Skin Color from Saṃskāra

[deafAncient]

Namaskāra everyone,

While I'm working on an online jigsaw puzzle of a group of women in India greeting the photographer, I look at their skin tones while trying to put their faces together, and I'm being led back to a strong feeling of identification with such skin tones. I remember as a kid (I'm mostly white) when I had an obsession with sun tanning and wanted to "become" darker (even though I don't tan, I don't burn, I IMPLODE). Right now, I'm feeling, "That is where I'm supposed to be, or was before. It is familiar to me." I now get the feeling that I was of color before, and during that time, I was jealous of the white's fame, money, and power. So when that body died, I was put in this one or maybe even other white bodies before this one in order to understand that living as a white person isn't everything it's made out to be. Look, I'm deaf, have some endocrine issues, not able to find a job that goes with my education/background/tendencies, and I get bored sometimes. A different set of problems I have now than before. If I have to live again, I would live as a Sanātani with much greater appreciation for Dharma than I had before.

On the other hand, I have Native American ancestry, and it has come out in two different ways during the course of this life. The first time was being made to wear European Pilgrim clothing for Thanksgiving in Kindergarten and hating it/screaming and wanting to wear the animal skins of the Native Americans. This was before they found out I was deaf, so I had no idea what was being discussed for this children's play until I actually had the clothes on me, and then freaked out (even though I wasn't verbally aware of the history behind it). I just had that impression that something was wrong with those clothes. They must have changed me out because I remember getting home that day and standing outside in the open field, wearing the NA clothes, facing the house while looking through the tall blades of weeds/grass, and it felt RIGHT, like it was supposed to be. I can still feel it right now, that impression.

The second time was being at a touristy spot in New Mexico or Arizona, USA, where NA artwork is very famous (I was about 11 or 12 then, and I had a decent grasp of English by then). I spied a necklace that had the upper part that goes around your neck being some kind of soft suede leather, and attached to both ends for the bottom part alternating patterns of red-dyed seeds or wooden beads with pointed ends and drilled through the middle, and white round beads in between these red beads. It was simple and beautiful, and I treasured it. I had it for years until it was lost. I felt like it evoked some kind of impression I could sense within, which again felt RIGHT. I was not interested in the fancier, more expensive jewelry (even though I was still at the age where if I wanted something more expensive/flashier, I could have asked for it and gotten it).

The thing about the NA experience, is that it's hard to tell if that is genetic saṃskāra inherited from whatever parents you have, or if it is indeed the saṃskāra that goes with your subtle body, or sūkṣma śarīra. What if it's both?

Praṇāma

[Aanandinii]

Namaste DA,

The thing about the NA experience, is that it's hard to tell if that is genetic saṃskāra inherited from whatever parents you have, or if it is indeed the saṃskāra that goes with your subtle body, or sūkṣma śarīra. What if it's both?

My understanding is that is is indeed both.

The body and it's cells do have a kind of memory, it's part of the DNA and RNA and the little organelles called Mitochondria, inherited along the Maternal line and which have their own memory too. The expression of that memory can also be influenced by environment. This is upheld by modern genetics. I have had direct experience of this twice. This body's genetic heritage is almost entirely British Isles. It has never been happier, more balanced and healthier than when I lived in the UK - two stints, once for 2 years and another for 1 year. Both times, I felt the difference in energy the minute my feet touched the ground. It was stunning, especially the first time. I had suspected all along this was the grand majority of my heritage, (I am adopted), as my Father is 100% British Isles heritage, (that family line is traced to the first ancestor in the US), and I actually do look a lot like him despite having no direct genetic relation. Those experiences partly confirmed it.

But, I also am more comfortable in the northeast of the North American Continent than in most other places in the world, even in the US and Canada. I seemed to instinctively take to wilderness survival craft very fast as a child and I still enjoy it. I have a strong proficiency in most arts, particularly weaving, visual arts and music. This could all be chalked up to regional nurture, though a lot of these traits do not really exist in either of my adopted families' lines - except for proficiency in Music. My Dad tended to really enjoy wilderness living when he was younger but not so much later and he was an oddball for it in his family. Soon after my own experience that brought me to Sri Shiva and Mata Di's feet, I felt a strong urge to find out about my biological family - I haven't ever had such an urge before and I still don't really understand why it was important for me to do, I'm still exploring that. But what I did find out is I also have some Native American heritage, Algonquin via the Mi'kmaq Nation of Nova Scotia and northern Maine. My maternal line has been mapped to the first ancestors as well, and there were several fairly recent ancestors from that Nation who have contributed to my body's genetic memory. The largely Scottish family who lived in Nova Scotia for most of that family's history were all sea captains and fishermen. This explains my love of boats and the sea, which not one person on either side of my family shares - most get seasick when they step in a puddle.

So yes. As I understand it and as I believe from both teaching and personal experience, the body has memory that contributes to who you are in this life, which helps you to reap the fruits of Karmas and form new Karmic seeds in this life.

The teaching I have read so far have indicated to me that the Subtle bodies that surround the Jiva too have memory. If 'YOU' - the big you beyond this incarnation - had finally transcended all memory then you will have transcended all your karmic fruits and burnt the seeds of the remaining and have gained final liberation, moksha, dissolution back into the Supreme. There would be no more 'jiva in a subtle body', much less one that would 'incarnate', or identify itself with repeated material forms in order to experience and grow. I am trying to speak fairly generally because there is a bit more to it than this, and I am still learning. If I am misunderstanding something, I hope someone will correct and clarify for me.

Generally the majority of people either don't remember other lives, or if they do remember something most will forget very early in this life. Some retain some memory though and some get vague feelings at times. I still have no idea why any of us would remember anything, we aren't meant to, but some do. I have struggled with this as I remember parts of my last incarnation. I would like to know why, but I think it's probably not a simple answer. What I can say it is has had a large impact on the individual I am in this life, and it lets me know for certain that the strong impressions of our minds in one life can create impression in the subtle bodies of the jiva, deeply informing and molding our next lives. Part of the reason I am here in the US in this life is because of that life, I know this with a certainty. It isn't a flight of fantasy, I have memories that go back to early infancy and these memories existed even past then. My parents attest to my talking about them as a child, some of their stories I don't remember. Before I completely understood the memories, I had a deep affinity with the culture of that life and I can see how it has also informed/influenced this life in some ways.

So, I struggle with these things too. I have for a long time, and I keep hoping that somehow I will make some kind of sense out of it. I keep coming back to it, like poking at a bruise, I try to let it go then something brings it back up and my mind is disturbed by picking through all these things once again. Recently I've finally asked the question: Even if I do someday figure it all out. What does it matter? How does it make any difference in the grander picture of the path I have set myself on towards (one day) liberation?

The answer is, it doesn't. I makes no difference, it adds nothing but vrttis, disturbances to the mind. Distraction. My saṃskāras and karmic fruits and the karmic seeds still waiting in this life or for another... none of this really matters in the path I am trying to walk as I learn. My goal is to transcend them. Ruminating on them and dissecting them doesn't help to do that. So, the answer is that it doesn't matter, in the end, none of it. These are material bags of elements we borrow for a time, and the subtle bodies are delusions that keep 'Me' from recognising 'Myself'. That is all I need to remember.

It doesn't always help. But I am able to refocus away from the distraction again faster than I used to be able to, so perhaps I'm getting somewhere and perhaps one day I won't be distracted by any of it anymore.

I'd like to share a link from a teacher I've been following recently. This is just one school of thought on the subject, but it's one I have found helpful and that syncs closely to my own inner feeling. In fact, much of what this teacher offers has quite caught my attention of late.

On Karma and Memory


~Pranam

[deafAncient]

Namaskāra Aanandinii,

Thank you for sharing this with us. I think you are right, that it doesn't matter where we've been. I guess I look to memories and sensations as means to confirm that reincarnation really does exist, as I recall during my Deaf Years that I had no idea that there would be something that occurred before I was born in this life. All there was was this world, and I doubt that I felt this vague sensation that I have now. It's like having a certain feature, and then someone holding a mirror to you and saying, "Your eyes are brown," and you realize that only after you saw it yourself, that the mirror was showing gradually over the years, "neti-neti," not this, not this. See, you can't use the senses of this world to "see" what cannot be seen in this world. You have to have a tool, a mirror of sorts, to see the unseeable.

This is an article that my Mom's side of the family has discussed on FB (we have a family tree book that goes to late 1500s/early 1600s around Caen, France before leaving for British Jersey as Protestants to escape the religious wars with the Catholics there around 1730s-1750s) - http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may...s#.UswWtfYsQnU

I also notice myself that I can turn away from the distraction faster and faster now. I'd love to watch the video, but does it have subtitles? (I'm on data restrictions for the billing cycle this month)

Praṇāma

[Aanandinii]

Namaskar DA,

Interesting article, thank you. I need to give it a deeper read, but it seems pretty accurate from a skim. Here's a research study done very recently that may also be of interest. The abstract is available >here< and a decent brief on it is >here<
I could create a PDF of the article to share for any interested in reading the actual work itself.

You know, so many of his video talks do have subtitles but not this one. I tried to find it elsewhere with subtitles but so far haven't been able to. I will PM you the text.

~Pranam

[deafAncient]

Namaskāra Aanandinii,

I would LOVE to have a copy of the full article in PDF. However, is this to say that although the twin's bodies will have some similarities in gross functioning, there will be differences in personalities?

Praṇāma