In 1949, when I was four, my sister (age six) died of polio. I spent many years complaining to God about the injustice of this death. In 1976, shortly after I began my spiritual pursuits, I befriended a woman who had the ability to read the chakras (the energy centers) of the body. When she read my chakras, she explained that a number of my recent incarnations had been difficult. During the three decades which followed this reading, I received visions and dreams of four of these incarnations. In the first of these incarnations I got a cramp while swimming but refused to struggle for life. I believe that the later difficult karmas were meant to teach me that life must be cherished. These past-life experiences made me aware that karmas must be faced with equanimity since they have roots in the past.

Computer drawing by Harry Kottler

A Past History

by Harry Kottler

In a lake in Belgium,

a professor got ill.

Filled with despair,

He did not care;

He drowned because he lost his will.

He was living in Moscow

In the next life that he lived,

And there he thought,

And there he sought,

Truth which he might give.

Some truth was forthcoming,

But he lived sadly and alone.

And when death came,

His heart wasn't tamed

And giving messages was postponed.

Then he incarnated in the mid-Western part

of the growing United States,

Where he traveled to the far-West,

And there he met a difficult fate;

His sister died of illness,

And he became a drunk,

And in a saloon in San Francisco,

Gangsters shot him with their guns.

After a rest, he came to Poland.

Now a Jew, to a concentration camp he went,

And there he was gassed with the others,

And to heaven, again, he was sent.

Then he was born in New York

And in time he met a saint,

And he embraced the Lord completely,

and he now expresses through words and paint.

Like the man who lived in Russia,

He wishes to convey truth to All,

But, in this life, he's reached for heights

From which he will not fall.

He's learned to live not just in the world of the mind,

But also in the world of people,

And there he lives, feeling quite content

And also very peaceful.

I am the reincarnating soul of this story

And the message of this poem is this:

Karma is a result of actions past.

This truth do not dismiss.

Bear with the karmas you're given.

Transcend them through the means of devotion.

There is a past history behind what's happening now.

Get quiet.

Watch the waves of God's ocean.

This world is not even one bit accidental.

This world is a school for the heart.

Do not complain about your given lot.

Forbearance is an essential art.

.......

With love and respect,

Harry and Helen