Death… And Life

FRI., OCT. 26, 1984, 5:40 AM
FARM, STUDY

Experiences that were yours to have yesterday were certainly sufficient as a basis for a morning Teaching, o son. You certainly know by now that I can and shall awaken you and bring you here, even in the dark of the morning. This time of learning, for you, though it need not be every day, is just not optional.

The experiences with your class last evening were certainly ones that you can be proud to have organized. There was life “aglow” as these learners dealt with death in several ways. Your only regret should be that this was not your final comment to them… that as they talked, wrote, and thought about death in those several ways, they were exercising and demonstrating the life force in vividness. There were tears and there was laughter as people who knew each other well… to minimally… related to one another concerning this aspect of life that is so often avoided.

For I want to tell you yet again this day that death is an important part of the life cycle, from any perspective you care to generate. Life is a force that continues beyond physical death, so there is no sharp dichotomy, in reality. You must be able to think in these terms that are culturally normative… that death is the end of life… but it must not be your own personal knowledge. You must see these as different aspects of the reality that is life, just as there is light, then darkness, then returning light as your planet revolves in relation to the sun. The sun is the physical symbol for Me, the giver and sustainer of life.

Now, let Me use your perspectives as a means for making My point. In ecological perspective the death of some life forms is daily necessary for the maintenance of other life. The death of any person can be mourned, but it makes way for more development of life in some others. The old move on in order that the young might develop. Also, in physical terms, the remains from death can and should be recycled into the earth. The caskets of your culture do prevent that, sadly.

In a humanistic perspective those who have died continue to influence the course of life by the remembrances of how they lived, what they said, did, and wrote, and what they left for the living to use. In the film you used last evening, Ben Matthews taught his grandson Josh many things, and the boy was able to demonstrate not only the technique of tapping the maple tree, but the love and care which was part of his grandfather’s way… which remained after his death.

The Christian perspective says that because of Me and My death as Jesus, there was the resurrection and the promise of eternal life. I can offer you no better picture that what you experienced in the last scene of “Places in the Heart”… love is the life force that is Mine to give, and when the Holy Communion is celebrated it bridges all sorts of behaviors and reaches across that “barrier” that death seems to be. In Me there is life continued… and love, that binds all together, even that which seems obviously broken and detached.

Reincarnation perspective simply continues this Christian theme (as I want you to understand it), giving a greater reality and purpose to that which is “before” and “after” any finite earth life. The purpose is spiritual growth, and the realms and ways are many. In life after life perspective there is the assurance that consciousness continues after physical death… that it is a time of reunion, assessment, and love. The time of death, for any of the characters pictured or people talked about yesterday, is a loss for some, but a gain for others. The transition on to life in another form is a conscious one, with Me as evident as I can be.