|
|
Systematized
Study of the
Spiritist
Doctrine
Portuguese
Spanish |
|
Program IV:
Philosophical
Aspect
|
|
Year 2 - N° 74 -
September 21,
2008 |
|
|
THIAGO BERNARDES
thiago_imortal@yahoo.com.br
Curitiba, Paraná
(Brasil) |
Translation
FELIPE
DARELLA -
felipe.darella@gmail.com |
|
Choice of Trials
We present in this issue
the topic #74 from the
Systematized Study of
the Spiritist Doctrine,
that is being presented
weekly, according to the
programme elaborated by
the Brazilian Spiritist
Federation (FEB),
structured in 6 modules
and 147 topics.
If the reader uses this
program for a study
group, we suggest that
questions proposed be
discussed freely before
the reading of the text
that follows. If you
would like to study
alone, we ask you to try
to answer the questions
at first and only then
read the text that
follows. The answer key
can be found at the end
of the lesson.
Questions
1. If they can choose
something easier, why do
many Spirits opt for
hard trials?
2. Does the way of
appreciating earthly
life modify after our
disincarnating?
3. What leads a Spirit
to choose a corporeal
existence that is harder?
4. Are there examples of
similar options made by
incarnated ones?
5. What is it that
decides a spirit's
choice of the trials
which he determines to
undergo?
Text
A Spirit can choose a
very rough trial
1. Man, while upon the
earth, and subjected to
the influence of carnal
ideas, sees only the
painful aspect of the
trials he is called upon
to undergo and it
therefore appears to him
to be natural to choose
the trials that are
allied to material
enjoyments.
2. But when he has
returned to spirit-life,
he compares those gross
and fugitive enjoyments
with the unchangeable
felicity of which he
obtains occasional
glimpses, and judges
that such felicity will
be cheaply purchased by
a little temporary
suffering.
3. A spirit may
therefore, make choice
of the hardest trial,
and consequently of the
most painful existence,
in the hope of thereby
attaining more rapidly
to a happier state, just
as a sick man often
chooses the most
unpalatable medicine in
the hope of obtaining a
more rapid cure.
4. He who aspires to
immortalize his name by
the discovery of an
unknown country does not
seek a flowery road. He
takes the road which
will bring him most
surely to the aim he has
in view, and he is not
deterred from following
it even by the dangers
it may offer. On the
contrary, he braves
those dangers for the
sake of the glory he
will win if he
succeeds.
5. The doctrine of our
freedom in the choice of
our successive
existences and of the
trials which we have to
undergo ceases to appear
strange when we consider
that spirits. Being
freed from matter, judge
of things differently
from men. They perceive
the ends which these
trials are intended to
work out - ends far more
important for them than
the fugitive enjoyments
of earth.
The corporeal existence
is a mere copy of the
spirit life
6. After each existence,
they see the steps they
have already
accomplished, and
comprehend what they
still lack for the
attainment of the purity
which alone enable them
to reach the goal and
they willingly submit to
the vicissitudes of
corporeal life,
demanding of their own
accord to be allowed to
undergo those which will
aid them to advance most
rapidly.
7. There is, therefore
nothing surprising in a
spirit making choice of
a hard or painful life.
He knows that he cannot,
in his present state of
imperfection, enjoy the
perfect happiness to
which he aspires but he
obtains glimpses of that
happiness, and he seeks
to effect his own
Improvement, as the sole
means to its attainment.
8. Do we not, every day,
witness examples of a
similar choice? What is
the action of the man
who labors, without
cessation or repose, to
amass the property which
will enable him
eventually to live in
comfort, but the
discharge of a task
which he has voluntarily
assumed as the means of
insuring for himself a
more prosperous future?
The soldier who offers
himself for the
accomplishment of a
perilous mission, the
traveler who braves
dangers no less
formidable in the
Interest of science or
of his own fortune, are
examples of the
voluntary incurring of
hardships for the sake
of the honor or profit
that will result from
their successful
endurance.
9. What will not men
undergo for gain or for
glory? Is not every sort
of competitive
examination a trial to
which men voluntarily
submit in the hope of
obtaining advancement in
the career they have
chosen? He who would
gain a high position in
science, art, industry,
is obliged to pass
through all the lower
degrees which lead up to
it, and which constitute
so many trials.
10. Human life is thus
seen to be modeled on
spirit-life, presenting
the same vicissitudes on
a smaller scale. And as
in the earthly life we
often make choice of the
hardest conditions as
means to the attainment
of the highest ends, why
should not a
disincarnate spirit, who
sees farther than he saw
when incarnated in an
earthly body, and for
whom the bodily life is
only a fugitive incident,
make choice of a
laborious or painful
existence, if it may
lead him or towards an
eternal felicity?
The incarnated is like
the traveler at the foot
of the hill
11. Those who say that,
since spirits have the
power choosing their
existences, they will
demand to be princes and
millionaires are like
the purblind, which only
see what they touch. It
is with a spirit as with
a traveler, who, in the
depths of a valley
obscured by fog, sees
neither the length nor
the extremities of his
road. When he has
reached the top of the
hill, and the fog has
cleared away, his view
takes in both the road
along which he has come
and that by which he has
still to go. He sees the
point which he has to
reach, and the obstacles
he has to overcome in
reaching it, and he is
thus able to take his
measures for
successfully
accomplishing his
journey.
12. A spirit, while
incarnated, is like the
traveler at the foot of
the hill when freed from
terrestrial trammels, he
is like the traveler who
has reached the top of
the hill. The aim of the
traveler is to obtain
rest after fatigue the
aim of the spirit is to
attain to perfect
happiness after
tribulations and
trials.
13. Spirits say that, in
the state of erraticity,
they seek, study,
observe, in order to
make their choice wisely.
Have we not examples of
analogous action in
corporeal life? Do we
not often spend years in
deciding on me career
upon which, at length,
we freely fix our choice,
because we consider it
to be the one in which
we are most likely to
succeed?
14. If, after all, we
fail in the one we have
chosen, we seek out
another and each career
thus embraced by us
constitutes a phase, a
period, of our life. Is
not each day employed by
us in deciding what we
shall do on the morrow?
And what, for a spirit,
are his different
corporeal existences,
but so many phases,
periods, days, in
comparison with his
spirit life, which, as
we know, is his normal
life, the corporeal life
being only a
transitional passage?
And phases – let’s
understand it well –
transitional, brief,
because the spirit-life
is the normal life,
because, after all, we
are Spirits and not a
bunch of bones and
muscles.
Answer Key
1. If they can choose
something easier, why do
many Spirits opt for
hard trials?
A.: Man, while upon the
earth, and subjected to
the influence of carnal
ideas, sees only the
painful aspect of the
trials he is called upon
to undergo and it
therefore appears to him
to be natural to choose
the trials that are
allied to material
enjoyments. But when he
has returned to
spirit-life, he compares
those gross and fugitive
enjoyments with the
unchangeable felicity of
which he obtains
occasional glimpses, and
judges that such
felicity will be cheaply
purchased by a little
temporary suffering. A
spirit may therefore,
make choice of the
hardest trial, and
consequently of the most
painful existence, in
the hope of thereby
attaining more rapidly
to a happier state, just
as a sick man often
chooses the most
unpalatable medicine in
the hope of obtaining a
more rapid cure.
2. Does the way of
appreciating earthly
life modify after our
disincarnating?
A.: Yes. Being freed
from matter, judge of
things differently from
men. They perceive the
ends which these trials
are intended to work out
- ends far more
important for them than
the fugitive enjoyments
of earth.
3. What leads a Spirit
to choose a corporeal
existence that is
harder?
A.: After each existence,
they see the steps they
have already
accomplished, and
comprehend what they
still lack for the
attainment of the purity
which alone enable them
to reach the goal and
they willingly submit to
the vicissitudes of
corporeal life,
demanding of their own
accord to be allowed to
undergo those which will
aid them to advance most
rapidly.
4. Are there examples of
similar options made by
incarnated ones?
A.: Yes. Do we not,
every day, witness
examples of a similar
choice? What is the
action of the man who
labors, without
cessation or repose, to
amass the property which
will enable him
eventually to live in
comfort, but the
discharge of a task
which he has voluntarily
assumed as the means of
insuring for himself a
more prosperous future?
The soldier who offers
himself for the
accomplishment of a
perilous mission, the
traveler who braves
dangers no less
formidable in the
Interest of science or
of his own fortune, are
examples of the
voluntary incurring of
hardships for the sake
of the honor or profit
that will result from
their successful
endurance.
5. What is it that
decides a spirit's
choice of the trials
which he determines to
undergo?
A.: Yes. Spirits say
that, in the state of
erraticity, they seek,
study, observe, in order
to make their choice
wisely.
Bibliography:
The
Spirits’ Book, by Allan
Kardec, items 258, 259
and 266.
The
Messengers, by André
Luiz, psychographed by
Chico Xavier, pp. 41 –
71.
|
|
|
|
Back
to
previous page |
|
|
|
|
|
