Passions and Past Lives (Part 5)

By AW

My past lives

If you have read these blogs thus far, you will be wondering about the diversity of subject material and the lingering questions. Let me pull it all together for you.

Past lives can be the cause, the source, of our passions!

Let me illustrate. I have had several incarnations in the Portuguese regions making port. Suffering the physical hardships of a basic lifestyle in a tough mountainous terrain which today evokes such awe and wonder that I can’t get enough of it. I was a pioneer winemaker in Rutherglen (Victoria) still the heart of the Australian port industry and I am pulled to return there at every opportunity.

I had two lives back-to-back on both sides of the atomic energy story. I was a toddler living in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped in 1945, dying instantly. I was also a (dissenting) research scientist in Los Alamos, the US site for developing the atomic bomb before it was dropped on Japan. ‘Accidents’ often befell dissenters including me. In this life, I am both still fascinated by atomic theory and an avowed pacifist.

So which makes us who we are, genetics or past lives? Or both of course. I would suggest that past lives are a more significant component of our make-up if only because the genetic components are left behind at death whereas the past life memories carry forward to the next and the next and the next lives.

Want to know more? Have a look at Afterlife TV...

Passions and Past Lives (Part 4)

Have you ever considered the possibility of past lives? The idea the we have lived many times prior to this life. This is a Buddhist concept called reincarnation, but for me it transcends religion. It has been a normal part of my life for many years, as natural as breathing.

My concept is that when we die the soul returns to the ether (I don’t like the word heaven because that implies there is a hell which I don’t buy), to invisible realms populated by billions of souls in various stages of their soul-development, most of whom will have lived on earth at some stage. We all start a new incarnation with a plan which creates opportunities for us to learn lessons to enhance our soul-development which we then review when we return after death.

Now we all know that our family ancestors have a direct influence on our physical and emotional make-up via our genetics. I physically looks like my Mum and her mother before that. The son whose personality is a carbon-copy of his father’s, maybe warts and all, reflects his father’s genes. But maybe our past lives also influence our personality, opinions, strengths perhaps, and even our passions...

If you are intrigued enough to wonder about your own past lives, have a look at this website or add to those ideas with this one.

To be continued...

The Joys of Redundancy Stage 3

By JAB

I am two-thirds through my redeployment phase and not feeling the love as I had expected. I have identified a small role within the organisation, which happens to be a derivation of my current role at half the pay and longer hours.

After lodging a lengthy expression of interest, I apply on line. I endure a cryptic interview - and somehow fail it. In other words my answers to the panel’s questions are deemed not good enough. Is rejection fair and reasonable given that I am already performing the tasks without issue? My job is offered to another, a redeployed member of the blessed HR team, who subsequently rejects it for another role. My job is now being advertised externally.

I spend the day scanning websites such as Fairwork Australia and the Fair Work Ombudsman. Fairwork Australia is an independent body thatworks for both the employer and the employee. I imagine I mightspotsome anomalies in advice received from my employer.

Disenchantment kicks in. I find myself caught in the maelstrom of second-guessing and the bagging-the-organisation rut. I lose sight of my skills and attributes. I take the rejections to heart. The cold reply, You will only hear from us if you have been shortlisted, is now popping into my Inbox all too often.  I forget that I have many years of experience in the corporate workforce and that I am a professional person.

Passions and Past Lives (Part 3)

Atomic energy

By AW

 

Hiroshima atomic bomb 1945

In high school physics we were taught the theory behind atomic physics. Bearing in mind that this was in the 1960s, when atomic energy theory and practice was still relatively new. I was riveted by this theory. I just couldn’t get enough of it, and for someone who wasn’t particularly good at physics, this was all the more odd. I could visualise the electrons all bombarding their targets with the consequent release of unfathomably strong and universally destructive radiation over which nobody had any control whatsoever. Why this addictive absorption? I knew not.

When I left school I had to work. I had no clue about what I wanted to do and career counselling had not been invented then. 

Hiroshima after the bomb

Suddenly I discovered radiography (which involves the use of X-rays, one type of radiation, for positive humanitarian purposes, ie medical diagnosis). That was it! I persevered until I got a trainee position with no real clue about what the work entailed. I was totally driven by my obsession with radiation. 

Although I moved on from radiography many years ago, like port, I have never lost my fascination for radiation. I have even been to Hiroshima where you can still see first-hand some of the consequences of so much destructive power so arrogantly unleashed. As US Army General Leslie Groves commented:

}America's leaders were generally inured to the mass killing of civilians.~

I am also a profound pacifist.

To be continued...

Passions and Past Lives (Part 2)

Port

By AW

I am passionate about port - as in wine not ships. It is the most luxurious, luxuriant, soul-caressing drink ever invented. Now the cynic might say, yeah, that’s because it is high in alcohol (typically 18%). If I just wanted to get pissed I could knock back any spirit with an even higher alcohol content. The alcohol contributes to its creamy, velvety, lush texture as do many other components.

Porto in Portugal is the mecca for all aficionados. I have been privileged to visit Porto several times including tasting ports along the waterfront precinct that was historically the port (pardon the pun!) from which ports were shipped overseas. Today it is a tourist area with many original cellars still complete with huge oak vats proudly coupled to the tramped earth floors below. 

To walk into one of these and have your nasal passages assailed by the damp, dank, musty, earthy, spirity smell that pervades all old cellars speaks volumes of bygone eras and practices. On my first visit to one of these, the aroma invoked such an intense gut-reaction that instantly I burst into uncontrolled tears. Why, for heaven’s sake? That smell was seemingly the key to some deeply held emotions. 

But from whence did these come in an Aussie gal who’d never been to Porto before in her life...???

To be continued...

Passions and Past Lives (Part 1)

By AW

Have you ever wondered why we are passionate about certain things in our lives? I distinguish passions from skills for the sake of this conversation. Skills you could attribute to your genes, eg your grandfather and your mother were both skilled musicians as are you today.

Passions however are more disconnected. My brother for instance is a traffic engineer who designs safety aspects of roads and junctions when he is not designing new parking signs. Pretty dry and dreary to most of us but he remains as passionate about this work as he was 40 years ago before university. No genetics there I can tell you!

So perhaps it develops from something we read, or something we learnt at school or something a friend was interested in or an idea dropped into a passing conversation. All of those are possible in a left-brained kind of way. But perhaps there is something more. Perhaps it is chicken and egg. A topic that suddenly sparked our interest  is the flint stone to light an already existing, more deep-seated but until now dormant passion.

And if that is the case from whence did that passion come in the first place??

To be continued...

Album Review: TVXQ! - 'TENSE' / 'SPELLBOUND' (Part 2)

Released: January 6, 2014 / February 27, 2014

Language: Korean

Genre: Pop, Jazz, R&B

By James Williams