In 2021, Oliver Burkeman wrote a brilliant bestseller, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.
Four thousand weeks equates to 76.923 years. If Burkeman is correct, this leaves me with a little under five years to get sh*t done.
Some Jewish scholars, particularly within Kabbalah and Hasidic Judaism, believe that souls return to human form to complete an unfinished life or to rectify past actions.
So maybe I have more time than Burkeman thinks—assuming I return as someone else, my time might be indefinitely infinite.
And if there is any truth to what these Jewish scholars believe, I have a list of souls who may or may not be lurking around me—some who died too young and whom I miss terribly, and others who most definitely owe me some rectification.
The concept of “Gilgul,” the Hebrew word for “the transmigration of souls,” refers to moving a soul into another body upon death. This concept is also a central belief in many religions and philosophies, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism.
It kind of creeps me out, but I also love it because it makes me hopeful that I can return to the beginning once I get to the end. Plus, I have a few past actions I would love to rectify.
Burkeman’s four-thousand-week theory, combined with Gilgul, reminds me that I need to make the most of the here and now because my time is quickly running out.
But rectifying past actions by returning to another human form sounds easier said than done, so I have a few questions:
- What would a future apology by a future other body look like?
- Plus, if my apology was already rejected, how would moving into another body change that?
- And anyway, how does one choose another body? Does one simply stumble upon it, or do we have options?
- And finally, whose body would I want to morph into? And what if this body I’m eyeing is already spoken for?
In Hinduism, karma determines what form the soul will take in the next life, so maybe I won’t have a choice. And karma can be tricky. You know what many say about karma being…
I probably have too much time on my hands, but the question of whose body I would like to morph into has given me a lot to think about these past few days.
After much thought ( I know I need a life), I decided that whatever is unfinished or needs rectifying, I need to do it soon and not rely on some other future body to do it for me.
As a control freak, I’m not leaving anything up to fate or karma, so I’m going with the Buddhist perspective: My actions in this life will eventually decide my fate in the next one, so I better get busy.