Astrophysicists can tell you all about this, but do you ever consider time and space a nuisance? After all, space is a distance you must pass between getting from here to there, and time is just a hindrance from being complete and whole. The future is the anticipation of something, either good or bad, and the past is something to process and incorporate into our present continually.
Either way, the past, and future seem to escape us; from distant memories to some event occurring in the future, we are waiting and hoping to cope or manage whatever the future throws our way. Usually, the future does not materialize in any way or shape the way we imagine it. If you seriously contemplate these, neither the past nor the future exists. They are all in your mind. When the future becomes real is when it is NOW. Based on this is what Eckhart Tolle managed to come up with and create not one but two books from it. He became a walking industry of the NOW. His approach is beneficial because it explains very complex and challenging subjects well. He, however, needed to go further in explaining how the ancient laws of Karma and Reincarnation fit into his thesis.
Consider the linear nature of reincarnation (we are continually born/die/and reborn in time).
If this is true, then space and time are illusions from the absolute Self, and If space and time are not real, then reincarnation does not exist. On the other hand, if you have an authentic, out-of-body experience via meditation, you experience timeless existence. People often return from these journeys and make predictions and prophecies, usually with dismal results. Only Edgar Cayce had a decent record of predictions, and the source of his record has yet to be discovered. Others cannot predict and tell what is coming because even if they have a glimpse of the unrealized event in our formed-based “reality,” they have no time when they have a vision of that. Hence, predictions are unreliable, primarily when they deal with dates and time (such as the 2012 prediction).
I asked my first Yoga teacher whether humans could ever incarnate backward in time. His answer was no because of the illusory nature of time and space. Reincarnation, as we understand it, is also illusionary. It is all in the context of our limited, form-based reality, which is, obviously, just the tip of the iceberg.
The ultimate reality is oneness, and it knows no boundaries of space and time; when we experience rebirth and the laws of Karma, it is akin to experiencing a dream within a dream. It is only natural in the frame of our temporal existence, not the boundless and infinite.
This universe and all other universes are just the mirrored images of the infinite; what takes place in the mirror also takes place in the infinite, except it is different from the mirrored reality. The mirrored reality, as we know it, has polarity.
As above, so is below. (old Hermetic saying)
Nothing is absolute in our temporary, form-based existence; all concepts exist from a polarized, subjective world.
Good is objectified because Bad can also be objectified; the Light can only “exist” because of Darkness. As we have it, our mind cannot comprehend what infinity could be where there is no polarity, time and space, and fragmented Self. Humanity, all seven billion of them, exists in the collective consciousness as one and the separation from infinity is no more.
What does this all mean to you? It is helpful to put things in context; just because Karma and reincarnation are not part of the Infinite Self, it does not mean that you should not abide by the rules of conduct they imply. When you convince yourself that time and space are not the ultimate reality, including the laws of gravitation, you still should not leap off the tallest building.
