Asked whether a life's accumulated wisdom serves any purpose after death, Rupert Spira uses the wave-and-ocean analogy — each wave dissolves but the energies that formed it return to the whole and continue to inform new forms. The infinite never loses what passes through a finite mind.
Transcript
I have a question about reincarnation. As I understand it, you don't really believe in reincarnation. >> I don't believe in incarnation, let alone reincarnation. [laughter] I have a question anyway. >> [laughter] >> I'm wondering all of the things I've learned during my life and all the development I've been through, where does where do all that go when I cease >> they go? Okay. when I cease to exist? >> Okay. >> Does it benefit the whole? Yes. Okay. >> Or if not, what's the point? Okay. Okay, do you understand my question? >> indeed. Yes. Yes. So let's use the the analogy of of the ocean. Infinite consciousness is is is like an ocean. It's without form. It's pure water. Everything that arises in the ocean is made of the ocean. And and each of us is like an individual wave. We understand there are no real individual waves. You can't pluck a wave out of the ocean. The wave is just a temporary name and form uh of of the ocean. We we are each of us is a a temporary name and form of the one infinite consciousness. But having said that, each wave uh has its has its own particular name and form. Every wave is a particular size, a particular shape, a particular duration and and so on. Just like each of us are particular individual uh characters on on on minds. And so each wave has a different um it has a different frequency, a different amplitude, a different duration and and so on. And when that wave um subsided into the ocean, which would correspond with the death of the body. When [snorts] the wave subsides in the oceans, the the um the energies that went into the make of the wave um lose their integrity. So the wave disperses, but the energies that went into the formation of the wave don't disappear. They are just dissipated into the broader medium of the ocean. And so and so the energies are the the the residual content of your mind. So when you die, now to answer your question now, when you die, I would when when every finite mind when every individual wave dies, I would suggest that it it donates its content to the whole. And the residual the residual energies of of of your mind are then dispersed as ripples. They're no longer waves, but they're ripples in the broader medium of the ocean, which um contribute to all the other ripples that have been donated by all the other dissolving waves and become part of the collective mind. The collective unconscious. And and some of those ripples might gather together again and form the basis of a new wave, which would satisfy your question about reincarnation. >> Thank you. So so so yes, I I don't think your experience is wasted. I think our experience we we we donate we donate our residual experience to to to the collective mind of humanity. And and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and contribute to to to humanity. Our lives are not meaningless. Otherwise it would have been rather meaningless. No, I I I I wouldn't I wouldn't even even if that were not the case, I wouldn't say that it was meaningless because everything that you've experienced in your life thus far has brought you to this understanding. I don't mean my understanding, I mean your understanding. And thus they they serve the ultimate purpose of your life, which is to return you to your true nature. That that is purpose enough. Okay. So even if your mind was extinguished at death, it would still have served its purpose, but I think it has a greater purpose than that. >> Okay. Let's hope so. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Rupert. Okay.