Aging & The Meaning of Life

On the occasion of my 70^th birthday today, April 2, my Higher Self (HS) insisted on dialoguing with my Lower Self (LS).   Here is a transcript of the discussion we had.  

HS:  Tell me, Michael, what are feelings about reaching the biblical three score and 10 in earthly years? 

LS:  You know, HS, I don't feel like I once thought 70 would feel.  When my grandfathers and father were 70, I thought they were old men and pretty decrepit.  But I don't feel that way.  If it were not for mirrors and a few aches and pains in the joints, I'd still think I was around 40.

HS:  Michael, You were 35 pound lighter back then and fancied yourself a lean, mean running machine.  As your wife often told you, you bordered on looking like a prisoner of war then.  But now you lean more toward looking like a blimp.   

LS:  You're right there, HS. I can't even run a quarter mile now at the pace I used to run a marathon.   What I meant to say is that I feel in as good condition as the average 40 year-old sedentary person. I can still out-walk most people and I can bench press around 200 pounds.  Moreover, I still have most of my hair with no significant gray in it.  

HS:  You're sounding like a vainglorious idiot, Michael. Have I failed you?  Do you think I care about your physical capabilities or attributes?  My inquiry has to do with your spiritual health.  In fact, years are nothing.  Only those who fear death are conscious of age.  Given what we have taught you, you should be enjoying life more than those who have youth on their side.   When you think of years, you stultify the forces of renewal. The art of living young involves using one's soul and will-power to guide the process of spiritual evolution towards the ends we desire, instead of leaving it to blind chance.

LS: Sorry, HS, I still have a little trouble with the ego, but not nearly as much as I once did.  I have to keep reminding myself that I am not my physical shell.  I'll flog myself tonight if that's what it takes.

HS:  You realize that you might have to come back and do it all over again if you don't master it this time around, don't you?    

LS:  God forbid, I don't want to come back again.  I really want this to be the last time.

HS:  Then get with it, Lad. I've taught you the Divine Plan and the meaning of life by reducing it to 12 simple words so that your limited intellect can remember them and properly focus on them.  Humor me by reciting them.

LS:  Certainly, HS.   Life is about seeking, searching, studying, striving, striding, struggling, sacrificing, suffering, serving, surrendering, solving and then soaring.      

HS:  Very good.  I know you've pretty much mastered the first nine. It's the surrendering you've got to get down pat if you don't want to come back.  You must surrender the ego before you can fully solve and then soar.  Call it the immolation of self.  Let that sink in.

LS:  I know, I know.  I'll keep working on it. But, HS, there does seem to be some redundancy in those 12 Spiritual S's.  For example, seeking, searching, studying, and striving.  Can you explain the difference?

HS: Some overlap yes, but not necessarily redundancy. Seeking is the first step.   It is the desire to know higher truths. Most intelligent people want to know and many take the next step in searching.  But few carry their search far enough, often sidetracked by the follies of ambition, wealth, and fame.  Some go further in their search but are satisfied by simple explanations, such as those offered my mainstream science or orthodox religion.  They stop there, content in their ignorance, They do not seriously study alternative theories or teachings.  Studying includes close examination and discernment.   Striving means not being satisfied with the results of the seeking, searching, and studying, but pushing on and continuing to discover the truths behind the truths you have examined and discerned.

LS:  I understand.  How about striding, struggling, sacrificing, and suffering?

HS:  In effect, striding means carrying on with your mundane earthly life effectively as possible while you continue striving.  Struggling means facing up to all the challenges you will encounter in balancing the demands of the material world while remaining focused on the spiritual.  Sacrificing means exercising discipline and foregoing certain material pleasures that conflict with spiritual progress.  Suffering means enduring and bearing the burden of the struggling and sacrificing.

LS:  Got it.  I know that serving is the most important and encompasses loving our fellow man and the virtue of charity.  You don't have to explain surrendering to me again. And, of course, solving means tying them all together in a meaningful way so that when we leave the illusion of earthly life we will find ourselves soaring or moving on to the next level in one's spiritual evolution.

HS:   Good for you, Michael.  Remember, too, that there is no such thing as time in the real life, only eternity.  The soul is always young.   Contrary to popular materialistic philosophy, one should not live for today.  It is that very attitude that has brought about the chaos, the despair, the hopelessness, the morass of social ills, and the fetters of the human spirit that plague your world today.

LS:  Help me here, HS.  If we don't live for today, we are not living in the present, and it is a mistake to live in the past or in the future.  How do we overcome the idea of living in the past, present, or future?

HS:  You already know the answer.  You must live in eternity.  When you do that, the past, present, and future all meld into one. And, as you also know, the key to living in eternity is in recognizing that your earthly life is but a small fragment of your real life. First and foremost, you must know death. That means having a sense of immortality, a firm belief that your earthly life is part of a much larger and eternal life. Most people, even those who profess to be religious, don't grasp this.  They repress the idea of physical death. They view it as extinction rather than as a graduation.  The churches have failed badly.  Science, in all its arrogance, has compounded the failures of religion.

LS:  I understand, HS, but all this writing and talking about death and dying has many of my friends thinking I'm ready for the lunatic asylum. I often think I should retreat and go back to studying, writing and talking about more mundane things.

HS:  You can't do that, Michael.  You well know that an empty brain and a full stomach make the sum total of a contented life for the people you are referring to.  They run after the shadow and forsake the light.  They are unconscious and in a stupor, and, unfortunately, most of them remain that way after their physical deaths. You cross over as you are when you leave the earth plane. But there are some who have not completely closed their minds to truth.  Seeds can be planted that will later root and sprout and permit them to overcome the stupor.  Those are the souls you can assist.  You can never detach yourself from your own enveloping aura, neither in body nor in soul.  Christ taught this when He said:  "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."  Surely you understand by now that you are just one of many light workers we have trained for this mission.  As many as there are, however, there are not enough.  The negative forces have significantly stifled our recruiting efforts and are currently winning the war, if you want to call it that, but they will not prevail.  Remember the "sacrifice" part of the Divine Plan.  If your sacrifice is merely having people question your sanity now and then, you're getting off easily. Some have been burned at the stake for their beliefs.   

LS: But I don't have a very big audience. Why waste your recruiting and training efforts on me?  There must be somebody big out there who can reach the masses. 

HS:  The seeds are being planted slowly.  It will take time, as you know it in your realm,   for the seeds to root and sprout into a bountiful harvest.  Each recruit must do his or her share for the fields to yield and multiply.  

LS:  How do I know I am not deceiving myself in believing what you are telling me?   After all, the evangelic preachers think they are God's emissaries on earth and have been entrusted with Truth. 

HS:  Truth is relative and subjective, Michael.  There are lower truths and higher truths.  Often a non-truth leads to a truth.  If those who respond to the teachings of the evangelicals find it satisfying, they are not ready for the higher truths.  They must be content with those lower truths.   

LS:  But, HS, if I get to believing that I am privy to higher truths, am I not then again faced with an ego problem?   If I really think I am privileged in that respect, I might end up with an inflated ego. How can I reconcile such a belief with the need to surrender the ego?

HS:  As you have observed before, doubt is the instrument that forges the human spirit.  It is good that you doubt, because doubt checks the ego.  The problem with the evangelicals is that they don't doubt.  They are sure they know.  That's also the problem with the scientific reductionists. You will have to trust me when I tell you that a positive light surrounds you. 

LS:  But, HS, as you know, I've been homesick for some time now and am anxious to get back over there.  I realize, however, I have some obligations remaining here and so the anxiety is quelled a bit in that respect.

HS:  True, and we need you there a while longer.  

LS:  When I am ready to graduate, I'd like to go quickly.  I don't relish the idea of a slow physical death. Can you assist me in that regard?

HS:  I probably can, but you have to understand that a slow death is simply an expiation.  If you don't undertake it on your side of the veil, you might have to face it when you get over here. So what's your preference?

LS:  That's a tough one, HS.  Let God's will be done then, I guess.   

HS:  Now you're talking.