20.) Do
Sufis believe in reincarnation?
No! We all
have but one opportunity to get things right in this realm of existence. Once we have
passed from this physical/material dimension of being, there are no second, third or more
chances to improve ourselves spiritually during any future returns to this world.
Some
people may find a certain amount of comfort in entertaining the idea that we are not faced
with the pressure of having to solve the spiritual mystery of life within the very
delimited, finite temporal framework of one lifetime. However, such people would do well
to keep in mind the counsel of the Buddha that one ought to get busy now with the
process of freeing oneself from the causes of human suffering, rather than leave this
issue to some later time when one's spiritual condition may be far more rooted in, and
entangled with, our self-generated diseases of the heart and soul.
Irrespective
of where one comes down on the issue of whether there is more than one round of existence
on this level of being, the fact is, the Buddha never advocated that the individual ought
to dwadle in relation to the issue of spiritual liberation. Consequently, Sufi masters
would agree with the Buddha's efforts to induce human beings to get busy as quickly as
possible with freeing ourselves from the illusions and delusions which shape most of our
lives.
There is,
consequently, an urgency to the theme of spiritual deliverance. Getting caught-up with the
possibility of our having numerous lives in which to get things right merely undermines
the sort of motivation which is necessary to become spiritually focused on the task before
us in the present.
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