Until death has beaten her into a corner

Since your last letter I have been going through the shock and change that come with the death of a dear loved one. The death-bed scene was terrible and in a way a test of my belief and faith. The question with me through the long period of her great suffering was, Why should she who was of a gentle and unselfish nature have to undergo such long drawn-out suffering? She would not let go physical life until death had beaten her into a corner.

There are many gentle, beautiful Souls who have been brought up with the idea that death is terrible and that we must hold on to the physical body until the last possible moment. Such Souls do bring to themselves much unnecessary suffering, especially if the creed of punishment, etc., has been imbued into them.

Another reason is, of course, karmic. Many Souls today who are spiritually advanced have nevertheless in the past lived the life of renunciation and have taught humanity the necessity for suffering and punishment until they have really built it into their own lives. And, consequently, only as they come back and live a life in which they literally pass through the experiences they have taught themselves and others to believe are necessary can they truly be ready, after this life of suffering is over, to realise that they had made a great mistake.

As you doubtless know, what we call the higher plane is, for those who are ready to receive it, all that we can contemplate of heaven and joy, etc., while the world in which we suffer and pay our karmic debts is Hell—all the hell there is. When we say this, we do not mean it as a positive or enduring assertion but we mean it as especially applying to the past dark ages. In other words, there are planes and planes and there is an especial place which is called heaven by many. And this place has been literally created during what the world calls the dark ages by the church which has taught these doctrines of an atonement to be attained only through mortification of the flesh, etc. This is also one meaning of Jesus descending into hell to help the spirits imprisoned there. Therefore, those who have earnestly striven with all their hearts to live up to the ideals of the church often find themselves confined to such a place after death. It is a heaven in one sense but in it they find only the realisation of the ideals held out to them—for instance, a crucified and a risen Saviour; a heart-searching of all their faults and a literal judgment.

Such persons must incarnate again upon Earth and they incarnate with all the beauties of their devotion, all the lessons they have gathered, all the desires for a higher and better life but they have not as yet learned the true lessons of life. They often pass through the karmic result, not only of their sins as do others who have been more worldly but the results of their beliefs. And because they think this Earth is the only place where they can really atone, they cling to it and pass through much suffering before they let go.

Letters from the Teacher, Volume II, Universal Religious Fellowship Inc., Harriette Augusta Curtiss and F. Homer Curtiss, Curtiss Book Company, California, 1924