Headstone Inscriptions

[mustard-tree]

A friend of mine was widowed many years ago.

During conversations, my friend has always said that she does not believe in an afterlife

Fair enough, that is her opinion, which I respect.

A while ago, I gave her a lift to her husbands grave, and was surprised when I saw the headstone

The wording, which my friend had composed, included the phrase "Until we meet again"

Why would someone who does not believe in an afterlife use those words.

I don`t want to ask my friend, as I don`t want to risk upsetting her

[astrologica]

Maybe, when her husband died she was a believer, and sincerely thought that they would one day be together. But time has perhaps changed her view and she no longer believes in an afterlife. I think many of us, as we age, come to the realisation that 'this is it...this is all we get'!
What do you think Mustard Tree.......is this all we get?

[evoman3957]

May I be granted the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

Courage to change the things I can

and the wisdom to know the difference

We are here, because it was meant to be, events conspired to cause things to be the way they are..............that's fate.........not religion.........in the same way as SOMEBODY has to win the lottery. Think of all the events, through time and history, as being all the different numbered lottery tickets ever sold and " Homo Sapiens" as coming out the winners................as in living and being the dominant species.

[mustard-tree]

Is this all we get?

It is all our physical body gets, but the spirit carries on.

[evoman3957]

mustard-tree I'm glad your particular beliefs give you solace, but I'm intrigued to ask you a question. If the spirit is everlasting and not tied into the Body, in some way, then why did it not exist BEFORE the body was created, as well as afterwards. If it was created along with the creation of the Body, to continue after the Body is Dead, then it is not everlasting; as it had a creation date and anything that is created WILL die.

[astrologica]

Thank you Mustard tree for that reply.....very interesting. I do believe that this is all we get in this body and that we will not be reunited with our loved ones. So we have to love and be loved as much as we can in this life. But I do believe that our spirit goes on, and did indeed exist before we were born. In other words our spirit is reincarnated in a new body, but we do not remember our previous incarnations. So yes.....reincarnation it is, for me. Maybe your friend thought they might be reunited as different people.
I think you have started an interesting thread here!

[evoman3957]

Astro........If you can't remember anything about your spirit ,or its existence, before or after; then how is it YOUR spirit.............it may have been somebody else's before ( in other words not existing as YOURS ) and it may be somebody else's afterwards ( also a different spirit and not YOURS ) ??

[saasher2012]

Very good point!

[astrologica]

Evo...when I say 'our' spirit, I don't mean that it is permanently our spirit, I mean that it was ours when it was in our body for our earthly life. I do believe that the spirit is eternal, but it has to 'borrow' a body in order to be incarnate on this earth. So in that sense it was someone else's before and will be someone else' after.

[astrologica]

What I am trying to say is that the spirit is the individual unique thing and not the body, or the 'person'.

[saasher2012]

I'm not being facetious in any shape or form , but what is the purpose for an eternal spirit or at least your thoughts on it?

[evoman3957]

I get what you're saying, so do I take it that ( purely for example purposes ) when the population of the Earth was say 1 Million; there were 1 Million spirits to go with the bodies. Now it is 6 to 7 Billion, then there are the same amount of spirits to occupy the bodies.............because, if that is the case, each body creates a spirit and if the overall number of bodies in the World should decrease...........the excess spirits would have no host to occupy.........so where do they go then ??

[evoman3957]

To put it simply..........If I personally didn't know I existed before and I'm not going to know I exist afterwards, then to all intents and purposes..........I didn't !!

[astrologica]

Saasher......I have absolutely no idea why there should be any eternal spirits! I don't believe in a God or Creator in any shape or form.
I have had an abiding interest in different religions for many years, Spiritualism among them. Most of the stuff that I read about I have long discarded as rubbish, but I cannot shake off this persistent belief that the spirit that accompanies our bodies through our Earthly lives goes on to find another body to enable it to 'live' on Earth again. I say 'on Earth', but maybe some spirits live some of their lives in other worlds and in different dimensions. I don't know...and I have long given up the search for a Spiritual meaning to life. I just live it as it comes now, and am very grateful for it!

[tommy.irene]

We are born again as..

[astrologica]

Evo.... I see where you are coming from. As I replied to Saasher, I have long given up searching for 'the meaning of life'. As regards the number of spirits, we have to get away from the idea that we are the only place in the Universe where spirits can 'live' in an incarnation. The universe is vast and we know just a minuscule amount about it, the same as we know so little about the meaning of life. To me, the workings of the Universe and the meaning of life are interlinked and go hand in hand. How does that sound to you?

[evoman3957]

It's a Big, Bad World out there.........if whatever you believe in makes you happy / content and doesn't hurt anybody else, then I'm happy too.

[saasher2012]

Thank you for your honesty!😀

[astrologica]

Thank you Saasher....if I do find out the 'meaning of life'...you will be the first to know!!

[saasher2012]

👍 I look forward to that Astro! 😉