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WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT TAKES PLACE IN THE WORLD
Although not directly involved in the tragic events of 9/11, most of us have witnessed them live or on playback. I did witness them live on television. I know New York fairly well, and drove in and around it with my family in the 1970s, and one of our married daughters lives not far away in up-state New York. I was not working that day, and so was babysitting two grandchildren outside Toronto, and was flipping channels after breakfast to find a kid's show for them to watch. It was just after breakfast, and I caught sight of the first tower on screen, already showing smoke billowing from it.
I didn't let the children watch, but turned to another channel, but when the children went off to play elsewhere, I went back to witness the rest of the events transpiring.
Apart from registering the appalling loss of life, and the heroic efforts of the firemen and other rescuers, I saw the incident from the point of view of an aircraft designer and manufacturer. I had spent part of the 1960s working for one of Hawker Siddeley's subsidiary companies outside London, and we produced and shipped material to manufacture many different aircraft round the world, including the prototype Concorde. Knowing the process and procedures needed to produce just one jetliner, I know how much effort and how many thousands of workers it takes to manufacture an aircraft. It appalled me to realise how all that effort had been wasted and destroyed in this single incident, quite apart from the human tragedy, and the destruction of buildings and businesses. On top of that, I had seen aircraft colliding and plummeting to the ground, during World War II, and later witnessed an air-crash at the Farnborough Air Show.
Then, since the 9/11 incident, how many more hundreds of thousands of lives and how many more buildings have been destroyed in the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other Middle Eastern countries.
There is little respect for human life, and for property. We have larger and swifter WMD in operation year by year. It is not the way of a civilised species, and we have yet to learn to handle responsibly the immense powers at our disposal before we destroy all life on this planet.
So in looking at contemporary events it is in this light that I add incidents from the spiritual side of life. Having studied this area for quite a while, I feel that knowledge of psychic science has put us in touch with realities which lie beyond, and give meaning to the material life, appalling as it may sometimes be. That we all will survive this physical life is now quite self-evident, which is why we can conclude that there is meaning to life, even though terrorists may think they are finally and completely disposing of us by blowing us up.. Our compassion and understanding are put to the test by such incidents as 9/11, and although we have to now tackle the problem of terrorism and the growth of such groups as Isis, we can only survive by seeking international cooperation to agree on less violent ways of going about our business, and defending our culture and way of life.
Here are the conclusions I've come to after studying Psychic Science and Spiritualism with various groups and disciplines here and in North America over the past 30 years. Then I'll leave it at that, though if you want to follow-up the ideas, I can suggest book titles, or names to google or search for on YouTube, such as Rupert Sheldrake about science's errors, or Theresa Caputo about healing and contact with 'the other side.'
The scientific view is that evolution took place, and then we and our minds evolved out of it, so the ''universe'' is imposed on us, with all it's good and evil. Religions say the same thing, putting 'God', Allah, the Buddha, or the Supreme Being, however named or defined, in the place of ''Evolution'' and ''the universe.'' Both beliefs about evolution or creation are incomplete. All reality, seemingly outside of us is created from and within our minds, individually and 'en masse.' So what we find 'out there' is a reflection of our own thoughts, emotions and state of mind, for which we are personally responsible. individually and as members of society. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a supreme loving Intelligence behind all the realities we know, and the unknowable dimensions which lie beyond. This is who or what we worship in our religions, joyfully celebrating and giving thanks for life in all its forms.
We all have hidden agendas which help create the world around us. They are not hidden purposely but are hidden because we are merely unaware of them. If we examine our minds and thoughts, in moments of quiet reflection or meditation, we can delete those thoughts and emotions which are negative or unfavourable influences and replace them with more positive ones, at the same time as keeping the good thoughts and genuine beliefs which wa already have 'built in' us, from past experience.
All this seems to be a learning experience, and we seemingly are growing up in a kind of kindergarten for souls, and we are still building sand castles rather than more solid realities. Our attempts to create a stable solid world crumble after each effort to progress.
In each life we are meant to check the exterior environment in order to learn our inner condition. The outer is a reflection of the inner.
We are meant to understand the nature of our inner self, and to manifest it outward. As this is done, the exterior circumstances should change for the better as the inner self becomes more aware of its own nature and capabilities. Theoretically, then, in each life, we would become stronger, healthier, wealthier and wiser, but it does not work that way, for many reasons. Many personalities adopt different kinds of experiences, focussing on development in certain specific areas, and ignoring others for a series of lives. But when we get to the point that we realise that we are forming our day-to-day existence and the life that we know, then we can begin to alter our own mental and psychic patterns, and therefore change our daily environment.
This realisation, however, should go hand in hand with a deep intuitional knowledge of the capabilities of the inner self. These two factors together can release us from any difficulties that have arisen in past lives, and which we has misinterpreted as being the universe doing all this TO us. We saw ourselves as powerless puppets of Fate or Destiny. This is not so. There is no such thing out there controlling us. We did it to ourselves, and created from erroneous thoughts and beliefs the present negative situations which we are entangled in, as participants or bystanders, The entire structure of our existence will begin to change with these realisations, and an acceleration of spiritual and psychic growth will develop.
There is an inner logic to our current relationships, attitudes and experiences. If in one life, for example, we hated women, we may very well be a woman in the next life. Only in this way would we be able to relate to the experience of womanhood, and then as a woman face those attitudes that we ourselves had against women in the past
If we had no sympathy for the sick, we may then be born with a serious disease, again now self-chosen, and find ourselves encountering those attitudes that once were our own. Such an existence would usually also include other issues, however. No existence is chosen for one reason only, but would also serve many other psychological experiences.
A chronically ill existence, for example, might also be a measure of discipline, enabling us to use deeper abilities that we ignored in a life of good health. The perfectly happy life, for example, on the surface, may appear splendid, but it may also be basically shallow and do little to develop the personality.
The truly happy existence, however, is a deeply satisfactory one that would include spontaneous wisdom and spiritual joy. Suffering does not necessarily lead to spiritual fulfilment, nor is all illness accepted or chosen for such a purpose. That is not the case. Illness is often the result of ignorance and lazy mental habits. Such a discipline MAY be adopted however by certain personalities who must take strong measures with themselves because of other characteristics. There is an overall pattern to relationships within lives, and yet this does not mean that we travel through various existences with the same limited and familiar number of friends and acquaintances, merely altered like actors with a change of face or costume.
Groups of individuals come together in various lives for certain purposes, separate, and may or may not come together again in a different time or place. Again, there is no rigid rule. Some families are literally reincarnations of their ancestors, but this is not the general case by any means. Deep relationships will continue in one way or another. Others will simply disappear.
What should be well noted is that the opportunity for development and knowledge is as present at this moment, in this life, as it will ever be. If we ignore day-by-day opportunities for development now, no one can force us to accept and utilise greater abilities after death, or between lives. The teachers are there in after-death experience, (since when the body dies, the mind and personality, being non-physical, continue to exist indefinitely if not forever).This is not the place to examine the vast amount of evidence proving immortality. Check out the reports of psychical research over the past 160 years to start with, if you wish. But there are also inner guides and teachers ready to help in our existence now.
Some families come together in a particular life not because of great attraction or love in a past existence, but for the opposite reason. Families may be composed then of individuals who disliked each other in the past and come together in a close relationship where they are to work together toward a common goal, learn to understand each other better, and work out problems in a different kind of context.
Jointly, each generation has its own purpose. It is this - to perfect inner knowledge, and to materialise it as faithfully as possible outwardly into the world. The changing physical scene through the centuries, as we know them, represents the inner images that have flickered through the minds of the individuals who lived within the world through the various ages.
It is not necessary that we learn about our own past lives, (which can be a very boring experience for listeners to the endless accounts), though it may be helpful if we understand that we chose the circumstances of our birth THIS time !
If we examine our own life now carefully, the challenges that we have set for ourselves will become apparent. This may not be easy to do, but it is within the grasp of each individual. If we release ourselves from hatred, for example, , then we automatically release ourselves from any such relationships in the future - or any experiences that are based upon hatred. Similarly we should let go of anything in the past up to the present moment connected with other negative thoughts and emotions, such as anger, blame, cruelty, prejudice, sin, fear, guilt, judgment, illegal operations and loopholes leading to dishonesty, corruption and murder even. If we think only of love in all its aspects, in thought, word and deed, we will create a joyful way of living, incorporating constructive and cooperative ideas into family, community, our country and out into the world.
Knowing our reincarnational background without knowing the true nature of our present self, is useless. We cannot justify or rationalise present circumstances by saying, ''This is because of something I did in a past life,'' or - ''the influences in the universe are now in a downward spiral - we will just have to wait until conditions improve.'' This is nonsense, since the ability lies within each one of us right now to change negative influences, and our belief in them. We may have brought negative influences into our lives for a given reason, but the reason always has to do with understanding, and understanding removes those influences.
We cannot say, ''The poor are poor simply because they chose poverty, and therefore there is no need for me to help them.'' Such an attitude can easily draw poverty to us in the next experience or lifetime.
Reincarnational goals vary greatly, but ''Destiny'' or ''Predetermination'' is never involved, for the challenges and circumstances for each individual are chosen, by them. Some problems may be put off, for example, for several existences. Some personalities want to solve their strongest problems and get them over with, perhaps in a series of rather trying existences and exaggerated circumstances. Others, of a more placid nature, will take their problems one at a time. Rest periods may also be taken, between lives, and they are highly therapeutic. For example, an excellent, satisfying life with a minimum of problems may be chosen either as a prelude to a life of concentrated challenge or as a self-adopted reward for a previous difficult life. Those who thoroughly enjoy the physical life, without being obsessed by it, or becoming overly addicted to it, however, do very well indeed.
There, I will leave you to examine, if you wish, your own thoughts and beliefs, and how they have brought your present reality and situations into being.
with homage to many spiritual teachers.
With best wishes to all. Richard Rowley
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