AN ASCENSION SUPPORT TEAM PUBLICATION
Free sample: Part six from, “Life is hell and then you die”
Copyright © Reserved to the Authors: David & Yvonne Brittain.
WHAT IS THIS LIFE SO FULL OF CARE, WE HAVE NO TIME, TO STAND
AND TO STARE --- AND THEN WE DIE?
Often, amid a dripping forest of rain-drenched, shiny umbrellas, the priest, in sonorous tones, informs the mourners that we are born with nothing and we die with nothing. Alternatively, amid gales of laughter at stating the seemingly obvious, a jolly wag will remind us that we can’t take it with us when we “Snuff it”
In actual fact both, the priest and the jolly wag have got it wrong. Of course you can’t take material things with you. What would you do with them even if you could? Contrary to what many people believe, the important, lasting things in our lives are not material, and so we do take them with us. But before we look at these non-physical possessions let’s look at death (as most people are taught to regard it). Then in part seven onwards we will look at death in the context of evolving life force and reincarnation.
The sketchy knowledge many people have about ‘after-death’ is further confused and distorted by their ignorance about ‘before-birth’. The teachers of established Christianity teach their many followers that one newly born baby equates with one brand-new innocent soul. When this baby grows to adulthood its enquiring mind may have difficulty in accepting these Christian teachings; for example, that we are all born with brand-new souls, to live one physical life each, and then to die. At some stage after our death our Creator will judge each of us. Gratefully, what is supposed to happen next to un-forgiven sinners, becomes less menacing, and instead, more vague as each century passes by.
To accept these teachings, one of the difficulties to be faced by the enquiring mind is the question of; on what basis will our Creator judge us? This is a fair question when we observe that many people appear to have life loaded against them from start to finish. Conversely, for other people life appears to be ”A bed of roses” from start to finish. An alternative view of the same teachings suggests that none of us were given any choice about being born in the first place.
How could our Creator judge with equal fairness, the sins of a nuclear physicist, and the sins of a pre-historic Homo-Sapiens Caveman? Again this is not a trivial question, because according to those teachings, every soul ever created will be waiting to be judged. Another question an enquirer might ask is where is this mixture of countless souls that have lived their one physical life apiece and then died? What are they doing now? No doubt the sincere teachers of Christianity have answers to these questions, interspersed with traditional demands, that their followers have unquestioning faith.
Our concern is not for how teachers or followers choose to use their freewill. Our concern is for the negative effect on the outlook of the individual. If a respected teacher has encouraged a follower to choose faith instead of knowledge, then for the follower, ignorance equates with loyalty to the teachings. But for the individual, ignorance also equates with fear of the unknown.
Only logical knowledge can transform the unknown into the known. This applies both, to followers and to non-followers of religions. So let us now try to replace with knowledge, the fear of death, and of the unknown, that needlessly blights the lives of so many people. To understand death and thus to lose the fear of death, we must first understand the purpose of life. This is made more difficult when we are only able to regard life from our limited, individual points of view. When we are prepared to burst through those limits we will then replace our fears with the self-confidence gained from true knowledge.
In our articles and books we have offered our readers an alternative scenario to those offered by eastern and western religions. To build that scenario we have included our belief that our Creator is part of an ongoing process that creates “Creators”. Readily we have admitted that we don’t yet comprehend how the process started. As part of a process our Creator’s role would be to ensure the continuity of the process. For this reason our scenario is built around what we believe is our Creator’s viewpoint instead of the limited viewpoint of we, the creations of our Creator.
Just like any process here on Earth, if the intended result is to be achieved, once started the process must run its course without interference. Logically this means that our Creator would simply start, monitor and supply the energy needs of the process. It also means that the intended products of the process are more Creators who will continue the process. We realise that this talk of process seems unfeeling, and a far cry from the various traditional, blurred, unthinking pictures we are offered of our relationship to our Creator.
It only seems that way until we use thought instead of emotion without thought. For example, when would-be parents long to have a child to love and cherish, they deliberately start a process with an intended result. Carefully they monitor the process and supply all energy needs. But to the parents, a vital part of the process is also to ensure that the child feels fully included in the love the parents have for each other.
This has to apply to each child equally, no matter how large the family grows. At first the child must be protected and guided, but as it grows older the parents allow the child to exercise its intelligence and freewill. The child will make mistakes and hopefully will learn from those mistakes. At that stage the parents know it is wise not to interfere with the learning process. Instead the parents set an example of harmonious living that the child will eventually learn is the best and only way to live.
Once again, the learning speed is different for every child. The more children in the family, the longer it will take for the entire family to learn the lesson of harmony and balance. It will take longer because the faster learners will have to develop patience and understanding for the disharmony caused by the thoughtless and selfish actions of the slower learners. At no stage will the parents think of their children as a crowd, even though at first the children might think of each other in that way.
The parents will always regard each child (slow or fast learner) as a unique, incomparable, very special individual in his or her own right. This parental love and respect for each child continues as each child evolves towards and achieves adulthood and equality with the parents. The mutual exchange of love and respect continues long after the child has achieved adult, non-dependence on the parents. Then it is the individual members of the now adult family that individually choose to continue the process. In our example, the parents represent the perfectly blended she and he of our Creator’s mind. Obviously each unique, incomparable, family member represents each member of a family called mankind. Each human being is destined to grow from childhood dependence to adult independence. This is the ongoing, warm, loving process that creates Creators out of people like you and me. Whilst our self-doubts and fear-filled minds need our Creator as a parental figure, we will always be part of our Creator. When we individually conquer our fears and self-doubts, our courage will allow us to fully comprehend our true and glorious adult destiny. But nowhere, in the process we have described, is there room for death. This can only mean that mankind has misunderstood the true meaning of death. So now let’s find out why.
One of the reasons is that, most of us get fixed ideas and fixed images of self and of those around us, as in this example at our place of work. For years our fixed image of old Joe, the maintenance man, has been that of an oil stained, blue boiler suit, a pair of greasy rubber boots, and a scruffy old cap and scarf that covers but cannot conceal Joe’s silver hair and his wry, fatalistic grin. For years we all shared this image of Joe, until one day when Joe invited us all to his daughter’s wedding. Then, as we all turned in our pews to watch the entrance of the bride, we all received a similar mental shock. Why were we shocked? Because suddenly we all realised that the elegantly dressed, distinguished stranger, proudly leading the bride, was our old Joe!
In exactly the same way, we receive a sudden mental shock when a loved one dies. Our fixed image of the loved one includes the loved one’s animated with life physical body no matter how old or worn out with illness it may be. The mental shock stems from the sharp reminder that our eyes only ever saw the visible part of our now departed beloved. Our sense of loss is a different matter altogether.
Our fixed image of our beloved was so familiar we never even thought about it. The shattered image then compels us to think of our beloved in an unfamiliar and pain-filled way. It is pain-filled because now, just when we need accurate knowledge to reassure us as to the whereabouts of our beloved, whom can we ask? In the same way we take our own physical existence for granted, and so we never think beyond our physical existence. Often the reason why we avoid thinking about these questions is because we don’t know what to think or what to believe. This is when fear of death enters the scene. So now we must look at what many fearfully think of as death, from our Creator’s wider (parental) point of view.
Part six ends. If you have enjoyed reading this free sample part and would now like to read the entire book
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