... Is a phrase from the two world wars. 

Hardship is viewed in the 'now' and it takes a special kind of person to always see things in the 'bigger picture' during a bad time.

On a couple of occasions I have been very ill and not known the outcome, and I do believe this is when we do our best philosophical thinking, when driven into a corner, and there is a time before death when acceptance can be seen as an alteration within the paient.

Having these experiences does not make me an expert, but it does make me older and wiser in the ways of progression, the years have taught things I never knew I could learn, and the hardships have accelerated that process.

When it comes to the waiting part for others, I am now well qualified too, three loved ones in the family will not be with us for much longer.

Spiritualist philosophy is thinking of illness and disabilities as part of the pathway that we all endure [negative] or welcome [positive] depending on what stage of development we're at. Maturity can come at any age, or not at all!

As you might know I go on healing courses as part of the 'Continuous Professional Development' - CPD. One time we were all asked in class to help each other by acting as a patient and giving a case history.

My turn came and I didn’t realise that I would go so freely into the mind set of 'patient' and answer a bit - maybe too - frankly. It came as a shock to some of the other students that I was caring for a very sick person who was not going to get better. There was a silence, they all looked at me, and I realised what I had said was maybe a bit unusual.

The philosophy of spiritualism is deep within my soul and I told the facts / circumstances as they are, the stress and strain of caring for another person who one loves is not easy, but death is not to be feared, it is not the end, and I could not find it in myself to be negative about the experience we are going through as a couple.

The questions ended and all my ‘doctors’ wrote up their notes. There was no embarrassment, no shuffling of feet or looking away, just a thoughtful ‘thank you’ and we went for lunch.

The friendly smiles I then got were from those who understood, the silences were perhaps from those who found if difficult. It is my fervent wish that what ever I said [and I don’t remember] it was not a case of 'seeds cast on stony ground', but for some maybe the soil will bear fruit when the rain of time has done its work.

Question: How does one stand and wait without going mad? 

For anything to exist it has to be created in thought first. We manifest what we think, thoughts are the most powerful force in the universe.

Example, a plan of a town only exists in the mind of the planner, and later on it becomes reality by building on that plan. This applies to both the spirit world and the physical, the laws are the same for both worlds, we just don't understand them all yet.

Illness is disharmony of the alignment between spirit, mental/emotional and physical.

‘Looking' at our spiritual template and seeing that this is indeed perfect, and then looking at the physical so-called reality, there might be a difference, but we are seeing things through our perceptions of what we desire and what we think is not correct. 

Do we bring to ourselves / manifest the imperfections we 'see' in the future? Or do we see ourselves as a whole person, healed as we wish to be? There is a vast difference!

Fact: Perfection is regained on returning to the spirit world, we know this from all the literature on the subject. For example we know from the Masters and the many communications that we get in the church meetings that the body on returning to the spirit world is restored to its true state. Anything that has been corrupted [damaged] in the physical is made perfect as first created in the spirit.

Each of the two parts do exist as part of the whole, and yet cannot be separated when you realise that the first one has to exist before the second one can. It is for us to 'see' ourselves as we wish to be - in harmony - and through manifestation of our own thoughts we become that perfect being.

Yes, we can be in harmony to the point that what we accept as right for us in the 'now' is a lesson, and we can adjust it to manifest better things by harmonising ourselves with the universe and our spiritual true selves, I say it again - acceptance. We are not conscripts into this life, we made choices before we came here, this means that all that has happened to date is correct.

Bucking against this is bringing disharmony into our lives.

CHARACTER

Only the character of the person stays the same on returning, through the veil - so called death, if we understand this we can see that the physical body and mind has become only a very small part of the whole.

The character of the individual is made through the choices made in the physical and the spiritual, both now and before this physical life. In other words we decide what we bring into this world and take back into the spirit world by forming that character ourselves. This is what it's all about, living with the things that form us, acceptance.

Problems we draw to us through the law of ‘like attracting like' are there to help us form our character, both people drawn to us and ‘happenings' too. Have you ever felt that you are doing the same thing over and over again like the film ‘Ground hog day'?  These same things are trying to tell us that we need to do something different and get out of the loop!

Relationships going into repeat ditto yet again? What is it that keeps being attracted to us that we need to change - a decision that must be altered - an attitude that needs changing?

Find it difficult to think that the self might choose any ability and/or disability? It depends what we call a dis/advantage, doesn't it?

What other reason can there be for that than to make an adjustment in our developing spiritual character, and that dictates what we do / manefest both there and here. Through the same law of like attracting like. This is what we call ‘karma'.

KARMA

Understanding the Karma of progression is not hard to grasp when it is seen as like attracting like, and accepting that we are all on a pathway of progression, [even the murderer,] it's not too difficult, is it?

But accepting that we chose to be here is not a nice thought when things are going badly, it's OK when things are going well.

The big question is: Which one would you rather see as the most important? The one where we all must face trials and tribulations, or the one where we are at rest and can decide what to do for our own development next?

YOU choose! Yes we all go back again and we all decided to be here too. There are no conscripts in this physical world - we are all volunteers.

We all choose what to think, we are all masters of our thoughts, and after making any thought we can then again choose to follow it through into a reality. So, did I decide to be disabled or enabled to progress uniquely, or both? 

Do I need to now see this world as only a stepping stone to the next more important one, and so see myself as being in a position to self-help into progressing into a better place / future?

Yes, and go on with that thought into "What did I decide to make myself into before I came here?" We cannot say that other people or things make us what we are. Personal responsibility is the key here.

CONCLUSION

Now: Apply all of this to the loved one who is going through their own journey, perhaps of pain and 'death', please believe me, it's easier to bear. It will not stop me grieving for them, it will not stop me crying when the time comes, but it will bring me joy in knowing that all is well both in this world and the next.

Reality is only a thought away. We can all 'think' ourselves into changing a few patterns and so change our reality, our philosophy.

This understanding is so important.

By altering our way of seeing this world of so-called ‘reality' we can picture the spirit world as the masters tell us it is.

This freewill-power is given to us to for a reason. We can all change our future by understanding we are our own future, and forgive anyone who has not made too good a job of it, I think I could have done better at times, so who doesn't?.

(Revised April 09)