I'm a simple person. No, not simple, but a lazy person. I like things broken down into component parts, bullet lists and outlines are just fine by me. I prefer sound-bites over discourse, abstracts over articles. Bottom-line it for me, baby!

Getting to the part of the Tibetan Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between where one has missed all the chances of attaining liberation while in the reality between, no easy task mind you, and one finds oneself facing imminent rebirth while in the "existence between", I find myself where I started, with ideas from the book Illusions by Richard Bach.

The other side of the reality coin, as covered in Illusions, looks like it would be the existence between, and the bottom line is that for the spiritually adept, our lives are designed by our own choice while in that stage. Or that's how I would marry the concepts.

While in the existence between, we can choose the lives we are born into with attendant challenges we wish to overcome. The possibilities and motivations is a huge field of endless discussion. In fact, I shouldn't wonder some people die and let go and (their souls) totally blow through the reality between, where the most potent opportunities for liberation are presented, without even trying for liberation, just so they can reach the existence between and be re-born again. We are the otters of the universe.

However, the ability to choose lives and lifetimes isn't with everyone. Those who are not aware and have not cultivated their supra-reality abilities, provided they believe in these things deep down, are guided by karma to what they are re-born as.

I am also deciding that my understanding of the six realms of existence/beings are all on this physical plane. Including hell. My belief is that if there is hell, there are multiple levels of it. Further, if there are hells, then living a hellish existence on this physical plane is the highest level of them; it is the form in which we have the highest opportunity to change our karmic destinies. Even the lowest god levels, which are the lowest of the heavens, have a more limited capacity to change karmic destiny.

The book presents the different existences as being stratified and distinct. Above the hell-beings are preta or pretans or "hungry ghosts", which are beings with insatiable hunger/thirst with unbearably limited means of feeding them. Above them is the animal realm, and above that is the human realm.

Above the human realm is the lowest level of heaven, and there are two low-heaven existences that I would like to pull down into human form: gods and titans (who have god-like stature, but are driven by ambition or aggression). Other low-level heaven existences may be non-corporeal. In Western religion cosmologies, they might be low-level angels.

Those with spiritual aptitude to negotiate their re-birth in the Existence Between will always come back in a human form with nominal degrees of suffering, and always with potential to learn and grow. Folk without spiritual aptitude end up here if their accumulated karma is not bad enough to put them in lower realms, and is good enough so that they have another shot in the human realm to progress and further their karmic destinies. Or fuck it up as unfortunate cases may be.

I don't like the stratification that is in the book. I think maybe you can have the bad karma to end up in the animal or hungry ghost realms, but still be re-born as either animal or human. But if re-born as human, their suffering is great, and their aptitude to better their karmic destiny is extremely limited. Although possible, it would take herculean leaps to do so, and to further worsen their karmic destiny is extremely easy.

Hungry ghosts as humans, no matter what their station in life, suffer immensely from their inability to satiate whatever they hunger for, and may even kill in the attempt. Animals as humans suffer as animals do, generally ignorant, functioning wildly on instinct, and no awareness of karmic destiny. They can kill and have no remorse or feeling of wrong.

You can also have karma to end up in the human realm but be re-born as an animal. These animals are generally loved and have compassion poured on them, thereby protecting them from having no awareness of karmic destiny or from worsening their karmic destiny, and the next time around they may still be re-born in the human realm, or the equivalent level of the animal realm.

Gods and titans are born into the lowest level of heaven, and I believe they are corporeal heaven-dwellers, born as humans. The book presents gods as being placed in high or good positions, but their lofty existence prevents them from further pursuing the dharma or bettering their karmic destiny. The book posits that most gods will eventually end up being re-born as humans.

To me, this describes our celebrities. Good karmic destiny has given them riches and fame, but indulgent and unaware of the injustice of their lifestyle will eventually accumulate to bring them down, but rarely lower than the human realm. If the karma they create as gods is particularly bad, then they get really slammed down to even lower levels.

Titans are described as being born in the heaven realm, but with a propensity for aggression and war-like behavior. I corporealize these folks as powerful leaders, mostly government. It seems like a contradiction to say a person's karma is so "good" that they are re-born on a high level, but are pre-disposed to use their lofty position to kill and wage wars of aggression and create further suffering. In fact, the book posits that eventually most titans will be re-born lower than the human realm. Curious, huh? It kinda makes sense to me, but I couldn't convince anyone in an argument.

Mm, I guess that's it for this long-ass post. Oh wait, one last old chestnut of a thought on death that I got from the book The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I also believe that what we really deep down believe happens after death, is what happens. If we are deep down atheists and don't believe in a soul and the end of bodily functions signals the end of life, I believe that when they die, they're gone and totally cease to exist, regardless of what physics says about the conservation of energy.

But I also believe that just stating a belief does not make it so. I believe it is possible, and I absolutely don't impose this upon anyone, that someone might think they believe one thing, but deep down in their heart of hearts really believe something else. Like a hardcore atheist scientist stating he or she believes in God "just in case" there really is one. If in their heart of hearts, they are atheist, boom, that's it.