Life And Death

WED., MAR. 11, 1992, 12:15 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

It is good and proper that you are here and writing. There is no better use of your “time,” and, fundamentally, you know this. The pressure of tasks sometimes urges you to forget this and feel as though “there isn’t time for a Teaching.” There always must be, for I am ever ready to give you insights.

You have completed the reading and grading of your regular “creative exam,” and, again, you are impressed with the capacities of most to express themselves in these varied ways. Be sure and tell them this, for this is something they should realize… individual selves and members of a class group.

You must then put yourself in “formal readiness” for the afternoon class and all that could be said about suicide. In relation to My title for the day this is the personal, purposive moving from life to death. For whatever combination of reasons certain individuals in virtually every society take their own lives… or hasten their own deaths. Sometimes there is honor bound up in this act, while the other extreme is cowardice. Between are those who feel so inadequate that life doesn’t seem to have the value that most realize. Occasionally I intervene in some way to prevent the suicide and help the attempter to see what life can be. Mostly I see the reasons and motivations and let circumstances develop as they will. As they come across and meet Me some who commit suicide are sorry, while others are quite satisfied in having left the earth as they did. Many of these simply were not in a life situation with which they could deal. To say that suicide is never a solution is romantic, but not basically true. Those who come to Me with smiles are happy to have left their earth life behind and are ready for challenges less painful.

Medicine and its social counterparts are committed to extending life, almost no matter what its circumstances may be. In some instances I approve of this fully and do bless those who use the talents I have given them to sustain life. In other circumstances I see this as unnecessary manipulation of the natural conditions of life. Again, occasionally I intervene and abet the failure of professional attempts, but mostly I just let life go on, needlessly and foolishly. It has been a luxury in your culture to try to prolong every life. Increasingly there will be decisions made and restorative treatment will not be given. It shall be a test of your civilization to enter this era gracefully.

I have told you that while I affirm the continuation of life as spirit… immortal soul… spiritual body, I also have definite ecological leanings. All persons who are born will die. Generally it is of little consequence when, in the life cycle, this occurs. Some who die in their youth or in “the prime of life” could have made important contributions to earth life but at the expense of contributions others make. At the other extreme some live on to be burdens to themselves and to those they love. There can be spiritual value in such situations, but the end of such lives also can be seen as a blessing.

As you know, I am allowing actions now, in contrast to those that save and prolong lives, that shall be destructive or shortening of human life. Some of these could affect you… or you might be spared, while others around you (or in other parts of the earth) are harmed. From a humanistic position I am in the difficult position of having to allow more deaths, in order that the good balance of all life forms be sustained. Yes, o son, as you are aware, deaths are necessary for the continuation of life. Earth life is just one peculiar manifestation of spiritual life, which is ongoing. Birth and death are just entrance and exit experiences, similar in some strange ways. They are not opposites so much as they are complementary. Each sustains the other, in My view of earth life.