A couple of questions.

[Jim78]

'It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Michael Collins and it will be recorded at my expense.'

• Comment in 1966 by Eamon DeValera, quoted in Michael Collins : A Biography (1990) by Tim Pat Coogan, p. 432.

What is greatness?

What is a hero?

I'm not asking for the conventional answers to those questions however. Since the start of my spiritual journey I've learned that all people are created equal.

In spiritual terms, on the other side of the veil, there is zero difference between John Glen, all American hero and the lowliest, scummiest thief. We all have our journeys and none are more important than others.

On those terms what is a hero? What is greatness?

I've found that we manifest exactly what we need to grow and maybe to help others grow in our lives. So just like I may ask what is the spiritual meaning of poverty I'm wondering what members think is the spiritual meaning of elevating a person to heroism or greatness?

Why would a soul be given such a challenge? What's the meaning beyond the superficial? What must a soul learn from it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[landsend]

Good question. A hero is a subjective thing -- one man's hero could be another man's villain. But I understand your point.

I suppose you can ask why one man acquires so much fame, and another does not. Some folks are just born to change history. I'm not entirely sure why, Jim.

I'll give a personal example here. My past self was sighted by a North Vietnamese defector just before the Paris Peace Accords were signed, and POW's were making their way back from Vietnam. Basically, the AP were told to kill the story. Why? Because if it had turned out the Vietnamese were lying (they were lying, but that's beside the point), and they were keeping men behind, the Paris Accords would have been mute. The Vietnam War would have basically continued, perhaps even escalated once again back to bombing Hanoi. My past self was an unwitting pawn in a larger chess battle, but he, the little pawn could have potentially changed the whole game. Changed history. But it didn't happen that way. Bigger chess pieces were on the board, unfortunately.

Again, I've strong suspicions I was killed trying to get the ultimate truth about what happened out. Once more being silenced by the powers at be.

I didn't change history. You did change history. What's the difference, and why?

Perhaps the hero doesn't always win out, and his journey comes to a premature end. Perhaps we can't all be heroes.

 

[Jim78]

Hi Landsend.

While it is true that there are factions of Republicanism that consider Collins a traitor and not a hero and others in Britain and maybe even in Ireland who consider him a terrorist the general consensus is that he has been elevated into the rarified air.

Like you I have had bigger chess pieces at play against me yet I generally won out and even if I didn't win my actions reverberated. I was great at playing the game.

Yet when I remembered reincarnation I realised my current life heroics were simply a repetition of elements from my past lives played out in different contexts and from different viewpoints.

In that sense one life of heroic duty is unique, yet continual lives of it? There's something wrong there IMO.

I unmasked evil as being innocence in my current life. If evil is essentially good does that then mean that what is viewed as good, such as an underdog fighting oppression, is essentially evil?

I've always felt that life was a grey area, there were shades of righteous actions on a spectrum towards wrong actions, yet what if life is basically black and white? Evil is evil and good is good with no middle ground, no necessary evils, no justifications and in that sense no heroic deeds.

The only heroic deeds I can think of that are truely heroic are things like Jesus' sacrifice on the cross or a firefighter saving a child or whatever. Acts without any evil perpetrated.. Heroes of nations or wars rarely perform truely heroic acts IMO.

 

[Jaimie]

Hum...tough questions...Maybe this is just meant from a war-battle-kind-of-view and I don't have that having been a "lady in distress" as it turns out in some of my recent previous past lives, apparently .

If I should try to see it from my angle someone that I did know from a past life that is considered within his field of work "a hero" it is that his drive to succeed was very strong. It was very important to him. He did not care of other's opinions. He went his own way. That was new and not popular and seen as threatening, but he still went on with his style of doing things and being who he was because he could not stop himself, be something else.

Even if he did the hard work people from his past and present were in their own little ways also helping him reach his goal. He had to have people that believed in him as well and supporting him, being part of making the vision come through. Of him later being seen as a hero and doing something great is only because other people recognized this.

To then be someone famous of doing something great that put that person aside from the rest could be a justification that that person was right about something and the struggle paid off. It could also be that one does not like being looked at in this manner, feel uncomfortable in the spotlight. Maybe feel lonely up there, alienated from the rest. And who can live up to an image 24/7 ? maybe thoughts like that. Maybe it can be a form of suffering too, maybe the answers to these are personal, from case to case ?


/Jaimie

 

[Jim78]

Hi Jaimie.

My drive to succeed has been very strong in all of my lives too. In my current life I always went my own way to. That created tension and set me apart and in opposition to those who wanted to maintain the status quo.

I also know what you mean about being who you are. What others see as heroism I see as stubbornness for instance.

Unfortunately I don't think being seen as a hero justifies anything I have done. I don't feel they were right actions anymore.

Personally if I hadn't been who I'd been in my past lives I wouldn't have had heroism torn down for me in my current life. Maybe that was the point of it all on a spiritual level. To see through the BS built up around heroes and just see another soul on its journey learning its lessons.