The Benefit of Physical Incarnation
Many times when speaking to people, i have found that they are almost completely unaware of what a blessing their physical life actually is, regardless of the amount of hardship they may face. From this i gained the idea to write a blog about that, to point out some of the benefits that folks might begin taking full advantage of them.
Often it is said that life is a blessing, and people may repeat that over and over, but never really gain any degree of understanding as to the reality and full meaning of that statement, the freedoms that living humans possess, that the more subtle forms of those who have already translated may not necessarily have access to.
In the first place, there is the fact that Soul, the Eternal and True Self, wears many lesser forms in these lower planes. In ECKANKAR we name 5, but in reality there can often be thousands, and in some ways, far more. In descending order each of us has Soul, a Mental form (the Etheric, or intuitive form is the same form as the Mental body), the Causal form, which is the lowest level of the Mental and corresponds with memory, then the Astral body and finally the Physical.
Depending on what one has done, experienced, studied, or developed through in a Physical incarnation, once the Physical life comes to an end, that individual can often become very limited by comparison to any average living human, because if they have not developed and expanded their state of consciousness at all, they will exit the Physical body and be thereby limited to the Astral form, which can really only travel through time and space within its own area or plane, but having said that, there is a bit of room to descend to a degree back to the Physical plane, just not to the degree they possessed formerly, and only being able to be seen or heard by those with a generally greater degree of awareness, a psychic awareness.
The same conditions apply to the other inner bodies, the Causal is only able to operate within its own frame of reference and/or vibration, that being the Causal plane, and while it can go lower to an extent, conditions for the beings on the Astral plane appear very very much as they do here on earth, trying to look within, it isn't always so easy for every individual to be aware of the finer realm of being. And again there are those there who have a more expanded state of being that would also be considered psychic when compared to the masses of that plane.
Like wise the Mental body is limited in the same way, and is equally limited from moving any higher, which is to say, into the Etheric plane, that of direct intuition, without having a teacher who is able to give them the experience needed to develop that area of their awareness.
So, knowing the usual limitations of the inner forms, we now come to the explanation of how the Physical form is able to give one any greater degree of freedom, and make no mistake, it certainly requires a bit of work.
In the Physical form one has the option of investigating and studying the various spiritual paths and religions that have come into being over the centuries, and while these seem to be greatly varied, and indeed are to one extent or another, but of course the source of them all is one and the same. Where each has gone or developed after the founding can in some cases cause a degree of limitation to come into being, but the Spiritual Current does always exist, so it becomes a matter of one investigating until they find one that works for them, and this is a more recent development as in the past, in many cultures and time periods, religious or spiritual freedom was not necessarily given or guaranteed for all.
When one begins their way on a path that has a strong and direct way of inner experience and guidance, the stages of awareness can be explored and developed, and this of course, is what enables one to expand. This ability is perhaps the greatest and most important factor that exists, because when developing it, one can expand themselves in such a way, that their state of consciousness continually climbs through the differing levels and planes, using them as a sort of ladder.
Along with this comes the re-balancing of the karmic state, in most cases beginning with a speed up of the burn off rate of the karma, and this can seem to be very harsh, depending on the karma in need of working through, however, if time and effort are spent in achieving it, this is found to be well worth the effort required. In this way a living human has an opportunity that not all spirits within have available, that of course depending on the choices that individual makes.
The absolute surest way is to take tutelage under a bona fide Living Master who is able to work with the student inwardly, and also take their karmic state and arrange it into a workable pattern so as to burn it off completely, thereby ensuring an expansion of consciousness. A true Master will act as a channel for the Spiritual Force that descends from the Godhead ITSELF, in ECKANKAR we know this as the Voice of God, the Audible Life Stream. IT descends all the way to the outer edge of the lowest vibratory realm before returning back to ITS point of origin, and it is this returning "wave" that Soul can catch and ride back to Its point of origin.
A great many of the folks wandering about the earth have absolutely no clue of this, and for that reason have not discovered the way of returning home, but this same way has been discovered by every Saint that has ever lived, regardless of time, or location or culture. So the benefits of having a physical incarnation can become very apparent, as compared to one that didn't become aware of this, and didn't ever discover the way of traversing this road. One such as that, upon death, will "ascend" from the dead Physical form in their Astral body, but as i stated before, be a bit trapped or limited in the areas they are able to roam. Of course it is worth mentioning, that these Souls are not necessarily cut off from the instruction and learning, but they are at a bit of a disadvantage for having not discovered it while living on the Physical plane, and will often have no choice but to earn the right by their inward learning, to be again re-born into the Physical life so as to discover the way home while living in the Physical.
The Physical has definite attributes associated with it that are beneficial to a much quicker rise through the planes than is usually possible if the journey is begun on the inner. For this reason, many times the Souls that die, leave the Physical incarnation and immediately see what they couldn't just moments before, and often they scream, cry and protest because they had forgotten that they even could go to earth and make fast progress.
Other benefits that one may include in this are not only the aforementioned burn off of karma, but also going through the various emotional states and problems that some may have, as well as a whole host of issues in the varying areas of the mental states and the things to be found within the sub-conscious mind, until one lets go the chains that had previously held them tight to various problems and unpleasantries, until they reach true Self-Realization, become a Saint or Sant, upon which the real adventure and terms of service truly begin. At this stage one has a degree of freedom that could hardly have been conceived of before, they become literally a Law unto themselves, as well as a true student, and servant, of all life.
One factor that often goes unmentioned is the fact that the Physical self, literally makes the choices. The import of this statement cannot be stressed enough, for while we go through life with varying emotional and mental states that at times can drive us to decisions, thoughts, words and actions that can be extreme and unwarranted, our inner selves on the various planes must abide by them, and often, in the case of less positive decisions, those inner selves can become quite angered with the Physical human self, to the point where the Astral self will come along and swat the Physical self for having made such a rash and unwise decision. And it never fails when this is the case, that the human self becomes aware of just how bad of a mistake it was, as the payment for it comes due.
— Matt Sharpe
Good blog …
I found the last paragraph intriguing. Brings to mind the statement, "I gave myself a swift kick in the a – -!"
I was wondering if you could clarify:
And it never fails when this is the case, that the human self becomes aware of just how bad of a mistake it was, as the payment for it comes due.
Are you speaking of a type of self retribution or something that is external or karmic?
States of Awareness Vary
so often the human self isnt the quickest on the uptake, and will make a choice that it will later come to regret, not the sort of thing that is unheard of, but, the thing that is less often heard of is the Astral self being so angry over being relatively forced into a karmic state that it comes along to express its opinion to the human self, and this is largely due to an individual not having awareness on both levels….not being "awake" as it were, not being aware that they have other aspects of consciousness at varying inner levels that can even do such a thing, much less understanding how or why they would, or that when this happens, it is actually their fault….generally though, what i'm speaking of IS karma, and is outer, or seperate from self, but that in and of itself can cause the inner self to try to give a swift kick to the human self lol, so when that happens its a matter of whether or not that person has any interest in, and any inner development of, the consciousness and/or spirituality…