End of the Line

The spectrum of reincarnation
goes from human to bamboo.

So our Bali bicycle guide informs me.

That is to say: being a very good human is the last incarnation before a soul moves on to be one with the Gods & experience the next journey. If you exhibit poor karma in each successive life, your soul is demoted down through the line of incarnations, passing through large, long-lived animals, down to lower animals, & eventually settling in BAMBOO, where you are doomed to sprout & be cut down with great frequency.

If you are very, very good bamboo, you might eventually start to ascend back up the line. I don’t know what it would take to be good bamboo. Our guide, who gave it an earnest think, wasn’t sure either.