So if you believe in the Buddhist idea of linear existence...you know that the flame of one dying candle lights a new one...and new life begins with the rising sun...and the flame remains the same...one life after another life after another life and I would like to think that we move to a higher existence with each passing so to speak... I would hate to think that we would go from relatively highly evolved human being to a damned blade of grass for example...I can’t imagine there’s much reward in being a blade of grass...just standing around waiting for somebody to cut you in half...or some dog to come by and use you as a toilet...but I guess you’d at least be outside and not stuck in some stuffy office...you’d feel the sun and the rain, relax under the moonlight, take shelter under a quiet blanket of snow...and some grass can live for a very long time, so there’s that...but I would hope that with each existence we learn a little and we carry it forward instead of starting with a clean slate and making the same dumbass mistakes again...once again I would guess that some of us are relatively new to this and that others have lived many existences and perhaps that’s why they are more advanced than others...perhaps those are the ones who do great things in this time period...they have a reservoir of past experiences that perhaps they’re not totally cognizant of, but is some kind of subconscious guide they can channel forward any ideas or thoughts or whatever...maybe that means each existence gets better and better...who knows?...it's nice to think your soul your spirit or whatever you want to call it would not die...this seems so final like the lights on and then it's off but if you think of it the Buddhist way or the Daoist way, things don't end that abruptly...it’s nice to have that idea tucked away in your trench coat and then you can take solace in that if this existence ends, another one is coming up...hopefully a better one, one where you don’t make so many goddamned screwups...but in reality, you probably do for the most part...thinking about it, it sounds kind of like another version of heaven...you know, you don’t die...you go to heaven and are reunited with loved ones...that sounds hokey, and maybe this linear existence thing is the same...but if you do believe in this one existence after another thing, look around and see how many people are living near perfect lives...not very many...if any...so if your goal is to become a bodhisattva, you most likely have a long wait to get there...it takes meditation, and a healthy dose of frustration, some aggravation, and maybe a little medication...some of us are like at base camp and becoming a bodhisattva is at the peak of mt. everest...it’s a long climb sahib...better call the sherpas...and we ain’t got the tools to do it right...footwear, and harnesses, and ice picks, and clampons or whatever the hell they’re called...those things you wear over your boots...oh, it’s crampons...clampons sounds like some kind of sex toy...of course it’s all theoretical, or theatrical, or maybe the idea is so crazy that it’s actually the truth...so much of life is theoretical because we think zig and life zags...so all those plans and golden notions don’t count for anything because we never get to use them anyway...life has a way of making us react...react to this, react to that...always reacting to things we didn’t expect...you know so expect the unexpected, there’s always the unexpected...we seldom dictate the terms...so read the fine print baby.
