QA249 QUESTION: With regard to the Fall, I understand that over a period of time, entities chose to be out of truth. What I don’t entirely understand is what goes on in the Spirit World? In a way, I am saying, what is there to be out of truth about there? As I understand it, thought is reality there. If one can create what one believes, why would one be angry, jealous, resentful, etcetera? Why would one choose away from the truth? I realize that the same question could be asked about the incarnate reality. Here, at least, I see what one could be jealous or resentful about, on the material level. For example, some people have more than me, say in money, and I resent that. Is it the same on the spiritual plane, or different?
The next question has to do with salvation. At first when I understood that salvation was impossible before the coming of Jesus Christ, I felt very rebellious about this. I felt that it was unfair that no one could attain salvation before he came. Now I feel that I can accept this. What I would like to know is this: In the two thousand years since his time on earth, have other fallen beings gone totally back to God and the light of truth?
Finally, I would like to know: Can one totally purify one’s separate, lower self aspects in this lifetime, but still have aspects that one did not bring with oneself in this lifetime, that one will need to purify in future lifetimes?
ANSWER: This type of question is always extremely difficult to answer in that the dynamics of your world and the higher realm of spiritual reality are so different that words become almost misleading. Explanations are put in three-dimensional terms, which distort reality somewhat.
It becomes anthropomorphic and makes spiritual entities appear in earthly terms, as if they were under the same disconnected spell or illusion. Or explanations become so abstract that they do not seem to answer the question. So you have to bear with me as I attempt to form the answer from a point of view best suited to your need at present. Answers can be given from many points of view, many angles, many levels, and as far as their reality can be conveyed, they could all be correct.
In the course of these years, since I began the lectures I am so privileged to help you with, I have discussed this topic from different points of view. For instance, I discussed the Fall in almost human terms, though I have warned you to make allowances for the misleading aspect of this. [Lecture #21 The Fall]
I have also discussed evolution in terms of spreading life – consciousness – into the void, and I have described the process of this undertaking. These two approaches seem, if not to contradict one another, at least not to jibe in a most important way. The way the Fall was described depicted personal choice and responsibility of each entity in the creation of evil and suffering. This is where your question comes in.
But in the lectures on divine substance – of which you are an integral part – about penetrating the void and temporarily getting lost in it, the creation of evil is an inevitable by-product. Entities being part of the ever-forward-moving flow of divine life are thus fulfilling a task. How, then, can you conciliate these two postulates?
From the human point of view, this seems indeed difficult, but it is nevertheless true. The personal choice comes in at the moment in time when consciousness separates from the whole and is then still in possession of divine qualities, although in diminished strength and scope. With these faculties, the separating mass of consciousness still has choices and certainly still has self-determination.
When divine consciousness meets the void, distorted consciousness – evil – comes into existence. This does not always have to be so, but it often so happens that the individualized entity – the separated, diminished consciousness – chooses according to what seems most tempting at the moment.
Separation always creates illusion and diminished vision. In that state, a great deal of self-discipline is required. It becomes necessary to summon inner knowledge that might be temporarily overshadowed by faulty or incomplete vision.
In a previous lecture [Lecture #248 Three Principles of the Forces of Evil – Personification of Evil], I also mentioned that the divine aspect of curiosity plays a substantial role in evolution. It is the motor force that motivates entities to surge forth, to undertake new ventures and adventures. Without this aspect, stagnation would be almost inevitable.
As all divine aspects can be distorted and misused, so can this one be. The healthy curiosity that makes a separated entity surge forward into as-yet-unexplored substance – or rather nonsubstance – and fill it up with life, creativity, divine substance and divine being, this same curiosity can switch and use its creative powers in destructive ways.
It is perhaps best described by saying that the consciousness unit desires to explore every possible alternative at its disposal. This is how the Fall occurs in the process of filling the void – in the creative process of evolution – until no void exists any longer. This will be in eons to come, too vast for you to comprehend in human numbers, but in cosmic measurements it is different.
Since creation and evolution is an ongoing process beyond time, it is perfectly true that outward-flowing divine consciousness continues to temporarily separate from the whole and chooses destructive ways – tries them out – until the truth leads this entity to reunite with divine reality again. In that sense, entities continue to fall and continue to be saved all the time. Time is, of course, a false description and is misleading for you, but there is no other way of putting it in your language.
Anger, jealousy and resentment are a result of trying out different laws and modalities that might be contrary to God’s will. They are not the cause. They do not exist before separation, and consequently evil, has been chosen.
You see, my child, you mention that you resent that others have more money. This is a good example of demonstrating what I am trying to convey here. In this resentment you live in an illusion – an illusion that came about as a result of diminished vision, of separation from your total consciousness.
The illusion is that you live in an unfair world in which arbitrary riches are bestowed and in which some can be left out without any reason. However, this illusion itself can be challenged and therefore dissolved. Holding on to this illusion is a choice that serves a certain purpose in the distorted part of your consciousness. By expanding your consciousness through challenging this assumption, you eventually see that every particle of being has exactly what it has earned – what it makes room for.
You say you have now accepted that salvation was not possible before Christ. However, I would like to point out to you, so as to be sure you no longer harbor illusions, that again there is an inexorable justice, truth and beauty in the lawfulness of divine processes. In an individual development, light can only be earned according to effort and growth processes, and therefore the ability of an entity to see the light of truth and love.
If truth and love were given without this readiness, it would be quite impossible to assimilate them. In fact, the Light of Christ – which is the light of truth and love – creates terror and severe contraction in those who remain unwilling to venture forth into a new state of consciousness. This individual process can be readily observed in your environment, if you but focus your attention to this incontrovertible fact.
It is no different with a collective entity – say the entity of a nation, of a group of people, or of humanity as a whole. As long as you think of a state of consciousness in terms of an authority giving or depriving you, you will always be in illusion and therefore in pain. Consciousness needs to be widened, deepened and heightened with the tools already at the disposal of every existing creature. This is where choice comes in.
Your question regarding whether beings have totally reunited with the light of truth – with God – since Jesus Christ was on earth, is answered in the affirmative. Of course. It is a constant process of reunification and renewed surging forth of the great stream, of reseparation and reunification, again and again, until there is no longer any void.
The answer to your last question is also affirmative. It is often true that an entity completely purifies according to the present plan, thus fulfilling his or her destiny in the best way possible. But other aspects might not have been incorporated into the soul substance before a certain degree of development has been accomplished. It is a question of realistic timing and rhythm.
I hope that these answers will somehow move your own inner thinking and feeling process so that you can experience the truth on an inner level. These answers are food to make this possible for you, eventually.
