Habits that keep us from progressing

From Newsgroup: alt.paranormal

Subject: Some Habits That Keep Us From Progressing.
Dec. 15, 2010.

Here are some habits that slow our progression.

"What in the world are you doing here?" she demands
of him.
He replies that he has only recently left his battered
physical body and is now in the next stage of
development.
The woman snorts that this seems an odd place for him
to be hanging around, and she herself begins to mount
steps that she has just noticed, which make an entrance
to the pavilion where she assumes G-d is awaiting her.
There at last she sees a man who seems to have a very
s-piritual face. Curtsying before him, she asks to be taken
directly to Go-.
The man replies, "But, madam, all of us are -od."
She looks wildly around and notices that he is
including the old beggar in that sweep of his arms.
This annoys her, for that beggar never seemed to
wash and his hair had always been matted, although
she observes now that he gives the impression of
cleanliness.
"Stop playing jokes," she says. "Lead me to my
Maker."
"But, madam," the beautiful young man says, "He
created all of us, not just you, and He does not have
time to welcome each and every one of you back to
this temporary stage of development. The one over
there whom you think of as a beggar will be a good
instructor for you during this interim period until we
are able to assist you and others to reach a higher
state."
Such argument as the poor woman gives him! She
will have no part of taking the beggar for an
instructor, or anyone else for that matter.
Her business is solely with Go-, and she demands
to know where she will find Him. Others are now
crowding around, and some are also asking for -od.
They all want to know where He is, and the woman is
indignant that many of them have caught up with
her, so that she will no longer be first in line.

At last the young man turns to the throng of newly
arrived so-ls and says sweetly, "Hearken, -od is
everywhere. G-d is love, and as surely as each of you
learns to love and assist each other, there will Go-
be working among you. Now take up the mantle and
see if it fits you any better than those who surround
you."
"But where is the judgment seat?" the woman demands
impatiently.
"You are sitting on it, madam," the beautiful young
man replies.
She looks wildly around, seeing no seat of any kind,
and at last begins to perceive a glimmer of his meaning.
She is to be the sole judge of herself. No one will tell
her whether she has lived a pure and blameless life.
She will have to work it out for herself, and as she begins
to look within her own heart she discovers this terrible
truth: In trying to live blamelessly, she has been thinking
only of herself and her own sp-ritual growth. She was
too busily concerned with her own goodness to think
how to stop for a comforting word with those beneath her
status. She had bethought herself to avoid contamination
with those beneath her for fear that it would stain the
w-ite garments that she spi-itually wore. Where was the
love for others? Within herself lay all the answers. G-d
would not have spoken more directly in His judgment
than she was now able to do on her own. She who knew
her own heart best was now appraising her shortcomings.
No one would judge her, for she was the sole judge of
self, and when she tried to assess the qualities of the
beggar beside her, she knew that not in ten thousand
years could she see into his heart and know his errors
of commission and omission, for he also was the sole
judge of himself.

Primitive's Death Experience
Arthur Ford next discussed the case of "a savage who
had never been exposed to Ch-istianity or any other
organized form of wo-ship except for the jungle cult."
This lad d-ed after having been bitten by a cobra and
was about nine years old when he crossed over. He
was a totally uncivilized as anyone who has never seen
any form of cleanliness or civilization, because it was
perhaps thousands of years since that lad's previous
i-carnation and he had done little or nothing in the s-irit
form to improve himself. He slept for hundreds of years
and was so disinterested in other so-ls here that when
he finally decided to try on the physical body again, he
was like a fish out of water. He lived only to eat and
sleep, and what work he managed to do was solely to
avoid beatings and cursings. He lived in ignorance, and
he di-d in the same manner, and thus progressed no
single jot in that lifetime. For that reason there was
no point in continuing his physical existence, and here,
although kindly sou-s are trying to awaken him, he
continues to sleep or thinks of nothing but himself and
his pleasures, which are few, except that he likes to
torture animals. Thus, the snake bite was in the way of
karmic indebtedness for what he had done to those
beings which are less e-olved than human beings.
This type of -oul is highly depressing here, even more
than in the Earth life, for there seems little to jog them
into awareness of responsibilities and so-l growth. But
even that boy was no worse than many who, living in
civilized areas with plenty to eat and much work to
accomplish, give themselves over to riotous destruction
instead.
They in their next in-arnations may find themselves in
circumstances similar to those of this boy who perhaps
many eons ago had been equally destructive and thus
was unwilling to return to physical  state in order to
repay his karmic debts. Growth, development, love,
constructive action, and consideration for others are the
keys to unlock the kingdom of h-aven, and those who
use force and anger to destroy, instead of love to rebuild,
are earning dire consequences  for themselves in this
spir-t life and in future inca-nations.
On Reincar-ation
We learn now why the problem so often arises that
some so-ls want to return again and again to the
physical state without spending enough time in the
s-irit realm to assess all errors of the previous
round and determine exactly how they expect to
meet future temptations as they arise. Why would a
so-l want to rush back to Earth form before it is
ready? Here they face the failing of so-called human
nature: the zest for pleasures of the flesh, desire
for too much alcohol, s-x, body-building, and the
like. Some are so overly fond of the bodies they left
behind that they are hardly able to wait for an
opportunity to enter another body and set to work
indulging it.
These sou-s are truly earthbound and they will not
be able to advance spi-itually until they learn to give
less thought to appetites of the flesh. Any
habit-forming pleasure, and they are endless, traps
them into the cycle of rebirth over and over, until
their appetites are finally put aside while they are
in the flesh - lust for money, lust for power, lust for
se-, and other habits such as an unnatural craving
for alcohol, d-ugs,  tobacco, or any of the
indulgences which they are unable to break loose
from. This is a lesson for those sou-s that would like
to break the cycle of rebirth.

John Winston.   johnfw@mlode.com