19 Apr 2008

Chapter 13 begins where we left off in Part 12:
“Objective observation is impossible. Nothing which is observed is unaffected by the observer.”

It talks about perspective, perception and belief and the outcomes that they lead to.

Applying this to our ideas of death, we may believe in “Life After Death”, but Life is all there is, and death has no effect on it. If we believe in the world of opposites, then Death is the opposite of Birth, not Life. Life and Death are not opposites. We are born into the physical world and we die back out of it. They are both parts of the same experience.

This leads to the Seventh Remembrance, page 89:
“Death does not exist.”

If you believe that death exists, you will experience that it does. This comes from your perception and from your perspective. But, it doesn’t make it so. It just makes you think it is so.

And, the Eighth Remembrance, page 91, is:
“You cannot change Ultimate Reality, but you can change your experience of it.”

The book as us to think of similar situations in our lives where we may have had very different reactions to them. For example, being out in the rain or snow, being at a party, loosing something valuable, a loved one dying, being alone. Was the experience perceived as happy or sad, positive or negative, depressing or joyous? What was the difference in the similar events? Was it simply an attitude or perception of that specific time and place? Can you be happy while walking in the rain? Can a loved one dying be a happy release or just a natural stage of life? You get to choose.

The point is that you can’t change the way that things have turned up right now, they are already the way they are, the event is now in the past. You can however, change the way you react to these events and situations. You can change your perspective at any time. What would make you do that? Are you even open to allowing that to happen?

As with all experience, what you believe about it, will determine how you perceive it, when it happens. What you expect death to be like will be your experience of it, even if that is not the “nature” of it. Only when you can see that the experience you are having is not the one you would choose, can that experience change.

Chapter 14 gets in to the question of what happens to us after we die.
“Hell does not exist. There simply is no such place.”

Everyone on earth lives on the same earth. We are surrounded by the same natural laws and the same kinds of resources. We have the same instincts and the same drives. We need the same things in order to survive. However, our personal experiences of life on earth are both wide and varied. We can experience a “Hell on Earth” or a “Heaven on Earth”. Although we don’t see exactly how this happens, at some level of our Self, we choose to experience things the way they turn up.

When we die, the first thing we come to “know” is that we are still “alive”, though not restrained by our body. After that, our existing perspective will continue to drive the experiences that we have and whatever we believe will happen, will happen. Without the limitations of the physical body, our imagination can create any kind of situation immediately. Even though there is no place called “Hell”, we can create the experience of being there and have that experience for as long as we choose.

Just as there was no place on Earth that you needed to “Go” in order to experience your living Hell, there is no such place after death. But, you can still think there is.

Why would “God” allow me to create an eternal hell for myself if he knows that there is no such place? How could he let us suffer in such a way?

God simply provides the mechanism and the power for you to experience whatever you “say” you want, in whatever way you “say” you want it. You choose. You don’t have to actually “say” what you want and how you want it. Your vibration attracts it to you. Whatever you vibrate is what you get more of. You can say one thing while vibrating another. You can “pretend” to be friendly, sympathetic, giving, honest, while you actually act the opposite. What you experience creates your vibration and what you vibrate creates your experience. It takes an act of Faith, Will, and Grace to change the way you behave (or react) and therefore the experience you have and then the vibration you feel, in order to break-out of conditioned thinking. It requires “Awakening”.

Even after death, you can still be “living” from your conditioned mind. The vibration is imprinted into every part of your being. It isn’t lost when your brain decays away. You take who you are wherever you go. It is the only thing that you keep. It is the only thing that is ultimately worth working on while you are alive.

Our task while on Earth is to understand Who We Really Are and to grow our Awareness of that essence.

Happy Growing.

John Eyre