Spirit Is Life

SAT., OCT. 5, 1991 SPIRIT IS LIFE
SHERATON, LONG BEACH

Here in a familiar but strange place you were prepared to have a Teaching, without a sense of clear compulsion. This has been an interesting weekend so far, and it has just begun. You shall certainly hear comments on it from Me, whenever you come. Your experience tells you that you almost hear Me better when you are away from home.

My emphasis this gray morning is a most fundamental one… spirit is life. Let’s apply this first to the book, the review of which is your responsibility. The author defines himself as an agnostic Jew, which, I suppose, is his reason for not using the world “spirit”, even as this is what he is addressing. Well, only partly. His concern seems to be that all who have life should have it for a longer time and have it more abundantly, which includes the sense of no fear about some horrendous death. I have told you repeatedly that the length of an earth life is of no great consequence, because the essence of life is spirit, and, if anything, spirit can be freed with the death of the body.

Life in an earth body, with a mind that can learn and a language with which to communicate, is an interesting experience for a spirit, be it a new… or a relatively “old”… spirit. Some are born wanted, enjoy childhood and youth, find or establish a niche for themselves in life, marry and have children… and then grandchildren. In these best cases they can retire from work with satisfaction and lead a comfortable life into elderly status… as your parents are doing. This can happen in a prosperous culture, like yours, or in a simple village on the Alaskan coast, in Papua New Guinea, or sunny Spain.

These are pleasant lives, but it is easy to “forget” that, reversing the title, life is really spirit. An easy earth life can allow you to forget… or never to know… that the purpose of the whole experience is growth of spirit. The only good reason for not dying in some definedly horrendous way is in order for the unique growth that earth life affords to occur. You cannot say all this in your review, but I want you to be aware of it, and let it tinge what you finally do write.

Then there is a vast range of lives that are other than ideal. Some have only instances of pain, like Joanne’s arthritis (in the midst of her otherwise comfortable life), your loss of your son Peter, and Mabel’s first, abusive marriage. Others have periods of “deep” pain, from apparently unsolvable dilemmas, such as Larry’s life now. He trusts in Me, but he must endure pain and struggle that don’t seem to have any closure. Talk to Bob about his disability and how it affected his spirit. It could be one of the best conversations of the weekend.

Then there are lies that start off well but are shortened by some form of horrendous death. Other lives commence badly and last for many years of pain and disorder, and death comes as a relief. Yet since life is spirit the important matter is how one has lived this almost entirely unfortunate life and whether it has brought growth in that spirit.

Finally, there are those whose earth life is taken violently, sometimes with suffering. I could prevent all of this, but earth life would then be different and not better, overall. Even many who die in any of these horrendous fashions come across with appreciation for the chance at life, even a short one.