In some versions of the reincarnation story, you die, you come back as another human, pretty much at random.
In other versions, maybe you’re a human, maybe you’re a better human – which is to say, a higher caste, class, race – or maybe you’re gutter scum and deserve to get stepped on. This sort of version tends to be favored by archdukes and other sorts of shitheads who do a lot of the stepping-on.
In still another version, maybe you’re a chicken or a bug; so be nice to chickens and bugs, because that could be your grandma.
And then there are the funky versions of the reincarnation story, where you probably don’t even end up in this same world at all. If you suck, you get reincarnated as a tortured ghost in a hell dimension. (There are lots of those; Dante had no freakin’ idea.) If you’re awesome, maybe you get to be an angelic being who spends your whole life rapturously singing the praises of the Almighty. Doesn’t that sound fun?
What’s it shaped like, then?
In some versions of the reincarnation story, you die, you come back as another human, pretty much at random.
In other versions, maybe you’re a human, maybe you’re a better human – which is to say, a higher caste, class, race – or maybe you’re gutter scum and deserve to get stepped on. This sort of version tends to be favored by archdukes and other sorts of shitheads who do a lot of the stepping-on.
In still another version, maybe you’re a chicken or a bug; so be nice to chickens and bugs, because that could be your grandma.
And then there are the funky versions of the reincarnation story, where you probably don’t even end up in this same world at all. If you suck, you get reincarnated as a tortured ghost in a hell dimension. (There are lots of those; Dante had no freakin’ idea.) If you’re awesome, maybe you get to be an angelic being who spends your whole life rapturously singing the praises of the Almighty. Doesn’t that sound fun?
In the version where you come back as a chicken or a bug… how do you work your way back up? By being a reeealy kind and thoughtful chicken?
Edit: Or who’se to say, I guess. Maybe the bug is the most sublime existence and that’s the “top”.
Probably a Matrix situation. Self-cultivation brings superpowers. Kindness is just a visible facet of that cultivation
I remember a thing from Greek mythology.
In the afterlife you encounter a forest. The trees are people, locked in eternal catatonia, each a private hell inside his own mind.