Attachment, Yet Again

WED., JULY 8, 1987, 6:03 AM
FARM, STUDY

You heard, yesterday, of some acquaintances whose house caught fire and burned to the ground. Virtually all of the contents of the home were consumed. You mused on that and fantasized about your own old Farmhouse catching fire and burning rather quickly and fiercely. You thought of saving these volumes of Teachings, two paintings and the silver. All else might be presumed destroyed. What attachment do you have to the house and its contents?

I reiterate earlier messages that encourage you to have minimal ultimate attachment to things in this earth… and to life itself. You have accepted My assertion and promise that life in the spirit continues, actually fuller and brighter than now. The release from bodily form is really more of a birth that a death.

Even so, this earth life is a valuable experience, and I want you to profit from every moment of it you have. So enjoy it and grow in it every day you have it, but be able to give up the attachment with an “Ah, so.” See your possessions and all the artifacts of earth life in essentially the same way. It would be good to have a few items as symbolic bridges to your next dwelling, so the saving of some “things” would be desirable, and it is good to consider what these would be and have a general plan for an efficient and speedy rescue.

You would do what you could to save the whole structure, balanced against saving these selected things, and only after being sure that Lenore or any persons were safe outside. It would be a prime situation for testing out the courage to do all you can and the serenity to accept what you cannot. As I have told you before it is well to enjoy and be attached to this life and its “adornments” (even including other people), but when it is time for change attachment becomes a spiritual detriment. The key knowledge is that attachment, in the earth, is only for “a time,” and then it is to be given up. The key attitude is that this is a prime spiritual truth and is a desirable, even essential way to feel about life. The key behavior is to be able to do this, whenever the moment comes.

The corresponding attitude should be “Oh, what’s next?” What will a life of relative hardship be, with minimal possessions? Which things would be rather immediately replaced and how? What would be quick and immediate and what would take time and consideration? Would things that are truly missed be replaced or symbolically left as a part of the “old life”? These are questions than can be pondered but which can only be answered in the actual experience.

Your culture encourages too much attachment to life itself, as well as to its accoutrements. There is a time for continuity and a time for change. Now I realize that the cultural norm influenced by science is that there is no proof that life continues so it must be held on to and preserved at almost any cost. This encourages an attachment to life, even in those who believe My promises of eternal, everlasting life. You needn’t be a raving zealot, but do what you can to encourage the understanding that the form changes, but life, in essence continues.