We turn to God when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them. ~ Charles C West

Dear Lord, we know in the center of our very selves what is true, let us listen to the inner voice, Your voice. Amen.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUALISM

What is a Philosopher?

A person who walks about university thinking hard, staring at the ground?

Wearing A tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows?

Stuttering out great pondering words of wisdom?

No - a few grains of wisdom a philosopher doesn't make!

Aha! ... But what does make a philosopher?

We are all philosophers in our own way, we all have experience in the world, no matter what our age, and that hard won experience has shaped our thoughts into a certain way of thinking, and there we have the key, a way of thinking.

That's what a philosopher is - a person who shapes their own thinking, and we have choices in doing the shaping, it can be done deliberately or we can leave it to chance. Doing nothing about educating our own mind is still a choice; we chose to do nothing.

Spiritualism is for the free thinker, the person who relies on experience and understanding of the human condition and all the good deeds and failings therein.

We have worked out a few things that we know to be true, and they're called the SPIRITUALIST PRINCIPLES. There is no dogma or creed in Spiritualism.

Here are those principles:

God is our Father.

Mankind is a brotherhood.

Existence is continuous and Angels minister to us.

We all have personal responsibility.

There is compensation and retribution for all the good and bad things done on earth.

Eternal progress is open to all human souls.

Taking these thoughts we live our lives accordingly.

We all take in experience of the world around us, and find that as time goes by we are wondering what it's all for exactly. This is normal, if it doesn't happen you are living in a material world and have forgotten the basics - or are ignoring them!

What are these basics?

The feelings inside that there is more to being happy than getting your physical house in order, more to life than the self; other people in whatever form they are met, be it family, friends, or work colleagues, they give us reason to be who we are inside.

Our character is formed through how we interact with other people. "No man is an island" might be a hackneyed expression but holds a truth. We need others for our happiness, yes we do! You might go through phases of wishing you had never met another human being, but the truth is this, joy and laughter are nothing if not shared.

Choices are being made all the time by deciding how we are going to treat other people. How we are going to behave / react to the treatment we are receiving. But, and here's the crunch, our philosophy dictates this for us in the most simple way.

How?

By ‘programming' our ‘knee-jerk' reactions. Yes our chosen philosophy dictates our attitude to others by being negative or positive in outlook. Interpretation of information is crucial, how we colour our thinking into the good or bad reaction, is pre-programmed by our philosophy.

Example number 2 on the list below - "You shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth!" - is this a philosophy from the cynic? Or is the gift being recommended as free of catches? It depends on your way of thinking - is your thinking always the same, or do you mature as time goes by? In other words are you progressing?

Perhaps you are an open minded person?

Take another little homily, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." If that's always your philosophy, you will have a definate outlook on life, that of the cynic.

Spiritualism's philosophy makes demands on the individual, demands like accepting we are all made of the same ‘clay' so not sitting in judgment, and what the consequences are of our own personal actions, in other words none of the "you made me do that!" reasoning.

It also sees that we are molded by our lives, forming through choice the character which is the essence of our being, our spirit, which we take with us into the next life.

This brings me to the spirit part, the 'next life' part. 'The proof is in the pudding' as they say. Evidence of no ‘death' - that we are spirit and go into another phase of being - is a personal experience and nobody is even going to try and convince another person just through words, you have to get this understanding / knowledge for yourself.

No, the only way to get to grips with your own personal evidence is to get out there and find it, most commonly in a spiritualist church. A competent medium will give evidence that is overwhelming to the open minded, but not the cynic. The cynic is never going to be receiving any evidence because the mind is closed to the spiritual.

A cynic is by definition a materialist, and a spiritualist understands this and will withdraw knowing that when the time comes for that mind to open, it will accept the truth. My personal philosophy regarding this is "Why bang your head against a closed door? Far better to wait for it to open on it's own!" Incidentally, this is one of the reasons you will not find Spiritualists standing on street corners evangelizing.

If you believe your actions are not going to have any bearing on what happens to you, or blame others for them, your life is open to being led in a selfish way, ego rules the day.

The Spiritualists philosophy understands that one of the laws of the universe is that the results of our actions bring to us quite deliberately the necessary lessons to learn how to be decent people, simply because "like attracts like". Those trying to live the spiritual life are people who treat all others alike with no prejudice, regardless of how they manifest in this world.

Spiritualism brings tolerance to the mistakes of both ourselves and other people [because we too are learning] in the kindest and gentle ways through the consciousness of our own spiritual being, that inner voice, we only have to practice the silence, to listen to the voice behind that roar of everyday life - through visualization and meditation in it's simplest form.

What do you accept as your philosophy? Perhaps, you think that you aren't a philosopher already? That can only be true if you have never used any of the following amusing homilies: these may be taken as a metaphor or literally!

1. Always wear a belt and braces.

2. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

3. If it isn't broken don't mend it.

4. A stitch in time.

5. Live and let live.

6. What goes round comes round.

7. Many a slip twixt cup and lip.

8. Fine feathers make fine birds.

9. The clothes make not the man.

10. Make hay while the sun shines.

11. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

12. Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.

13. Don't judge a book by its cover.

14. Silence in golden.

15. Beware of what you pray for.

16. Many a good tune played on an old fiddle.

17. A bird in the hand is worth two in a bush.

18. Keep friends close, but enemies closer.

19. Leopards never change their spots.

20. Let sleeping dogs lay.

21. Tell the truth and shame the devil.

22. The lord helps him who helps himself.

23. Easy Come Easy Go.

24. Great oaks from little acorns grow.

25. Little piglets have big ears.

26. It never rains but it pours.

27. Many a true word is spoken in jest.

28. If you want to make God laugh - tell him your plans.

29. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

30. A lawyer who acts for himself has a fool for a client..

31. Doctors can't heal themselves. [Doctor! Heal thyself!]

32. One is never a prophet in one's own village.

33. Beware of [foreigners] bearing gifts.

A little humour there to get you in the mood for thought maybe?

Perhaps the nature we bring with us into this world is young and unformed, or old and hard and set in it's ways, but whichever it is we all chose how we use this life to form and maybe improve, our nature / character and what truths we rely on are important in this task.

The philosophy we all adopt, formed out of living the experience and gaining knowledge and understanding, can only be good if seen through the eyes of a truly open heart.

What can befall us, if all the past, present and future is seen as the eternal path which is guided by our own best judgment, through those lessons brought by ourselves to ourselves for exactly that purpose?

And failing all else, we have only to overcome the ego and ask for help. No matter where you think that help may be coming from, your own spirit or another it matters not, just asking opens the mind to a whole new world.

I agree with Maya AngelouI, quote; "Life likes to be taken by the lapel and told, I'm with you, kid, lets go!"

Welcome to the World of Spiritualism my friend !

And a new life!

Stella 

There are so many great treasures and miracles within you, so many magical possibilities hidden inside you. Through discipline, you can make them manifest for you, and in this way, you can make the earth a greater place.  ~ Swami Chidvilasananda.