One task I constantly set myself–or, seen phenomenologically, work that presents itself to me–is seeing things in new ways. We are all familiar with the idea of reincarnation, called “metempsychosis” in older writings. In some renderings, it is comforting: you never die. In other renderings, like Hinduism and Buddhism, it is seen as problematic, since life on this world pretty much sucks for everyone, if they look honestly and accurately. The Buddha had the best of everything, but realized much better was possible. We are all on fire, he realized, with the flames of unrealized potentials for deeper fulfillment. Moreover, everything changes. His idyllic life would have ended for him, if he had stayed where he was, when his kingdom was overrun, and everyone he cared about placed in a pit and trampled with elephants. That is my understanding of the story.
So on some accounts, the task is to escape Samsara, the world of birth life death something else rebirth, seen as a wheel with no sense of humor, and no pattern variations, except in details.
To this is added, in Buddhism, the Bodhisattva, who, roughly, depending on the canon you read, is determined to win release for all sentient beings, no matter how long it takes.
Can we not imagine lives as trilogies, in which one task is undertaken in three lifetimes? Can we not imagine a rhythm: boom, Boom, BOOM, and then a pause? That life is skipped, because it can be.
Must we choose between EITHER life escaped, and Samsara? Can there not be an intermediate point, of work and rest?
Most all truth depends on puncturing bubbles, and noting carefully what is left. This is my task here. I know many will think me nuts. I may be nuts, but if that is the case, I am very much a functioning, practical nut, who solves concrete problems on a daily basis, and who can and has defended his views in very diverse environments from hordes of critics on a sustained basis, using nothing but commonly available facts, and the disciplined application of reason.