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~Points to Ponder~

(From the book “More Philosophy of Silver Birch”)

Even those who are convinced of survival and spiritualism’s philosophy, which gives life new vistas and broadens horizons, can get depressed, despondent and downhearted. These “Points to Ponder” are taken at random from Silver Birch’s teachings. Their purpose is to uplift and encourage.

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Do not worry about the morrow, today is all that matters. Discharge to the best of your ability the duties you are called on to perform. Do your best, that is all we ask of you. You are human. If you were not weak you could not know what is strength.

Truth is simple yet paradoxical. In darkness you find light, in sorrow you find joy, in crisis you learn to find peace. Hold your heads high. There is nothing that can obstruct what it is you have to do unless you choose to turn aside from the path that lies in front of you.

The signposts are provided to point the way. When mists obscure them, pause. Because they are mists they will roll away and destiny will show the path to be followed. The sun shines even when clouds obscure it.

You may do all the things that men regard as religious, but unless they inspire you to lead better lives, unless they enable the spirit within you to find greater expression, then you are not religious as we see it.

These things I teach because of what I have seen. So I rest my confidence in the Great Spirit and its infinite power. This cannot fail. We, with our defects, weaknesses and blemishes can fail, but failure is also a means of learning the lesson of how to succeed.

Life is not a monotone, neither is it inertia. Nature abhors a vacuum. Life is motion, radiation, vibration. There must always be movement, mostly forward, occasionally backward. The worst thing is to stand still.

You will have reverses, but they will enable you to appreciate the greater victories as they come. Learn to withdraw from the clangour and strident noises produced by your world’s cacophony. Learn to allow inner peace to flood the whole of your being.

If you knock on the door and it does not open, do not push. If you push the door gently and it opens, that is for you. You cannot go through a closed door. Too many people in your world waste time and effort banging at closed doors.

The soul is most active in peace, stillness, quietude, receptivity, attunement. Often you achieve far more spiritual activity when asleep than when awake. This is when strength and guidance come to you.

Our function is to show the way that leads to spiritual mastery, to the full flowering of the gifts with which you have been divinely endowed, so that those who are brought to you can be helped to find themselves and to know, as you do, the purpose of being and how to order their existence so that they derive from it the beauty and richness which should be theirs.

All is going well. There is no need for depression or despair. We are on the winning, not the losing, side. The forces of reaction are in disarray. They cannot out-manoeuvre infinite wisdom when it seeks to make its mark on receptive souls.

The tough jobs are for the tough people. It is no good giving them easy tasks. It is an index of attainment that the harder missions are assigned to those competent to perform them. The generals in the great war against ignorance and superstition must have been tried in the battlefield before, otherwise they will be incapable of exercising generalship. So, paradoxically as it may seem, the tougher the task means the greater the achievement that has made it possible.

You will have problems. That is why you are on earth, to overcome them and in doing so finding new strength, greater developments. Welcome every problem as a challenge to be met, and to be beaten every time.

The Great Spirit has so ordained life in your world that you will find strength when you think you have reached the limits of weakness. It is when people seem at the end of their tether, and that no-where can they find in the material world anything to help them, that they are ready to be illumined by the truths of the spirit.

You cannot escape the problems of earthly life. They are inevitable, the stepping-stones you must encounter. But as you weather the storm so you are spiritually stronger as a result and helping to shape your character into a higher mould. It is the difficulty that enables you to achieve spiritual strength and growth, so do not be afraid of it. Just regard it as a challenge to be met and to be conquered with the power that you have within and the power that you can call on from without.

The great thing when you have this knowledge is never allow shadows in earthly life to appear so strong that you are engulfed in darkness. They are only shadows; they are not reality. The reality is the spirit. The spirit is the divine within you. The spirit is what gives you life. The spirit is the most potent force that you have within you and within your reach as well.

I know you are all human and so must fall by the wayside. But if only you could pause and remember as the shadows come closer that they cannot obscure the real light which is the light of the spirit, then you can be radiant, unmoved and strong in your complete confidence that you must come through. It is a hard lesson to learn.

If it were easy it would not be worth while. You cannot have it both ways. If you want mastery you have to discipline yourself. And if it were too easy you would not fulfil yourself. Daily life in your world is a challenge to be accepted and, whatever its nature, to triumph over. If you allow the spirit to express itself then nothing can stand in the way.

It sounds easy, but it happens to be true as well. I do not make the laws. I can only tell you how they operate. Each morn when you awake is the herald of a new day with possibilities for greater spiritual equipment. Greet it so that when the day ends you can feel you have helped your spiritual growth, that your stature has increased and that as a result you are better equipped for what the morrow will bring.

You must have the comparison, sunshine and storm, to appreciate the realities of your existence. After all, what is hate but love inverted and subverted from its true purpose? This is a matter of soul development.

It is in darkness that you find the light; it is in storm that you find peace; it is in sorrow that you find joy because life is a paradox and a polarity. You cannot appreciate health until you have suffered. You cannot appreciate sunshine until you have endured the rains. Suffering is the catalyst, the divine means by which a soul can come into its own and realize he or she is not only a body but an eternal spirit using it. That spirit is the divinity within, the spark which spiritual healing should kindle so that it can grow into a radiant flame. And that is the purpose behind all spiritual healing.

The universe is subject to evolution. It is an evolving universe. Perfection is not achieved anywhere. It is an infinite process. Every stage of purification, which eliminates dross, makes you realize there is still more dross to be eliminated. You are on an eternal path to perfection which you will never attain. Therefore there must be inequalities for the time being. There must be the rough edges, problems and difficulties, all caused by the law of evolution outworking itself.

If only the people of your world, especially those who have the knowledge of spiritual realities, could see beyond the senses of matter and realize what is round and about them, they would never worry.

Matter is an obstacle; matter is heavy, leaden, dull. Spirit is light, delicate, sensitive. You have to use five physical senses through which the divine spirit can express itself. It is like the violinist who has a poor instrument on which to play. He has within his soul the most inspired music, but the instrument is restricted and cannot convey it. Your bodies are dull clods of earth. Yet those are the only means through which the spirit can express itself.

There are times when, apart from your personal conditions, the atmosphere surrounding you, and the earth on which you live, are full of hatred and violence which does not make it easy for the spirit to penetrate. This mass of obstacles surrounding your world presents a very grim picture when we approach it.

Do not allow yourselves to be downcast no matter what the problems that come to you in your daily lives. We cannot promise a bed of roses, an easy path with all the stones removed. What we can promise is that if you fulfil yourselves spiritually you will be the better for it. As a result, you will have justified the reason for incarnating into the world of matter.

Keep radiant, optimistic and cheerful. Try never to allow yourself to be downcast. The best atmosphere in which we can work, help and guide is one in which there is no gloom, no despondency, no despair. All these blanket the aura and create obstacles that have to be surmounted.

Punishment and reward are both due to what you inflict on yourselves. You make your own punishment. You make your own reward. This is cause and effect, sowing and reaping. The sequence is immutable.

It is never a bed of roses for those who have to serve. Even the most beautiful roses have thorns. In the attainment of spiritual mastery the road to be travelled is a hard one. As you walk along it so gradually familiar landmarks have to be left behind.

If you have this knowledge and fail to live up to it, then you must pay the price because ignorance is not your excuse. Knowledge inevitably brings responsibility. More is expected of you when you have truth. And this is the great trust that is reposed in you.

At some stage in every individual’s earthly life there comes a moment when the soul is ready to receive. This is the opportunity the Great Spirit affords every one of His children. Sometimes it has to be achieved through sickness, bereavement or crisis. But this is the catalyst which enables the soul to unfold.

Look neither to the left, nor the right, nor backwards. It is a mistake to look backwards. The pages of the past are closed. They cannot be opened. It is today that matters. The future will result from what you do today.

I am part of God, indestructible, imperturbable. I face life and all that it brings to me from day to day, knowing that I have the power to overcome everything. That is why I am here - - to learn that lesson.

Every person in the world of matter is a soul in a body. Now that soul is at a certain stage of evolution. You cannot dismiss the past life, it must come into the picture. The body is the expression of the mind, which in its turn is the expression of the spirit. The body represents the stage that the spirit has attained. If that soul is not to be healed - - because the pain is an essential concomitant of the process of purification that the soul must pass through in order to be ready for its next stage, then the power that flows through you cannot touch it, and there is no healer who can touch it.

In each life certain ordeals or tests must be undergone, only through them could human will, intelligence and character be formed and progress made. But if these tests are foreseen, their purpose recognized, the weakness they were designed to eliminate strengthened, the ordeal would become unnecessary and could be avoided.

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*~Points to Ponder~*

~Points to Ponder~