This is an article I was asked to write recently by the publisher of Earth is a School in order to promote the book. I am not sure where it ended up so I include it here.
Why are we here in this world? Probably most people nowadays think there is no reason. We just are here and that’s all there is to it. We should try to live as happy and fulfilled a life as possible and when we die, we cease to exist. Religious people would go further and say that we should follow the guidance of our religion and hope for an afterlife in heaven or paradise or maybe get reincarnated in a better position than we are now with the eventual aim of breaking the cycle of manifested existence and being reabsorbed into the All. It depends whether we are materialists or spiritual believers. The former would say life on Earth is for living as best you can, here and now. You have only one life so make it count. The latter in practical terms often don’t seem so very different though they theoretically have one eye on the next world.
I would like to consider another possibility. It requires seeing the human being in a different light from the one to which we are normally accustomed. For a start, it takes the pre-existence of the soul as a basic fact. Then it envisages that soul taking birth in the material world in a physical body for reasons to do with its own aims and goals, those of a spiritual being, not for the incarnate person’s development and fulfilment in material or worldly terms.
In this scenario the spiritual individuality, which is a created being, descends to the physical world to advance its evolution. It’s like a seed that is planted in the ground to germinate. The word descends is appropriate because the process is a falling away from the unity of the source into separation and limitation. At the same time, those two characteristics force the soul to develop in certain ways that would not be possible on its own natural level of oneness with the source where there is no conflict or challenge. The material environment provides both of these, as we know all too well. Here we can truly become an individual self, forced to rely on ourself and to make our own way. As the evolution referred to is to make fully conscious creative gods, true reflections of their divine source, out of unselfconscious spiritual babes, beings bathed in peace and bliss but purely passive, that individuality is an essential requirement.
Earth, by which I mean this physical world, is a school designed with a purpose. The purpose is to brings souls to maturity. If we were to remain as pure discarnate spirits we would certainly never know pain or suffering but then again we would not know real love either for real love requires a solid sense of self which is something that can only develop in a world of separation, a material world in which spirit and matter have been sundered. Our task is to put them back together again, consciously reassemble them, and from this marriage of Heaven and Earth arises something new which is the god we mentioned earlier. This is a being that can wield the powers of creation in full consciousness. I will add something more for those who might think that love can be known by souls that have not experienced the material world. Not really. These souls can certainly know a kind of balmy bliss and communion which is like love but it is an infantile kind of love. True, serious, deep-feeling love can only be known and expressed by souls who have been touched by sorrow. Suffering may be the bane of our earthly existence but it is also a great spiritual gift. We cannot know it on the higher planes but through it we can enter into the lives of our fellow souls more than we ever could if restricted to those planes. It is through suffering that we come to real love.
The soul is created by God, the supreme I AM of the universe, out of himself. It is created in his image so has its own I am quality. It is individual but to be a true, fully functioning individual it must co-create itself. Otherwise, it would remain in spiritual bliss but spiritual ignorance. This is what the school is all about. The experience of duality is necessary for the knowledge of oneness. It is separation that leads to completion. But this oneness does not mean simply returning to God or becoming God. The whole process is to make the One many which is a spiritual enrichment of the One, and the many remain themselves even when they have completed the journey, graduated, you might say, and returned to the source. Now they can add to creation. In fact, this is something we can already do in a clumsy fashion though only the great artists do it to any real degree. And note that you can create with God or against him. Here is a lesson many, especially now in the 21st century, have yet to learn. God is truth. What is unaligned with God is untruth and therefore evil. That’s what evil is in the greater sense. Our task is to bring ourselves into harmony with the laws of creation and then we will find real fulfilment by working with them. The fact of individuality, which necessarily implies free will, means that things can go wrong. It would appear that things have gone wrong in recent times but it may be that, viewed with the eye of history, even the spiritual darkness into which we have fallen will bring some kind of future advancement. Perhaps we have to experience the consequences of wrong thinking to know how wrong it is.
The scenario here sees souls coming to the Earth and being tested just as in a normal school. What is tested is the orientation of the heart. There is no choice on the higher planes to which the soul naturally belongs, no sense of separation from divine being. What is, is. But down here there is a choice. The world is very cleverly set up so that there is just enough evidence to convince those of the reality of God if they incline that way but not enough to persuade those who do not wish to believe. Here, and especially now in our day, you can follow whatever path you choose. Your heart is being examined. There is no coercion, no overwhelming evidence that would take away your free will. You show yourself for what you are. This might sound a little threatening but God is surely at least as compassionate as we are. Failure in life’s spiritual lessons may simply mean you have to repeat the course. Those who make the grade return to the higher worlds where, according to their spiritual station, they will be filled with the love and truth of God. Those who miss out on that proceed to worlds that reflect their current spiritual state which will no doubt provide them with new lessons to take them further on their journey. (Though see Bruce Charlton's comment below about the potential difficulty of changing your mind when no longer in a body.)
2 comments:
@William - I don't have a fully articulated understanding of this; but it seems that incarnation makes choice much more possible compared with living as a disembodied spirit.
I don't think there is anything that prevents a spirit from exercising agency - but it is somehow much weaker than with an incarnated being - perhaps because incarnation is the physical expression of spiritual separation.
One who is not spiritually separated from other beings, probably finds agency much weaker and slower to operate - or perhaps agency is more easily confused by 'interference' from the cognitions of other beings?
Spirits living in contact with God therefore find it difficult Not be be aligned with God (although the existence of demons seems to shows that strong hatred of God can still be formed and expressed). But in other beings - the hatred of God only becomes clear after incarnation - as with the most deeply evil of men on earth.
After death of the body, those who reject resurrection and remain as spirits but self-excluded from Heaven; presumably return to this feeble and slow form of agency, exacerbated by the maiming effect of having lost their bodies.
Such spirits then presumably find themselves in some kind of hell, a God-hostile environment; permeated with many evil cognitions from other beings.
I think it may be something like this which makes repentance very difficult (rare if not impossible) among those who have refused the gift of resurrection into Heaven. So the spirits 'in Hell' could in principle repent, but in practice (due to being maimed spirits in an evil environment) repentance is much slower and more difficult than on earth.
Very speculative, and not well worked out! - but my best guesses are of that kind.
Bruce, you say " incarnation is the physical expression of spiritual separation. " I think this is likely to be the case. It is only when we are really separated from God in our consciousness that what we really are can come out. That's part (not all) of what being in this world is intended to test. Maybe this is also a situation in which mind can develop because here we are forced to think (underlined) to get on and engage wiith our environment. In the spiritual world feeling is more dominant.
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