Dear Neil,
I've been extra busy recently, too. So that's why I haven't replied before now.
I will quote some of your comments and reply to them.
Neil: "It must bring great comfort to people who believe that the inevitable end of life, death, does not mean the end of our feelings, emotion and consciousness, and that we can still continue to feel, learn and seek truth and knowledge,
without being bound by our physical body and time and space."
Mary: That's true.
Neil: "It must be commonplace for older people who have traveled through great
length and come to a point very close to the final destination, to think and anticipate what lies beyond that boundary. I抳e been told of an interesting analogy
that our life here on earth is a lengthy process of learning, experiencing and
exploring. We抮e here to learn about and experience various human emotions
, we抮
e also here to learn new knowledge and explore all the intricacy of this material world. We抮e only given limited time and not eternity to do these things
because at some point in the future we all have to return to where we came from. Since we抮e here to learn and explore, we抮e given free will to do whatever we see fit, but hopefully we will follow some sort of moral guidelines to steer straight
our own path and help maintain a well harmonized macro environment for our peers to learn and explore. The reality in this world is merely a reflection of another reality, which is our real home. And that reality is a spiritual world that
exists beyond the three dimensions we抮e in. So the meaning of life is to
learn
knowledge and develop emotions that are conducive to further development and advancement of the masses."
Mary: Hmmm, yes. That's a very good resume of what I've been trying to express
here. To the definition of the meaning of life being
Neil: 'to learn knowledge and develop emotions that are conducive to further development and advancement of the masses'
Mary: I would add that how we personally live, what we personally do, the deeds
we personally do during our lifetimes are very important to our progress in the
next world. Knowledge, emotions aren't enough. "First is to know. Then to do.
" As we "save" our own souls by becoming awake and aware and learning to become what we are capable of we also assist in an ever advancing civilization. That
doesn't mean a strictly material civilization. It means a spiritualized and wise civilization which will conduce to the benefit of the whole human race. We have a long way to go in that way, and also much more deepening to do with our own
selves. It isn't a good idea to go through life as though all that is expected
from us is to enjoy ourselves, as many do. Of course are are to enjoy the good
things of this world, but with wisdom, moderation and gratitude and without forgetting and loving their Provider.
You and I, of course, believe that there is an unknowable essense, a Supreme Being that is so far beyond us as to be unapproachable directly by us. This can be
compared to how electricity, direct from the generating station, can't possibly
be sent to homes because such a surge of power into a home would destroy it. The home is completely incapable of receiving it. Power needs to be delivered to
our homes in the level of strength that our home wiring can accept. It is the
same with God. God is too great for us to approach in any way. Just as an intermediary is needed between us and the generating station to step down the power
so that we can receive it safely, so an Intermediary is needed between humans and the One God.
What many of us call God, is too powerful for us to ever comprehend to even the
smallest degree. We simply aren't wired for it. There is no safe approach to God except through what one can call His Manifestations such as the Buddha, Jesus
Christ, Moses, Muhammad, and the Bab and Baha'u'llah in our own time.
They aren't God. They are like perfect mirrors that are turned directly toward
and reflect the physical sun. A perfect mirror will reflect the sun perfectly,
*but the sun in the mirror is not the sun that our Earth circles around each day
.* The sun in the perfect mirror is a reflection.
Many Christian people believe that Jesus is *God Incarnate*. In other words, the
One God, literally inside the body, mind and soul of Jesus, Who two thousand years ago walked with men, as is often claimed. This is a misunderstanding of the
true situation. Jesus was a perfect reflection of the qualities of God. He was a perfect example. His words, deeds and what He taught were perfectly inspired by the One God. But the One God didn't literally descend into the body of Jesus.
Many religions teach that God will *never* send another Manifestation of God. So they accept all the great Teachers who went before the One who came to them.
But they completely deny and even killed or tried to kill any Who came after theirs. I don't want to go any further into this subject just now. Trust me, it's
true.
Neil: "Upon departing our physical body, we抣l bring along a behavioral report
card when returning to our real home, and that抯 when we抣l be judged based on what we抳e done in our earthly life."
Mary: More or less. I would put the emphasis a little differently. We'llsee our whole lives and the basis of all our acts, and judge ourselves. We'll see the outcome of everything we've done, good, bad, or indifferent, and things long forgotten. We'll see and understand all the results, even down through all
time. As long as any ripples still spread out from our deeds.
Neil: The feeling of pain and suffering is part and parcel of the whole human experience. And so the passing of our loved one(s) and the accompanied anguish and grief are the integral part of the entire learning process that cannot be avoided.
Mary: Pain and suffering is here, not there. When I saw the gangrene beginning
in my comatose mother's arm, (she had suffered a brain stem stroke and her body
was only able to continue to function at the vegetable level,) I was glad when
she died. She was finally safe. During her funeral I had the strongest sense of her being beside me on my right side. I couldn't be grief-stricken. She had
a lot of pain and the brain stem stroke was the result of an operation to try to
restore circulation to that arm. The circulation had been cut off due to the great weight of the arm crushing blood vessels. The weight was due to a radical mastectomy and deep xray treatment 25 years before. I was happy that she was finally freed from her terrible condition. Most people feel that terrible anguish
and grief because they are not really certain that there is anythingafterwards.
Neil: One of my friends has said that since death is our common destination, and we抮e destined to be there to face whatever comes at that stage, it would
be wise not to waste futile efforts in finding out more about it, because
all our speculations in this area are empirically unverifiable, at least not with any scientific measure in this three dimensional, material world. We should just focus on savoring the human experiences and leave all the unknown to the final moment. This must be a typical Confucius style approach to life. But I think he抯 got a point when he said why worry about anything after this life because we
抣l have the entire eternity to deal with it, what we ought to concentrate
on and attend to is the nitty gritty of this mundane life.
Dear Neil, I'll reply in part 2. This is getting too long.
Mary.
