A mother drops her child off at school and prays that he has a productive day. She prays for her daughter's well-being; for her to learn, mature, and develop the necessary social skills needed in life. A father meditates on the welfare of his child. In some cases, he may even erroneously attempt to live vicariously through his son, a chip off the old block.
The inspiration for this article came while thanking Mother and Father God for protecting my children on the way to school; while they were in school; and assisting them in making it home safely. It dawned on me, that's exactly what we do as Spirits when we make the decision to come to this school called Earth. We leave home to go to school; we spend a number of earthbound years studying, learning, growing, and then we make the transition back home. It's the same concept that we have been involved in all of our lives. It's all about learning. Almost all of our lessons are centered around love, and how to love. It is our common denominator; our common bond as Spiritual Beings made in the image of a loving Creator.
The lessons we are here to learn come in various levels of difficulty. Some assignments are more arduous than others, but all are based on what preceded our current circumstances. Instruction and guidance generally comes in small, easily attainable doses at first. However, if we ignore, or sleep through the intended message, the second time around, the homework will be a tad bit more complex, because we made it so. Another way to put it, you've made your bed, now you must sleep in it, or, "as you sow, so shall you reap."
Scapegoating is never an option because it is tantamount to cheating on an exam. If you're not found out initially, your actions will revisit you. Blame others and you miss the intended lesson, and to your inattentive dismay, the instruction will come back with a vengeance.
We learn by expanding our awareness about ourselves and scapegoating does not allow that. Learning about the world helps us to progress, succeed, and evolve. Spiritual regression takes place when we blame our problems on someone else. The challenges we face in the areas of finance, health, and relationships, are all part of the curriculum. Every day, there are new lessons to learn and challenges to overcome.
Changes are inevitable. How we deal with Change is an effective way to build character while increasing our intellectual flexibility.
Everyone graduates from this school we call earth. What we refer to as "death" is simply a transition or graduation from this life to our eternal home. In the spiritual realm, we recognize the realities, possibilities, and requirements of our past lives. Contrary to popular belief, there is no punishment for our actions; we simply have more studying to do. In other words, if we do harm to someone, that same harm will be meted out to us at some point in our evolution. This occurs because it's the most effective way to teach us, first hand, how we made another 'Being' feel. What better way to learn a lesson? There would be absolutely no growth if "eternal damnation" awaited the 99% of people who make mistakes in this life. Some more egregious that others, but missteps nonetheless.
God has great compassion for human weakness. Karmic choices follow our earthly deeds, otherwise we would learn nothing by coming to Earth. Unfortunately, because of religious dogma, brainwashing, fear, and hereditary ignorance, most of us don't realize that the tremendous risk of life and sanity on this planet are not designed to cause us anymore suffering after death.
B. E. Shaw Sr.
To School, Through School, and Beyond
Spiritual Beings
Many have heard the adage, "we are spiritual beings having an earthly experience." Most religions will agree on this fact but the debate stems from what happens after this particular life. This is where all the vast, complex, and wide-ranging disparities come into play. This is what causes most wars to be fought and historically, has created major dissension. Unfortunately, many future conflicts will stem from religious nonconformity.
This lens will enlist the assistance of some of the greatest thinkers of our time and associate their thoughts with those of the author, and contrast it with general public opinion. In the case of religion and "man-made-spirituality" most of what we know about the subject, comes from "Mom and Dad," Uncle Louie, Aunt Mildred, your Sunday School teacher, Bill, who for some odd reason always had a weird "twinkle" in his eye when he was around children, and of course, Pastor/Bishop/Minister/Priest Johnny. The reader knows where I'm going with this so before you utter the phrase, "I don't receive the word from MAN/WOMAN, I get "God's Word" from my "Savior." Maybe you do, but it's been filtered through the aforementioned. For example, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite, and Jim Jones all led mass religious movements that ended in horrific tragedies and their members could have, and probably did say the same thing, "I get the word from God." Of course these are extreme examples so let's just stick to the pedophiles, whore-mongers, and avaricious men of today that make up a good percentage of the clergy around the world. If you sit in that synagogue, mosque, temple, or church, and listen to someone who is not morally correct, your instruction is not coming from a Loving, Divine, Presence that we refer to as God, iIt's coming from Pastor Fred, regardless of how you slice it.
So lets take a look at some of the time tested aphorisms uttered throughout the ages that ring true to this authors heart. What I'd like the reader to do is compare past writings from erudite citizens with your experience over the years with your religious/spiritual teachers. I will translate what their sayings mean to me and how it resonates in my soul.
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Religious Fervor
What is it going to take for the masses to realize that religion is the most divisive and destructive force created by man. Again, "created by man." Unfortunately, the devout believers of the many religions absurdly believe that theirs is truly ordained by the Creator and the others are projects supported by the devil.
No one seems to stop and think, or dare to do any research (outside of their particular book), on the fact that Satan himself is also a mythical product of Man. Most religions have their own book, purportedly to be the "word of God," so how can it be incorrect. It comes straight from God, so it's a book to live by and if you do not abide by this book, you're going to an awful place when you die.
Think about everything associated with God. Nature, trees, the Rain Forest, beautiful sunsets, peace, tranquility, and love. If God did write or inspire a book it would be the most peaceful, awe-inspiring, motivational, positive, and most dynamic book you ever read. There would be no instruction on war, killing, famine, slavery, judgment, killing first born, etc., etc. The myriad negative passages in the Bible and Koran do not come from, nor were they inspired, by a loving presence in the Universe that we refer to as God. It's just not possible.
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Man's Subconscious is Immortal
This is an extremely profound excerpt from Edgar Cayce, the book is called "Edgar Cayce Modern Prophet."
Thought is the Builder - the wet clay responsive to the potter's hands - and the survival of the soul depends utterly on its power to mold its destiny at the subconscious level, where the clay is moist enough to respond.
Just as a series of chain reactions alters the atom from a harmless particle of solid matter to the mushroom cloud that obliterated Hiroshima, the chain reactions of positive thought can eventually release the soul from solid matter and return it to the freedom of its fluid state at the astral level. It's because we lack the equivalents of such convenient scientific terms as "atomic fissure," that we are reduced to referring to the the process which releases the soul as "the tragedy of death."
This is akin to throwing away the potato and glorifying the potato peel. It is far simpler to think of the soul in terms of Telstar. It takes two booster-rockets to free it of gravity and set it into astral orbit. As soon as the rockets fulfill their function, they burn out and fall away, just as the flesh body - the earthly shell of the soul - burns out and falls away in death, to be followed by the expended "ego," the discarded conscious mind of the earth shell.
The soul is no longer entrapped in matter. It is free. All that it retains from its sojourn in its earth shell is the total recall of its worldly experiences, now safely stored in its "memory bank." But only the "conscious" mind has been discarded.
The subconscious mind has survived because it neither consist of, nor depends on, matter. It now becomes the conscious mind of the soul, and will continue to function as such until the soul returns into the earth's dense matter to begin its next life.
Edgar Cayce
The Power of Guided Imagery
Guided imagery, sometimes known as “guided visualization”, is a safe and powerful technique that can be used for healing, stress relief and personal development. It’s incredibly simple to use. All you need do is listen to your guide while they lead you through a series of relaxing visualizations.
These visualizations are so vivid that they actually bring about positive changes in your body and mind. Guided imagery visualizations are usually tailored to help you accomplish specific goals, from sporting achievements to physical healing, to personal transformation, or deep relaxation...whatever your goal may be.
The use of guided visualization and guided meditation is one area where modern science and ancient spiritual practices find some common ground. Guided imagery has been used for thousands of years by shamans and mystics around the world, but it also features in the more recent teachings of eminent psychologists such as Freud and Jung. In the modern era, guided imagery is the focus of a great deal of scientific investigation, and it is now widely used in the medical professions as an alternative healing technique. It is not a substitute for traditional physical or mental care, but it is often used to reinforce traditional healing practices. In fact, scientific study on the effects of guided imagery has been undertaken for conditions such as cancer, HIV, anxiety, wound healing after surgery, depression, memory, congestive heart failure, eating disorders, insomnia, pain management and osteoarthritis.