(From CHAPTER 5: REINCARNATION, pp. 64-66)

As the name implies, re-incarnation is a re-entering into the flesh; it is taking life as a human being (once again) to meet those things that your soul must meet while in the flesh. When you physically die, there is an in-between place where your soul goes prior to entering into another body. Physical death, therefore, should be thought of as a rebirth of your spiritual self into a body once again. The process, therefore, is an on-going cycle of physical life - physical death - spiritual life - spiritual death.

The Purpose
Your soul, therefore, has a purpose for entering into a body in the way that it does. Over many lifetimes, you would incarnate in different cultures, and in different parts of the world. You would also switch genders, switch roles, and switch social standing so that, in the end, you might understand completely what is meant by the experience of physical life. The purpose of taking on physical flesh is, indeed, to experience physical life. As you do so, you are given the opportunity to enhance the ever-lasting emotion of love, and to overcome the weaknesses within yourself that are the end result of the original sin of separation, which was the separation of souls from God.
The soul, once given free will and free choice, left the comfort, safety, and sanctuary of the God-head and went out through the universes to experience for itself independent life, independent search for knowledge, and the sensation of physical experiences. You might consider this “the downfall” or “temptation.” The soul became confused and lost its way as it took on the various vibrations, experiences, textures, and manifestations of material objects. You may think of this as the high, pure vibration of your soul becoming tarnished. It fell from piety and perfection into something less than perfect. From these depths, the soul became alone and was in despair. And from this point, the soul attempted to find its way back to God. It invoked the Law of Grace and repented. In short, it asked for help. There was a consideration or intervention from the God-head, and a way back towards perfection was established. Since that time, your soul has followed this course, meeting all things that it had met before, so that you might gain the knowledge of physical life and come to the greater understanding that you want to unite again in heaven and with God.

Unconditional Love
From that perspective, taking on life in physical form as a human being can be considered as the expression of emotion. Emotions are of this dimension alone, and hence are temporal. Love is the only exception. Love is the only emotion that transcends the physical world. It is the only emotion that advances into the higher realms of the spiritual aspects. It is the purest form of God. Therefore touching upon pure love - love that comes without conditions or consequences, love that is always forgiving (in other words, unconditional love) - is what each of us attempts to do as we experience physical life. And as we touch upon unconditional love in ourselves, our souls might ascend to a higher level.
The physical world is a world of duality or extremes: light and dark, good and bad. The objective of your soul as it migrates through the physical world and physical life is to find a way to progress, in a balanced way between these extremes. This means putting limits on desires; finding a way to be temporal; and being tolerant of all things. Your attitude and reaction to physical events either move your soul forward (or progress), prevent your soul from moving at all (or to stagnate), or move your soul backward (or regress). Consequently, most souls struggle forward and backward as they attempt to move through the different levels of human experience: self awareness, self realization, full realization. Being fully realized is the highest level: to be conscious of yourself as a spiritual being while in the physical flesh. Those who make it to this level are considered saints or avatars: God in the flesh.

Excerpted from SECRETS OF LIFE by Douglas James Cottrell, Many Mansions Press, 2004. ©2004 K. Cottrell Inc. All rights reserved.

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