Reincarnation Cases

Sorry for the very delayed response, jkmac.

The main problem I have with this paradigm (and I know you said you weren't trying to convince me) is the idea that suffering is the best (or at least a valid) way for us to learn. That seems to me to be utterly wrong-headed. And, as somebody else wrote in this thread (sorry, I forget who): if the Being that set up this system is perfect or at least has learnt Its lessons and is a Very Good Being, then why could it not have created us perfect or at least Very Good in the first place, so that we didn't "need" to suffer to learn how to love? Are not the souls which we are part of already perfect or at least Very Good, in which case, what is the point of our learning on their behalf that which they already know better than we do?

Getting back to the sex-slave example: I'm sorry, but the idea that this scenario could be one of learning for the enslaved is one which I find abhorrent. It is tantamount to sanctioning torture.

I thunk we may not have the perspective or information or cognitive ability to understand the why, and just barely the what. So I stick with the what for the most part.

So to get to your question about why not just make us perfect from day one? 

Which would you say would be of more value to someone?

1- You spend years developing an appreciation for art and architecture and for fine building. You live in various houses, and learn what you do and don't like. You talk and dream for years about the perfect house. You develop the skills to design and build the thing with your bare hands. And then you finally do it. You build your dream house.

2- Some benefactor gives you a grand house when you are one year old. 

Which of these has real and lasting value? Significance? Purpose? And which doesn't?

In terms of suffering? Let me tell you a 2 stories that happened to me this weekend.

I spent 3 days volunteering for a 50 mile 3 day walk on Cape Cod to benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. 
On the first day I was talking with a co-volunteer and she was telling me about how she couldn't "sit in those metal chairs all day" as they hurt her back. Turns out she was in a horrible car wreck 10 years ago where she was thrown from the car and badly injured. Turns out also that her husband and 7 month old son were killed in the accident. She showed me a picture that that beautiful boy names Joshua that was taken a week before he died. 

Of course I spoke words of consolation and said something like "that must have been a terrible thing to get over",, then I correctly myself saying it's "probably something you NEVER get over". 

You know what she said to me after thanking me for my thoughts? She said, yes, I loved my boy very much and still do, but his and my husband's loss made me who I am today, and that's not a bad thing. I know I will see him again when the time's right, but until then, he helped make me who I am, and I love that.

That's not torture, it's the foundry in which which people are built.

And here's the second story that taught me something this weekend.

On day two after 3 hours of working at a rest stop, the last walker trudged by, head down focused ahead. He wore a Marine cammo uniform and a rucksack on his back that was obviously heavily loaded. He didn't look up, and he didn't stop for a drink. He marched by with a determined look on his face, as he worked this task.

I made a comment, and the person beside me told me his story.

He has been doing this event for 5 years and he always does it the same way. Stoically, without a word, only focus and determination. 

Apparently around 10 years ago his wife contracted MS and was suffering a lot. And apparently he felt that she needed to toughen up After all he thought, look at what I do every day in the US Marines... This went on for some time, and I believe that they eventually separated or divorced over this.

At some point, I don't know the details, he had a realization that what he had done was inexcusable. And he felt he needed to make it right somehow. And now every year, he loads his rucksack with 35 pounds of sand, and he walks this 50 mile course. Nobody asked him to do it. Most don't know the story of why he does it. It's just something that he feels he owes his ex wife, or perhaps himself. Something that must be done to heal the wounds he has caused others and perhaps himself through his actions. 

Torture? Maybe. But this is being done voluntarily by a man who feels he is building or maybe repairing something deep inside of himself.

I don't know if these things resonate, but to me, they feel like something directly relating to your thoughts.