THE SPIRIT WORLD: YOU CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY

Key Extracts from Lecture 3

© The Pathwork® Foundation 1999

Before man incarnates into another earth life, he brings along the tasks he has to fulfill. The plan is outlined. In many cases, the spirit is entitled to discuss the future earth life with the responsible spirit being. Thus he can fixate – to a certain extent, according to the state of development and power of judgment in this matter – how his earth life will be. The spirit to be incarnated has a better view than when housed in the human body. He understands that the meaning of earth life is not to have a life as comfortable as possible, but that the purpose of life is to develop his understanding in order to acquire, more rapidly, the perfect bliss which cannot be had on earth. And as a spirit, he knows that only through spiritual efforts can the knowledge of the spirit penetrate his intellect. But as a spirit, he also knows that this cannot easily be achieved and that he will encounter difficulties, tests, and that he will have to bear suffering to lead him eventually to the right path and the right attitude. The memory of spirit disappears automatically when matter (of body) embraces the spirit. This constitutes the essential factor because the knowledge of spirit has to be obtained, and as said before, it can only be accomplished when man makes the effort to search within himself, not only searching for God and the truths of creation on the outside, but only from within can he recognize the very special meaning and purpose of his own life and the specific tasks he has to fulfill. However, he who is too overwhelmingly impressed by the assets of the world loses the deeper meaning of life and sometimes lives through one incarnation after the other without making progress, always for the same purpose, having to walk through earth life time after time again. The spirit knows that these are the dangers of earth life. But he also knows that, when, from a spiritual viewpoint, he lives the right human life, he can unfold spiritually in a relatively shorter period of time than it would be possible in the spirit world because of the absence of major frictions there.

Thus, my dear ones, it is important for you to recognize that much of your repetitious events in life have been chosen and fixated by your spirit before incarnation when you still had the foresight, before matter encompassed the spirit. It will be a help for you to know this. Sometimes a spirit assiduously striving for progress chooses a particularly trying destiny, even fervently asking for it, knowing – while free of material density – that this sorrow is little and will not last long compared to the gains he will derive from it. This should be food for thought for all of you. I suggest that every one of you, my dear friends, think about your life, the trials and tribulations you experienced, contemplating whether this or that might not have been chosen before incarnation, also, in case you find something within you – or not yet – which should be fulfilled. Contemplate, from this viewpoint, what you should still find and solve within you. If you search with utmost intensity, you will receive the answer.

…thus a human being and a spirit builds exactly the world in which he lives. He builds a home in the spirit world congruent to the earth life, and he also builds his future earth life. All deeds, thoughts, and feelings are forms of which then the spirit home consists (although not permanently) and from which, in turn, the fated events in a future earth life will be deduced. It is not only in congruity with that which is consequentially derived from his own attitudes and opinions, but also includes their resulting effects. Thus these form ‘structures’ represent exactly what the one concerned needs for his future development. Meditate over this sentence! Much is conveyed in it! It is again an example how the equation must be equalized, how tribulations are self-induced but serve as a healing agent. In this, you can fathom the vast greatness of God's wisdom and the magnificence of His laws. If you understand this, you will realize that destiny and free will are not two factors excluding each other, but are interwoven and interconnected. And you will also recognize that the ‘fated events’ in your life are already spirit forms which manifest then in a concrete way… For all this, my dear ones, you need will power… If a human being is born with the will power, he has produced it somehow in the past so that he brings along this treasure, if I may say so, now as a helping factor. If it has not been built in the past, then it should be acquired in this present life. The same holds true for all other assets, be it love capacity, tolerance, kindliness, or whatever else.

QUESTION: If, for instance, a spirit asks for a heavy lot during his earth life in order to make quicker progress and then, when on earth, resents his heavy burden and does not fulfill his lot, what is the sense asking for a heavy burden when there is a possibility – since the memory of such intent is lost at the moment of earth entry – to carry the lot in vain? ANSWER: First of all, there can be just as much rebellion when the lot is not so heavy, when a being does not volunteer to take more in order to grow higher, but the quantity of heaviness is distributed over several earth lives. You will observe quite a number of human beings who are less rebellious when carrying a heavy burden than others who just have a little pack to carry. Of course, it is possible with every life that it will not be fulfilled, whether or not a heavy burden was chosen in eagerness. There is always the possibility of a standstill. But sometimes a burdened life does pay off, not completely, but for more rapid evolution. Of course, ‘paying off’ comprises evolution, but only if a being, even if not yet so far advanced, carries the burden in the right manner. Then much is paid off, and therefore a spirit frequently selects such a heavy burden in order to pay off as much as possible, ‘get done with it,’ if I may say so. Furthermore, not every spirit will be granted such a burdened life which he, too eagerly, chooses. The high spirits of God's world who are working in this field are able to judge whether a spirit has sufficient strength to stand this or that trial. And if this seems not the case, such spirit will be advised not to choose too heavy a burden. Sometimes it will be even rejected to choose such lot. These high forces can exactly recognize what a spirit is capable of or not even if that spirit cannot always see it. A certain percentage of possibility must be recognizable that, if it is willed, the destiny can be fulfilled. If the margin of possibility is too narrow, it will not be granted.