Can we reincarnate into the past?

This is what I ask myself while lying in the warmth of my basket.  It’s a rainy day.  Mommy is off to a place called work.  There’s nothing I want more than to lie in my little basket all day and snuggle under the fluffy pink blanket with red love hearts.

Occasionally, I open my eyes and lazily look out the window in front of me from my cozy basket.

There are droplets of water on the glass of the window.  Each droplet flickering with colors of the rainbow.  From the corner of my eyes, I notice the silhouettes of tiny birds forming a line on a tree branch and sheltering themselves from the rain under nature’s leafy umbrellas.  I also spot a blue butterfly sitting still on the outside corner of the window sill.

Neither the birds nor the butterfly look rushed to get anywhere else.  They just know when to go wherever else they need to go.

Their approach is different from mommy’s who rushed out the door earlier to get to work.

I don’t know where work is or what it’s like or what she does there.  But, I imagine it to have a race track for runners because she races herself out the door to get there most mornings.

Sometimes when mommy returns home from work, she looks tired and even depleted as she takes few moments to wind down and pet me.  So, I imagine that she’s running in a race at this place known as work.

I reflect on the behavioral patterns of the tiny birds and the blue butterfly in comparison to mommy’s patterns, as I contemplate on the question of being reincarnated into the past.

Why are their behavioral patterns different when it comes to going to places and deciding what actions to take or not?   And what do these patterns have to do with reincarnation, the past, and if we can reincarnate into the past?

What I realize as I reflect on the differences in their patterns is that much of it has to do with time.  To be more specific, much of it has to do with the way time is viewed, especially if it’s seen as linear.

Is linear time the natural order?

In linear time, “past”, “present” and “future” exist sequentially at different points.

Is the past, present & future linearity the natural order of time though?

It certainly is in mommy’s watch.

After all, she seems to rush out the door at a certain time every day, except for days she refers to as weekends and holidays (which for me are days when I am pampered more).  Her rhythm seems quite set and in sync with linear time on her watch.

She plans her days and makes arrangements according to the time on her watches and clocks around the house.  She also looks at a piece of paper hanging on the wall when planning.  She calls this the calendar.

I know that much of her life is marked by time and dictated by time.

Sometimes when she is caressing me, she gently whispers into my ears that she wishes she had more time and that she can’t wait to spend more time with me over the weekend.

This perplexes me and makes me wonder why she can’t spend more time with me now!

Who or what is this “time” that holds her back from spending more time with me?  Why would time prevent her from spending more time?  What does time look like in the first place?  And how can she obtain more time, so that she will have more of it to spend?

Time seems to have a lot of authority to command where she goes, what she does and when to do what she does.   It even dictates when she goes to sleep.

I’m baffled by this!

I go to sleep whenever I want and I’m able to sleep as long as I want.  Time doesn’t scare me into sleeping when I don’t want to.

I imagine that time looks like the raccoon that tried to scare me one night from outside the window by staring me down.

But, it didn’t scare me. And I wasn’t afraid.

Dream & the awake state

I tried to get rid of time by sneaking into her room at night in the past to hide the wrist watch from her night table.  I thought that by hiding the watch from her, she’ll be free from the relentless grip of time.  And her desire to stroke me more often and for longer periods would materialize.

But, it didn’t work.

Presence of time in the house is everywhere.  There are so many clocks and calendars around the house.  I can’t hide them all…

The junctures when time’s presence loses its full grip on mommy’s life is when she is asleep.  She is then free to dream without intrusion from time.

Unlike mommy, I can sleep for prolonged phases.  I can easily slip into the dream world.  Sometimes I dream of the past and other times of the future.  While I’m dreaming, the content of my dreams from the “past” or “future” feel real.  They feel as if it’s happening right now.

Are dreams real?

The answer depends on when I answer this – in the dream state or the awake state.

In the dream state, the dream world is real, especially when I don’t know that I’m dreaming.  In this state, if I’m dreaming of the past, then I’m in the past.

Sequential linearity of past, present and future disappears in the dream world. 

Likewise, in the awake state, the world I’m awake in feels real, especially when I’m able to consciously reflect on the dreams I had after waking up.

So, what’s more real – the dream state or the awake state?

Paradoxically, both are real and neither are real.  They both feel real and unreal, depending on which state you are examining them from.

When you don’t know whether you’re dreaming or awake, then both states merge and boundaries vanish.

The same applies when we are imagining, including when we imagine the past, present and future.

If you don’t know you’re imagining, then it’s real.

In fact, if you consciously take out the label of “unreal” from imagination, then it’s as real as the reality you experience in your physical body right now.

Imagination and our physical experience are intimately connected.

When I imagine the tuna I ate “yesterday”, I feel all the sensations of touch, smell, taste, sight and sound in my body all over again.

Just from imagination alone, I can hear mommy opening the can of tuna.  I get a whiff of the tuna.  I can see how the tuna treat looks on the little bowl.  My mouth waters as I taste it.  And my belly feels full when I gobble it up.

My physical body reacts to my imagination of eating the tuna in the same ways it reacted yesterday when I was eating it.   I’m re-living yesterday through my imagination.  When I forget that I’m imagining or when I consciously take out the label of “yesterday” or “imagination” from my mind, then I’m living in “yesterday”.

Dissolving linear time

Just close your eyes and imagine eating one of your favorite meals from the recent past.  Use all your senses vividly as you imagine – sense of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.  Feel all the sensations in your body.

Now, don’t compartmentalize this experience in your mind as the “past”.  And similarly, don’t compartmentalize this experience in your mind as “imagination”.

What do you experience now?

It should feel like as if it’s happening now in the present.  In this state, linear time should dissolve for you.

So, what does dissolution of linear time has to do with being reincarnated in the past?

Well, “past” doesn’t exist in non-linear time.  You’re no longer subjected to exist only in the “past”, “present” or “future” as separate segments.  You can experience different points of time simultaneously.

Without linear time as the benchmark for past, present and future, everything that has ever happened and is happening and can happen are all happening at once. 

So, in other words, instead of asking if we can be born into the past, the question is are we already born into the past?

Remove your conceptual knowledge and understanding of linear time when thinking of something from the “past”.  Don’t compartmentalize this past scenario in your mind as “imagination”.  And pretend that you’ve never been introduced to watches, clocks and calendars and that you can’t measure time.

Without such concepts, you could easily be living in the “past” right now without knowing it’s the past.

Perhaps, right now you have been reincarnated into the past.  At present, you could be living in a “past” life to change the course of your actions that have deeply impacted others. And when you think of a “past” situation without the filter of linear time, every action and inaction from your part could create ripples of change across time, space and dimensions in ways you can’t grasp.

In terms of the “future”, your actions and inaction are shaping your future.  You could very well even be living in what you call the “future” right now.  Future could be what’s happening now.

In other words, you could be existing in different dimensions in various points of time simultaneously.

Intersection of past, present & future

Without linear time, past, present and future intersect.

It’s dreamlike in this state where all boundaries disappear.  And you can drop into any moment of time, including in a past life.

When time’s not looking over your shoulder and you’re able to step outside the hypnotic grip of linear time, then all possibilities of past, present and future exist.

In this state, even mommy could spend longer periods with me in the morning without bolting out the door.

I can’t tell time from a watch, clock or calendar.  But, just like the tiny birds and the blue butterfly who know that now is the time for them to fly away, I also know that now is the time for mommy to return home.

Sure enough, I can hear her gentle footsteps approaching the door.  I stretch out my paws to get ready to spring up from my little basket when she arrives.

I know that soon she’ll be fussing over me – even linear time demands that.

With loving purrrs,

Divine Kitten

Featured photo on top by Minhaz000 on Pixabay.com