MEMORIES FROM PAST LIVES

 
Life would be infinitely more complicated if one who is not spiritually advanced were burdened by the conscious memory of numberless past lives. He would be dazed and unsettled by the diversity of setting in which persons would appear to him in the light of his memory.

He is not called upon to face such confusion, however, because he is shielded from the resurrection of the memory of past lives. Things and persons come to him in a limited and definite context and setting, with the result that he finds it easy to determine his actions and responses in the light of what he knows from the present life.

This does not mean that his actions and responses are entirely determined by what he knows from his present life. All that has happened in past lives also has its own unconscious but effective share in determining his actions and responses.

In spite of the actual influence of past lives, the fact remains that since he is shielded from the resurrection of conscious memory, his consciousness is not subject to the confusion that would result if the conscious memory of past lives were among the data he had to consider for the purpose of determining his actions and responses.

The resurrection of the memory of past lives can be faced without confusion or loss of balance only when the person has become desireless and has lost all feeling of "mine" and "thine." Those whom he once looked upon as belonging to him might be seen in the present life belonging to someone else. And if he were to continue his attachments and supposed claims, he would create untold complications, misery, and confusion for himself and others.

Possessiveness of all types has to be purged from the mind if the aspirant is to be spiritually prepared to withstand the disturbing influence of memories from past lives.