I would definitely want to be reincarnated as a Humpback whale. Or dolphin. I'm a swimmer, and no one knows better than a swimmer that humans are just not made for the water. We're clumsy and bulky and we don't belong there. But animals like these ones swim more gracefully and with less effort than we walk on land. We evolved to be bipedal land animals, but they don't seem to have evolved to fit into any role, they seem like they were always the way they are, and their environment fits into them, not the other way around.
Whales are the biggest creatures on this Earth since the dinosaurs. But you don't see them rushing anywhere like a giant angry tank, or tearing into anything with big nasty claws and teeth. They just are. they swim around and sift through the water for krill and take care of their families. They travel together and sleep together. The whale's motto is Live and Let Be. Nothing bothers the whale. It's so immersed in serenity and what I'm pretty sure is all-knowingness, all of our stupid human troubles are just a blip on the cosmic map of the whale's world.
And have you ever seen dolphins play? They were made for play. It's their job. They don't know what work is, or hate. Even things that are necessary for them to stay alive, like catching fish, are just games to them.
Anyway, that's all assuming that by the time it's my turn to be reincarnated we haven't managed to wipe out all the dolphns and whales. And it's assuming I deserve to be reincarnated as a dolphin or whale. The whole logic behind the belief of reincarnation is that if you do well in this life, you chock up lots of good karma by fulfilling all your dharmic obligations, you come back as a higher life-form. But if you're crappy to other people and you never try to better yourself, you come back as a lower life-form, like a a snail, or a bacterium, or Shirley Phelps.
So here's hoping I do well enough to get to be a whale in my next life. Because I'm pretty sure whales get a lot closer to Nirvana, or the Atman, or Heaven, or becoming a Bodhisatva (or whatever you want to call the final state of peace for the mind, body, and soul) in their wise and wonderful pondering of the infinite nature of the universe than any human ever did.
Whales are the biggest creatures on this Earth since the dinosaurs. But you don't see them rushing anywhere like a giant angry tank, or tearing into anything with big nasty claws and teeth. They just are. they swim around and sift through the water for krill and take care of their families. They travel together and sleep together. The whale's motto is Live and Let Be. Nothing bothers the whale. It's so immersed in serenity and what I'm pretty sure is all-knowingness, all of our stupid human troubles are just a blip on the cosmic map of the whale's world.
And have you ever seen dolphins play? They were made for play. It's their job. They don't know what work is, or hate. Even things that are necessary for them to stay alive, like catching fish, are just games to them.
Anyway, that's all assuming that by the time it's my turn to be reincarnated we haven't managed to wipe out all the dolphns and whales. And it's assuming I deserve to be reincarnated as a dolphin or whale. The whole logic behind the belief of reincarnation is that if you do well in this life, you chock up lots of good karma by fulfilling all your dharmic obligations, you come back as a higher life-form. But if you're crappy to other people and you never try to better yourself, you come back as a lower life-form, like a a snail, or a bacterium, or Shirley Phelps.
So here's hoping I do well enough to get to be a whale in my next life. Because I'm pretty sure whales get a lot closer to Nirvana, or the Atman, or Heaven, or becoming a Bodhisatva (or whatever you want to call the final state of peace for the mind, body, and soul) in their wise and wonderful pondering of the infinite nature of the universe than any human ever did.
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