The Longer Journey

(Granger): For a moment, let us stand eyeball to eyeball with the meaning and purpose of all life in general and ours ...yours and mine in particular. Many in the earth, sometimes with good reasons, believe that life is a somewhat unfortunate experience; that life is a result of circumstance; that life is a grinding at the wheel by some god of justice who will extract every last particle until the polishing is completed. Some believe they are captured within the mind and will of a destiny from which there is no escape. Others believe in the reality of an ever loving God of mercy who will reach down to scoop them from the pit of reality if they can but find the right combination of buttons to press, not unlike winning the sweepstake. There are those who believe, in varying degrees, in the wheel of fortune referred to as reincarnation, where one repeats cycles of lives in the earth until that perfection of balance and harmony has been achieved.

What shall we tell you to believe: all of the previous concepts, none of them, or something else? It seems like the easy way out, but we prefer not to tell anyone what to believe. We prefer to give you practical information from the essence of life as we are able to comprehend it and let you discover your own beliefs. That is not intended for you to infer that any set of beliefs is as good as any other, not at all. Beliefs that are in harmony with reality are desirable, but you must comprehend that truth through your own mind and through your beliefs. Then reality for you will be established.

Physical life is not some backwash from a higher reality. Life in the earth is as full of purpose as that of any other plane of living. Do not look upon the experiences of life as something to be set aside, avoided, or minimized. The intensity of physical life is to be grasped and explored, to be exercised and developed, to be implemented and worked out. The working out, the struggling with, the comprehension of physical life is as much of reality as any life in any plane of being. Life is not to be set aside nor to be of no account, or rendered to the state of no entry. Accept the challenge, make the effort, extend the thrust. Only then can you come to comprehend the nature, the depth, and the value of life in its very inner core of reality. Even when you may not comprehend the inner meaning and purpose, after a lifetime of effort you will know that a purpose has been served. You will know that depths have been reached, and some inner meaning will yet be revealed to you as you move on to another area of being.

This heat-of-battle, this moulding of the metal of life each day, is to be tempered with the knowing that it is but a short period within a much longer journey. Be aware that this physical life is indeed part of that longer journey. The man or woman, the boy or girl, the child as well as the grand old man, or the lady of many years, all have already entered into and are participating in The Longer Journey. Life does not begin after forty, nor after any other period later in life, nor after death. If you are alive you have already entered into The Longer Journey of Life that sees no end in sight.

Many variations of religious beliefs, combined with many lesser beliefs that we could refer to simply as superstitions, have contributed to the concept of life on earth in the role of a trial-run, the reward or punishment for which would determine the nature of the life to follow ...sometime in the mysterious hereafter. That is an erroneous concept fraught with misleading beliefs that result in a certain unfortunate short-sighted misunderstanding of the nature of reality and of life. Life in the physical earth is no pre-run for what is to follow. Life in the physical is as vital, as realistic.,as any life in the spirit to follow. That which you are as you leave life on the physical earth, as you step forth from your physical body, is what continues as life in this dimension of reality which you so reverently refer to from your side as the hereafter.

Life in the physical, as you live and experience it today, is as realistic in terms of the spirit as any life you will ever live any time hereafter. In terms of the spirit you are already living in the hereafter. You are building; you are growing; you are in the process of becoming. Your present life is as everlasting as anything can be considered everlasting. You are a spiritual being, a spiritual person, a realistic personality of the same nature and spiritual fibre as you will continue to be as you move over into the hereafter. The fact that you reside in a physical body, that you process awareness through a physical brain, and you see physical reality through physical senses, all this makes you no less a spiritual personality, already upon the journey of life that you will continue beyond your present horizon. Because you crest the hill to behold the vast regions beyond makes you no less, or more, the person you have been ...and are about to continue to be.

We have no desire to push you out over the other side of the boat. Some people have a tendency to become so spiritual, so much of the mystic that they become a recluse, retiring from responsibility for practical life in the earth. They begin to pack-up and get ready for that long spiritual journey. Some people make a career of packing-up, of getting ready. When the packing is done they decide to wait for better weather. They never start the journey.

Get the concept that in your physical life you have already left the dock, you are already under full sail. The completion of your physical life is as though you have cleared the harbour. Your physical life, however, has determined the state of your vessel, the equipment you carry, and the ability you have developed in your role of ship's master on the high seas. For those who prefer to travel by land, think of yourself setting out on a long journey, but you are setting out, you are on your way. Observe that landfall, note the nature of that country through which you travel, scan the panorama and choose the direction of your travel.

We realize the need to scale the laws of spirit down to realistic terms of daily life. We attempt also to avoid the shallow waters of mystical concepts that give little of real value in the struggle with a life that needs to fill a breadbox, pay the mortgage, heal the sick, encourage the downtrodden, and yet find a reason to move out to work on Monday morning. Yet, we need to drop back to catch a glimpse of the reality behind life. Understand that God is more than a source. God is not "over there" sitting somewhere in cosmic space with a halo around His throne and a sign that says, "Holy! Holy! Holy!" God is not some little-big man who operates and controls the universe in all its various dimensions. Grasp and hold a concept of centralized self-awareness inherent in all aspects of being everywhere, in physical as well as spiritual, in psychic or any other term. Wherever consciousness exists, to that extent God is.

Understand that the mind who holds the steeple of some church in hallowed reverence but plucks the eye out of a sparrow with no concern for reverence has yet to learn the true nature of God-Being in its essential state of reality. The eye of a sparrow is as much the centre of God-awareness as is the steeple of the most sacred shrine. That which you inflict upon yourself, you inflict upon God. And that which you inflict upon, or withhold from, another you do likewise to yourself. There is, in the final essence of reality, no separation of any one thing from all others. God Is, and there is nothing beyond that in any state or reality.

We need to examine the nature of individualized personality in terms of this background of unity and oneness. There is no awareness beyond the regions of God; at the same time God-awareness chooses to expand and explore ever changing depths of awareness through a process of individualizing. This individualizing process expresses the desire of God-awareness for expanding outward in many directions of reality simultaneously. In contrast with the state of unity, harmony, and oneness, is this state of the everexpanding expression of individualized personality and of life in countless aspects. Obviously we are confronted here with incomprehensible complexities of awareness and states of consciousness. Always, however, keep in mind these two concepts: unity and individualized expansion of consciousness.

Man in the earth is, at the same time, a participant in these two concepts, freedom of individualized personality exists in harmony with unity of spirit. Man has seldom been able to comprehend both concepts as existing simultaneously and in harmony. Most men and women in the earth conceive of the nature of the inherent right to individualized reality, or they see the need for spiritual or political unity with all right to personal freedom being suppressed in support of this community of spirit. Either of these concepts, taken to its extreme position in defiance of recognition of the other element of nature will always end in futile degeneration of the intended development. Never at any time lose sight of this double vision: unity in spirit, recognizing individualized rights to personal freedom.