The Parable Of The Happy Plant

Reincarnation is a concept so naturally and intrinsically a part of many religions, that their proponents might wonder how anyone could think anything else.

Hinduism and Buddhism are two such religions.  My understanding of their beliefs is that we create everything in our lives through our thoughts, words, and actions.  Our karma is the consequences of these thoughts, words, and actions, and reincarnation is necessary for us to resolve the karma accumulated in previous lives.  As we choose higher thoughts, words, and actions in subsequent lives, we evolve, creating improved karma.

• My interpretation of the word karma is:
• • What goes around comes around
  • You get back what you give out
  • Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Hang on!  What was that last one?  Isn’t that The Golden Rule, a basic tenet of Christianity?  (Matthew 7:12: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.)  Judaism has the same teaching.  (Leviticus 19:18: Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.)  In fact, this doctrine is taught in every major religion.

Yet, if you ask a Christian or Jew if their religion supports the idea of karma, you would probably get a negative response.

Could it be that these same religions support the idea of reincarnation also?

Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.”

Matthew 17:12-13: “ But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”  Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.”

John 5:28-29: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

John 8:56-58: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”  So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.””

I believe that every part of God’s creation is evolving.  As Neale Donald Walsch and God tell us in the Conversations With God books: “The purpose of your life is to recreate yourself anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who You Are.”  We return to our next life because when we reviewed our last life, we considered that there was more that we could do, more that we could be.

I wanted to tell you the story of my ‘happy plant’.  I purchased my ‘happy plant’, a type of bamboo I think, planted in a small narrow pot, many years ago in the supermarket.  In its early days with me, I tended to it lovingly, but as the years passed, this plant became more and more neglected.  And still it managed to live.  Then, one day, it looked like it was on its last legs – it was dry and wilted, and close to death.  It certainly didn’t look like a happy plant any longer.

I sent a thought to this little plant: “Please stay with me, and I’ll look after you.”  From that day on, I started taking more care of the ‘happy plant’. It started to grow taller and taller, and it even had a little baby – a small suckling (I’m not really a gardener, so forgive me if this is not the correct term).  One day, I came home to find my ‘happy plant’ had grown too tall for its little pot, and had tipped over, spilling all of its soil out on the ground.  I had to repot it into a bigger pot.  The ‘happy plant’ continued to grow very quickly in this bigger pot, and soon it became rootbound.  I asked it if it wanted to be planted out in the ground, and received a positive response.  So I planted my not-so-little-anymore plant out in the ground in our fernhouse, with its baby beside it.  There it stands, as I write this, still a similar size to when I planted it, a few months ago.

You see, I believe that the ‘happy plant’ had decided it was time to leave.  It had done all it could as a small potted plant.  I believe it wanted to move on, to become the next grandest version of the greatest vision it held about itself: a plant with its roots in the Earth.  I believe that, as it had agreed to stay with me because of my request, it had to find a way to do that and still fulfil its own life purpose – to evolve.

Yes, I believe that karma exists, but not as a punishment from God, but as a natural consequence of our thoughts, words, and actions.

Your next question might be: “Then how can I escape my karma?”

And my answer would be “I don’t think you can.  But like the happy plant, you can change your mind.  You can make your life about service to someone else, and still maintain your own life purpose.  You can do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.  Instead of waiting until your next life to become the next grandest version of the greatest vision you ever held about who you are, you can become that starting right now, or tomorrow, or the day after, or whenever you choose.”

I believe that my ‘happy plant’ is happy in its role now, and so can you be.