Let's call life a river. Before birth, you stand at one bank, after death you stand at the other. There are different approaches to getting across, and when you are standing by the bank of the river, it inevitably comes about that you will find yourself making a crossing.
One approach to crossing is to get in the water and let it carry you. Do nothing, make no effort. Eventually you are carried out to sea. This symbolizes the approach to life that just goes emptily with the flow, and winds up dissipating. There is no reincarnation of the soul in this case. All material elements are recycled into the continuum.
A second approach is to go straight across the river from bank to bank, swimming in a straight line. This symbolizes the unadventurous life of one who follows rules and does what they are told. The thing is, that the current will carry them downstream, just a bit, and even though they can reincarnate by hopping back in the river, each time they are further from the source.
A third approach is to angle INTO the current - swim upstream at an angle, take on stress and challenge to the degree that you can withstand it without drowning. At the very least, this swimmer will lose no ground, but more than likely they will find themselves closer to the source than they were before. When they reincarnate again, they can cross the river back, and angling upstream, gain more ground, zig-zagging up toward the source, becoming stronger with each lifetime. This symbolizes the life of the earnest seeker.
A final approach is to transform into a salmon which never leaves the river and can swim from ocean to source and back again. This symbolizes the mode and way of being of a master, who is no longer subject to involuntary reincarnation.
This is a fable that I find worth considering.
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