Question about Past Lives/Reincarnation fitting into Non-Duality

[TrynaBeTurquoise]

So I'm reading this book "How to Attain Enlightenment" by James Swartz. It goes into talking about vasanas, or basically behavior tendencies from the unconscious mind (or casual body) that can be inherited from who you were in your previous incarnation. 

What im wondering is how do past lives fit into Non-Duality when, from my understanding, everyone has the same consciousness looking through their eyes, then wouldn't everyone who has existed before you also be your "past-life" in a sense? Am I missing something, or are there different levels to it? 

[cetus]

8 minutes ago, TrynaBeTurquoise said:

from my understanding, everyone has the same consciousness looking through their eyes, then wouldn't everyone who has existed before you also be your "past-life" in a sense? Am I missing something, or are there different levels to it? 

Yes and yes.

[TrynaBeTurquoise]

5 minutes ago, cetus56 said:

Yes and yes.

Could you attempt to connect the dots for me my good sir?

 

What is behind the distinction "Past-life" or a direct previous incarnation that separates that from all the other lives in reality?

Edited August 17, 2019 by TrynaBeTurquoise

[cetus]

@TrynaBeTurquoise You are not one of the many. You are the one that is the many.

[Freakyboo]

You are both 'the one' that is looking through the eyes of the many and you are 'one of the many.'  You are both the relative and the absolute - a paradox.  "You" as a relative entity moving through (illusory) time and space have your karma, your vasana's, your samskara's etc and you are on a "path" to discover your true nature.  Non-duality does not mean that you are only "the one," it means that you are all of the paradox - both the relative and the absolute.

[TrynaBeTurquoise]

46 minutes ago, Freakyboo said:

You are both 'the one' that is looking through the eyes of the many and you are 'one of the many.'  You are both the relative and the absolute - a paradox.  "You" as a relative entity moving through (illusory) time and space have your karma, your vasana's, your samskara's etc and you are on a "path" to discover your true nature.  Non-duality does not mean that you are only "the one," it means that you are all of the paradox - both the relative and the absolute.

Got it, I was conceptualizing the word "life" as a singular kind of thing, or a duality of singular vs plural, but it just is reiterating the same principle as no subject-object differential, the absolute truth

[mandyjw]

You are right, from my experience, you can tap into information and connection from "past lives" that you resonate with, if the both you had/have a deep passion, shared interest or a shared goal, you may become energetically connected and receive certain communications to help pass the torch on. It could be any type of unfinished business. Source or Oneness uses different channels to communicate, past lives are just one way, ultimately they are an illusion but the same can be said about your entire world and your very self.  

[Aakash]

Think about it, if you had a spirit guide and you came to this life to do a specific thing, that is enough to change your entire “lifestyle” and karma. If each of us had different ones, we would have different karma. 

I don’t think it’s that our past lives affected us here, I think it’s that our past life’s affected our choices before we got here 

for example, what makes you want to choose the reason you came here ? It’s the same as making a decision here ... there is none besides you desire something. It’s to learn a lesson, if it’s done. 

[Martin123]

17 minutes ago, Aakash said:

I don’t think it’s that our past lives affected us here, I think it’s that our past life’s affected our choices before we got here

This is delicious  
I'd add onto that that our past lives affected the kinds of choices and values we wish to embody in this life.