I found this excerpt from a book by Osho, a now deceased guru. I don't put people on pedestals, but listen to what they have to say and if it makes sense to me, touches something within me that resonates truth, then I take it in. I was struck by this piece where he talks about how hard it is to carry one life time consciously, let alone opening the door to remembering other life times...
"The child can become conscious only if in
his past life he has meditated enough, has
created enough meditative energy to fight
with the darkness that death brings. One
simply is lost in an oblivion and then
suddenly finds a new womb and forgets
completely about the old body. There is a
discontinuity. This darkness, this
unconsciousness creates the discontinuity.
The East has been working hard to
penetrate these barriers. And ten thousand
years' work has not been in vain.
Everybody can penetrate to the past life, or
many past lives. But for that you have to
go deeper into your meditation, for two
reasons: unless you go deeper, you cannot
find the door to another life; secondly, you have to be deeper in meditation
because if you find the door of another life, a flood of events will come into
the mind. It is hard enough even to carry one life....
Osho Hyakujo: The Everest of Zen Chapter 7
Commentary: (Picture Missing Here)
The hands of existence form the shape of the female genitals, the opening
of the cosmic mother. Revealed within are many images, faces from other
times.
While it might be entertaining to fantasize about famous past lives, it is just
a distraction. The real point is to see and understand the karmic patterns of
our lives, and their roots in an endless repetitive cycle that traps us in
unconscious behavior.
The two rainbow lizards on either side represent knowing and not-knowing.
They are the guardians of the unconscious, making sure that we are
prepared for a vision that might otherwise be shattering.
A glimpse into the eternity of our existence is a gift, and understanding the
function of karma in our lives is not something that can be grasped at will.
This is a wake-up call; the events in your life are trying to show you a
pattern as ancient as the journey of your own soul."
Copyright © 2002 Osho International Foundation