Hi Helcat
The African Yoruba religion have a interesting take on reincarnation is that the soul actually chooses the experience they wish to have in life.  No training required. I have a friend that believes this as it give her comfort.

From what I read of the wisdom traditions with regards to choosing ones next life, it stars with ‘knowing one self’ so that you can ‘see’ reality clearly and thier by respond to it vice react. Then you get face with the challenge of coming to terms with the problem of opposites, duality, binary thinking.   You can see the problem of binary thinking played out on social media where everything seems to be either or, like – dislike, with me – against me, all or nothing. Language doesn’t help as its dependent on contrasting and implying the opposite.

Funny thing as the problem of opposites becomes resolved within ones experience, words disappear including the ‘I’ which I think Rob hints at.

I’d be very interested in you take on a problem I’ve had with Buddhism and other traditions. In Buddhism only the Now exists yet many of the concepts and teachings appear to be projected onto some future and that seems like a contradiction.

Lately when I read about such things from various wisdom traditions I’ve been re-referencing the teachings to the Now. Is what I’m learning about the Now? In that context the teachings seem to resonate. Heaven is now, nirvana is now, hell is now, purgatory is now, death is now, life is now…  If we don’t notice its because we see the world as we are not as it is, we get in the way. So the work (training) is so that we see ourselves better and doing so get out of the way. (surprise the self, small s, disappears as does separateness.)

Using the story of the Garden, Adam and Eve gain the knowledge or good and evil. Note that  ‘knowledge of‘ is not the same as the ‘knowledge of what is‘ and so we have tension between the opposites. This tension gives birth to ego consciousness, language and the problem of opposites.  How can something be good one moment and bad the next? Its a problem, and the first thing Adam and Eve note with this new ego consciousness is that they are separate, maybe not good and naked where being naked is judged shameful. So they try to hide and cover themselves up with layers of ‘clothing’ – personas/masks.

The end is in the beginning, babies become conscious though the tension of opposite and the suspicion of separation from mother.  Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to undo that experience which all the wisdom traditions point to involving learning to see through the problem of opposites and a realization that we arn’t and never were separate ‘I’s’.

You, me, everyone, everything is IT and that is a happening and possibility of every Now.

No Idea if that made any sense just seeing where the thoughts go. Still thanks for allowing me to express them.