Man's Spirit

Everything and every phase has a reason and a purpose and its place in the great scheme of the Creator.

As Claude makes perfectly clear—

Do you want to know how man differs from animals, as the same life, or God-force, animates him in common with them and all creation? Well, I told you before that all force and power emanates from God, for He is all Power, He is also all Mind and all Love as well. The life-force that is throbbing through the Universe, manifesting itself in the existence of everything you see, is the cause of man's physical body also, but his spirit, which is his prerogative and peculiar to him, comes from God direct in the form of the "drop" I told you of before, and which forever remains connected with its source. This "drop," the Divine spark, is a little bit of the God Mind, and it is this fact that makes the difference between even the lowest man and the noblest beast.

Dalian, Liaoning, China—Two elderly Chinese men enjoying the sea at Xinghai Bay—Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas— Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Man has to develop that spark by living up to the best and highest in himself. We have recently talked of how man has to grow in regular stages through the physical and mental to the spiritual, and how in order to be well balanced he has to conquer each stage ere he goes on his road of evolution. Sometimes a man in his anxiety to develop scorns the physical, and, despising his body, becomes eccentric; he neglects to cut his hair, or walks sideways like a crab, or develops other tiresome habits, through not having the correct poise. This brings its own nemesis, for the neglected body reacts on the brain and he becomes thoroughly unbalanced.

Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci during her practice session for an appearance at the Hartford Civic Centre—Dave Gilbert—Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Everything and every phase has a reason and a purpose and its place in the great scheme of the Creator, and so probably this man has to return to earth later to remedy this neglect and learn to use and control the physical body in the way it is intended. Sometimes you come across these men when reincarnated, and they seem to be out of place; their lives are prosaic in the extreme, and their ostensible interests bounded by narrow limits, and yet you know and feel somehow that they are fitted for other, different, and higher things. Though one cannot always judge by a man's social position or the nature of his work, whether his life is "higher" or not, it is, after all, its manner and the use he makes of his opportunities that constitutes the real difference.

Albert Einstein—Photograph by Oren Jack Turner, Princeton, N.J.

A man may be a village carpenter, and by his wholesome, honest, and kindly influence appreciably benefit the small community in which he lives, while another man, say a writer, for instance, may use his greater opportunity to decry what is good and disseminate what is unclean, dishonest, and cynical, caring nothing for the effect on other people, because he can by playing up to the worst in human nature earn more money and gain cheap notoriety.

In the spirit world things are readjusted. This place might be called the "Land of Fulfilled Ideals," for here, if a man has honestly done his best on earth, he can realise his dreams, which may have been quite out of his reach before. I will give you an instance in my own experience. I came across a man one day who was standing outside a beautiful building; he was regarding it with love in his eyes. I was so interested I stopped to speak to him. He told me he was one of the architects who had designed it, and that it meant a great deal to him. On earth from his early childhood he had wished to become an architect, and spent hours drawing designs and all his spare time in going to see, admire, and study various buildings. His father was a poor man, a jobbing tailor, and he did his best for his son, but his health failed and the lad had to join him in the little shop, where by slow degrees his ambition faded. Eventually he married, had children, and settled down to his birthright of drudgery, indifferent health, and poverty, but the love of design, of fine curves and imposing lines, remained, and on his scant holidays he still went to look at the buildings he loved. Well, he lived his life honestly, bearing his heavy burden bravely, and then came the inevitable end—death—which proved to him, as to most of us, but the door leading to the land of a fuller and more beautiful life, for his dreams have at last come true and his ideals have materialised.

Bruce Willis at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego—Gage Skidmore—Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported