Should You Plan for Your Next Incarnation?

[Laird]

Divine Wisdom. 

Seriously.

...And why can't we learn that with and from the Divine directly?

Because that would be boring? No effort, no excitement, no adventure...

Also, what exactly do you mean, when you say "the Divine"?

...And why can't we learn that with and from the Divine directly?

That I don’t know.

What I do know is that having kids you learn that you can’t teach them your wisdom, they simply must learn their own lessons. It’s frustrating as hell!!! 

[Laird]

Because that would be boring? No effort, no excitement, no adventure...

Maybe not. Maybe. But in any case: also, no pain and suffering.

Also, what exactly do you mean, when you say "the Divine"?

God and those beings who share His/Her/Their nature.

[Laird]

That I don’t know.

I appreciate your honesty.

What I do know is that having kids you learn that you can’t teach them your wisdom, they simply must learn their own lessons. It’s frustrating as hell!!! 

Heh. I can only imagine!

But that said, doesn't an omnipotent Parent have access to teaching tools which "mere mortals" don't?

But that said, doesn't an omnipotent Parent have access to teaching tools which "mere mortals" don't?

I refer the right honourable gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago.

That I don’t know.

Heh. I can only imagine!

But that said, doesn't an omnipotent Parent have access to teaching tools which "mere mortals" don't?

While it’s true that I don’t know, don’t you find it interesting that it’s a fundamental truth that you can’t teach your children ‘wisdom’? It has to be learned alone. 
It might not mean anything, but this resonates with me. 
Perhaps it’s too easy for an omnipotent being, but just maybe, it’s not. I don’t think god is actually omnipotent, just a hell of a lot closer to it than we can even imagine.

[Laird]

While it’s true that I don’t know, don’t you find it interesting that it’s a fundamental truth that you can’t teach your children ‘wisdom’? It has to be learned alone. 
It might not mean anything, but this resonates with me.

Yes, it resonates with me too, although I do wonder whether it's too definitive a claim - I think that parents can teach their children wisdom to some meaningful extent, otherwise what is the point of all the fables with moral lessons that we read our children before bed, and what is the point of the patient discussions that we have with our children when they come to us for advice, etc? (Not me in particular, being childless, but "humans" in general).

Yes, it resonates with me too, although I do wonder whether it's too definitive a claim - I think that parents can teach their children wisdom to some meaningful extent, otherwise what is the point of all the fables with moral lessons that we read our children before bed, and what is the point of the patient discussions that we have with our children when they come to us for advice, etc? (Not me in particular, being childless, but "humans" in general).

Perhaps it’s known to us at one level, but not at the ego level? 

Father/son/holy ghost type thing. I know nothing about Christianity, as you can probably tell. 

I'm thinking that an idea which has entered our culture (whether or not we accept/believe it), may play a role here.

That is, the idea that there is a pair of opposites, heaven and hell, or sometimes heaven and earth. I think this is not merely an oversimplification but actually misleading, in the context of a discussion such as this.

Maybe there are many realms, maybe an infinity of them. In order to explore some of those (here I am with my explorer analogy again), we need to first experience this material world, as a preparation. Thus what is beyond is not merely the zone glimpsed in NDEs or other transcendent experiences, but an inconceivable vastness of other realms which are not accessible to us - yet.

I'm trying not to frame this in religious terminology too much, as I don't adhere to any particular religion. But I do feel that there is more, much more.