will face Spiritual Death. 

The Spiritual Death means that energy accumulations during the man's all incarnations, including minerals, animals, etc., will be permanently erased. He will die as a Spiritual Being without a right to incarnate again. The life in the identity of the man is his last one.

Typical samples of spiritual entities moving towards Degradation are people-parasites who consume what is earned by family members or society. 

Other Degradation samples are descended angels; reference film - City of Angeles (1998). 

Spiritual Values

Spiritual Choice is not easy to recognize for outsiders, as it is individually tailored for every being and based on an individual's spiritual and energetic potential. 

However, there is a common thing in all Spiritual Choices - all of them are linked to the Highest Intangible Values. Some of them are presented in Table 2.

      Table 2. Samples of Values of Lights and Darks

The Values of Lights are always opposite to Values of Darkness with one exception - Loyalty. Loyalty is a Value, which belongs to both parties - Lights and Darks.

 

However, their quality of Loyalty is not the same. If Lights' loyalty is based on Faith and Love, for example, Faith in God/ Creator, the Darks' loyalty is based on obeyance and fear, for example, fear of Satan.

In the novel Redemption, the protagonist, a powerful tech executive, chooses multiple Lights' Values, such as Freedom, Love, Courage, Peace, and Hope.

A Spiritual Choice as a Spiritual Test

A human with the higher energetic and spiritual potentials gets the toughest Spiritual Choice - Spiritual Test. 

For example, the Old Testament tells us about God’s test of Abraham; the New Testament describes Satan’s temptation of Jesus. 

The Great Gautama the Buddha made a tough Spiritual Choice leaving the Golden Palace with his young and beautiful wife and his baby-boy. Later on, the Demon Mara’s brought another Spiritual Test to Gautama, assaulting him by several temptations.

A Spiritual Direction towards Light is the most challenging but the most promising, as in the long run, it brings opportunities to become a Creator by yourself! 

Is Vipassana meditation a fast track to liberation?* Part II

Side effects
As anything in this non perfect world, there can be negative side effects of the Vipassana meditation technique too.
During the meditation, a Vipassana student receives fine (pleasant) or rough (disgust) sensations of the body. His/her main task is to stay indifferent to them. Just as a person sitting on the riverbank observes the river’s flow, this is the same way the practitioner of Vipassana should observe the flow of sensations of his body without any reaction to them, whatever they bring with — pleasure or disgust.

To stay indifferent to the body’s sensations is the biggest challenge for students, and, unfortunately, some people are becoming addicted to the sensations. If the sensation of the body is pleasant, they enjoy it. If the sensation is rough, they hate it. Coming back to the Vipassana courses to enjoy those sensations, the students receive extra negative karma, which course a delay of liberation.

Organization of the training

While there may be a lack of organizing and planning skills generally in India, the Vipassana course is organized very well.

There are ten full days in the training. You will come on the first day or “zero day” for registration, introduction lecture, and other practical things. One of those practical things is delivering your valuables and all communication means to storage.

There is a wake-up ring at 4 a.m. with a following ring of a servant at 04:25 a.m. The training starts at 4:30 a.m. sharp in the main meditation hall.

This is the most intensive course that I have ever attended. A training session lasts 12 hours per day. Ten hours is dedicated to meditation and two hours for a lecture. You will have a chance to ask questions from a teacher or an assistant teacher during lunch and before sleep. You will have time for a nap after a breakfast and a lunch break. There are also additional five-minute breaks available after each one-hour meditation. The ring for a sleep is at 9:30 p.m., and lights must be switched off.

Food is provided three times per day. It’s purely vegetarian, and legumes are served at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Animal protein is available only in yogurt and hot milk with butter.

You can get drinking water from the big water tanks installed to the roof, however, the taste of that water is not the same as we are used to. Bottled water is available at your request, and you can pay for that at the end of the course.

Accommodations

The Vipassana retreat territory is separated in two main areas — one part with housing for women, and another part for men. The canteen has the same principle — men and women have meals in separate rooms.

You will be given a private room or a room with a roommate. The room is humble with a little window, two simple beds, and bathroom with toilet and a limited shower. There is no air conditioning, but a mechanical fan provides an air circulation. You have to have your own lock for the door of your room.

Language

The course is available in English and Hindu. However, even if you know English very well, some words of the English vocabulary that are used in the Vipassana session might be unknown to you, and a misunderstanding of a word might lead to the collapse of understanding the concept of the whole lecture.

Many meditation centers offer language translation devices that are easy to use. Ask an administrator of the meditation center where you are planning to attend if they have an audio device in your native language.

  

*Note:  This article is based on my personal experience and thoughts after my first 10-day meditation course of Vipassana, and is not presented to be an absolute truth. – Jacklyn A. Lo, author of Redemption novel.

Next article will tell about terms and conditions on the Vipassana retreat, costs of the training, some constrains and preparation for the meditation.

Is Vipassana meditation a fast track to liberation?* Part III

Terms and conditions

In order to achieve the objectives of Vipassana meditation, a student should follow the terms and conditions of the course.

There are five important precepts included in the Code of Discipline for new students:

1.    To abstain from killing any being.

2.    To abstain from stealing.

3.    To abstain from all sexual activity.

4.    To abstain from telling lies.

5.    To abstain from all intoxicants.

In addition to the Code of Discipline, a student is expected to accept a teacher (or assistant teacher), the Vipassana technique, and execute all other meditation techniques, rites, and/or any form of worship. Religious objects, crystals, and talismans are strictly prohibited during the course, as well as any form of intoxicants and drugs.

Clothes worn during the meditation should be clean, modest, and comfortable. Music, reading, and writing are not permitted.

Meditation hall

All students must observe Noble Silence. The Nobel Silence has been invented in accordance to prevent telling lies. The Noble Silence will be started at the end of zero day and ends at the afternoon of day ten. During this time you will have a right to communicate with teacher (or assistant teacher) during two periods per day. In the case of questions concerning practical issues, you will have the opportunity to make a written request and leave it in the appropriate place. The usage of cell phone, Tablet PC, laptops is strictly prohibited.

The Noble Silence is not as awful as it might seem. In fact, it helps to save your energy for concentration on the training.

Costs

The Vipassana meditation courses, accommodations, and food are free of charge. A small expense fund is required if you are going to outsource your laundry or purchase bottled water or juice.

Vipassana courses depend on voluntary donations from the people who have attended the course. You can use donation boxes for donations in smaller amounts of money, or deliver a donation to administrator who will be on the premises on the last day of the training. 

I advise you to ask for a receipt for your donation and prepare a printed visit card with your name and email address, because he might tell you that he will send the receipt by email. Ask him when he will be able to send the receipt and take his personal telephone number to call him in case he forgets to do it.

Constraints

The most critical for me was the first day of the course. I choose the Vipassana meditation center close to Pushkar, Rajasthan State, and attended the course at the end of September.

I wasn’t used to the heat at over +35 degrees C (+95 degrees F) overall, and especially in the premises without air conditioning. The temperature one degree higher would make impossible for me to continue the training.

Another huge constraint for me was long hours sitting in the meditation postures. I used to stay in meditation postures for 30 minutes or so, but a 12-hour training session at the Vipassana felt like torture.

So, to be able to successfully succeed in a Vipassana course, it’s essential to start preparation for it as early as possible, at least one-month prior.

*Note:  This article is based on my personal experience and thoughts after my first 10-day meditation course of Vipassana, and is not presented to be an absolute truth. – Jacklyn A. Lo, Author of Redemption novel, http://rbjal.com/

Next article will tell about practical advices and where to go for retreat.