Subject: the Death Stewpot

there seem to be only very few models of what can happen after death ...

the principle ideas are (1) what we can call the judo-christian-muslim and various ancestor cults ... where the question of birth is usually taken for granted, and then after death you live on forever, in either heaven or hell.

(2) the hindu model and various nature religions where an individual spirit is reincarnated into a series of insects animals people, and at the end of the list are usually Gods.

(3) the Buddhist model (not tibetan buddhism which follows the hindu/nature religion model), Buddha said nothing is reincarnated .. this can be understood like one billiard ball hitting another ... where the energy from the first ball passes onto the second, usually sending it in a different direction - but no actual substance is transfered

and then (4) there is the stewpot model

so the stewpot cooks .. and each of us is a BLUB (a beautiful individual blub - and no other blub will ever be exactly like it) - it lasts a split second - then divides into steam and smells and also i suppose what we could call the skin of the bubble splashing out, ... evaporating and condensating ... and then, ... over the course of the next 30 minutes, ... what was previously just one BLUB will become part of hundreds of new BLUBS ...!

on the material level it is obvious: it happens with everything from stewpots to trees and clouds, but also, i believe there is no argument against considering this, as a possibility for what happens after death with our emotions and character qualities etc.

that my qualities, my desires, my frustrations, my hopes, my hates, etc etc will separate out after death, and then rejoin with qualities from others.  

in one of our next lives, parts of you and me, could be combined together as part of a new process, in a new person.

in the same way a tree gathers the substances it needs to build itself ... my desires and your hopes could be drawn together ...

... how important it is to try and help my neighbour to be more open minded ... next life i may share with his helpless untruth!

i feel now, very content with how my life is leading inevitably to death, ... i feel my death as a point where i will spread my seeds

maybe you could even say, or think it, in terms of me wanting to plan for my happiness and peace as much as possible in all of these new incarnations and for at least the next few hundred years ... (and i realise to most intelligent people this will appear as complete unrealisitc twaddle - but - i must admit, to me, it seems like common sense)

robin