Dear Blue Sky,
Be sure to read the post sent today by Spoilme, called "Life Changing Events". It may encourage you toward your goal. Her focussed attention on her goal made everything possible. She began, and never gave up. Things didn't turn out as she expected. They turned out even *better* than she expected. I look forward to the next part of her story. It's really a remarkable story.
I don't suggest that you choose the same quality of effort into it as she did, and you will have a good chance of getting somewhere you want to be. Ithas been said that when somebody focusses like that, the universe somehow moves to meet them, and doors open. They surely did for Maple! :-)
Another post that will interest you is the recent one from Joan Blue. It is a post that is a reply, not a root article. Check it out.
Blue Sky, in your post you asked what "an open mind" means. An open mind is a mind that is able to consider possibilities. It is open to new ideas. It looks and then makes up its own mind using its reason and intuition. It isn't an inflexible mind that snaps shut and says "No," before even looking at something new and possibly interesting. An open mind is a very good thing to have. I found it interesting that Azure found it of such great assistance that the quality of his ideas made up for his lesser ability with English, so that he was top of his class with his essays, and far above native English speakers. That's truly remarkable.
Something that troubled you in your post, if I understood you right, is how David can apparently easily travel to and from China, while you and others are not in the position to fly to other countries. This opens a very large question for me. It is one that I have puzzled about all my life. It is the one about how we all came to be born where we were, and to whom. This is an eternal mystery that only religion can attempt to answer. It has to do with "free will" and "predestination".
People have tried to explain this mystery in various ways. One explanation is the reincarnation or transmigration of souls. Personally, I don't believe in anykind of reincarnation.
The one that seems most true to me is that this world is not the only world. Itis a "soul school". There is a Great Plan. There is an unknowable Essense thatwe call God. This One is all that is loving, noble, just, and every other greatquality you can think of. This great One has a purpose for the universe.
Everyone, no matter who, or where they live is tested in life. A "test" or difficulty will keep coming back to each of us until we learn how to deal with it. This is inward learning. This is the purpose of this world, the soul school. We learn to have sympathy and understanding. To have empathy for others. We learn what is truly important and what isn't. We learn many things before we leave our material bodies here and our souls are freed for the broader existence. This is a material world and 'Abdu'l Baha said it is "wet with tears." While here we need to develop what is needed for the life that we will awaken to when our material bodies are outgrown and go back to dust, to be reused again in other ways.
A baby inside its mother grows lungs, five physical senses, and all it will need to get on in this world, even though it doesn't use them in that inside little world. As soon as it is born from that little world to this big and different world it begins to use what it prepared for. In the same way, this "soul school" world is causing us to grow in our souls, the capacities needed for the next and much different world to come. We go through this world only once, and continue onward. Your observation led to this place. A just and loving God does just and loving things. How can one child live off a garbage dump and another child live in thelap of luxury? Why is one born here and another there?
We're taught dto be just. If we were all just, we wouldn't allow extremes of wealth and poverty to exist in this world. A lot of the troubles we meet here are caused or allowed by ourselves. We have free will that can allow us to fix them. Sometimes it makes me mad when people blame "God" for all the ills of the world that we could fix ourselves, if we would only try. I think "God" wants us to grow up as a human race, and to become enough of one world family not to want family members to live in want and misery.
I've concluded that the "soul school" education is happening at least on two levels. One is in the individual soul. The other is in the whole human race, which is being taught in a similar way, by pain and suffering, to become better than it is.
What is the ultimate purpose? Finite as I am, I can't possibly know the ultimate purpose of the Infinite.
I am convinced that we must believe that there is reason behind the whole of creation. When we do, we thrive. When we don't, we can't bear to exist. That the Infinite is all Good, and that the purpose for each of us is to find our way towards more understanding and nobler responses to the tests in this "soul school", because those kinds of responses and obedience to the nobleness thatis at the core of all the great world religions has the most positive outcomes.
It has to be a training school!
I can tell you that David gained wisdom through stress and sorrow, like most of us. David's flights home are part of his contracts, and he works hard under his contracts. Life is strange with its twists and turns. China is making fast gains in prosperity. The lives of most of you are much better than your ancestors' lives were. You'll be surprised by the changes you will see in your own lifetimes. I want to write two articles soon. One is why I don't think reincarnation exists. The other is about the "century of light" just past, that our parents and grandparents have lived through. Something has changed for the world. We are in a world now that hasn't been seen before. I hope I can get to these two posts. I think you would find them interesting, and so would some other forum friends.
Warmly, and with affection especially to you both, and to all, Mary
