The point of viewEverybody must have observed how things change depending on the their point of view. Not only the appearance changes but also the importance. When we position ourselves at the center of anything, if a small thing, it will appear large. If we position ourselves outside it will then be very different. When an object is seen from the top of a mountain it seems to be insignificant but when observed from down below it seems huge.
That is an optical illusion that also applies to moral things. A whole day of suffering will seem like an entire eternity but as the end approaches one becomes surprised for having suffered so much for so little. The disorders of infancy also have their relative importance. To the child they are as bitter as those of maturity. Why would they seem so futile then? Because we are no longer in the infancy while the child is totally immersed in that phase and cannot see beyond that limited circle of activity. The child sees the suffering from within that circle. We see that from outside.
Let us suppose someone observing us in a similar condition as we are with respect to the child. That person will judge things from a similar standpoint and will find our concerns foolish. Another driver insults a driver. They argue and fight. If a driver insulted a Grand-Lord he would not feel offended and would not fight. Why? Because he positions himself outside of that sphere. Consider himself so much superior that such an offense cannot reach him; however, if he sinks to the level of the offender, if gets into the same mindset he will then get back and fight.
Spiritism shows us a much more important application of that principle with respect to its consequences. It shows us the worldly life for what it is worth, placing us at the stand point of a future life; Spiritism transports us mentally to that position through the material proofs that are offered to us, by the clear, logical and accurate intuition that it gives us and by the examples that we are given; we see and understand life; it is no longer a vague idea, uncertain and problematic, that we learned about the future and that involuntarily gave us doubts; it becomes an acquired certainty and a reality to the Spiritist.
Spiritism does even more: it shows us the life of the soul, the essential being, the thinking being, going back to an unknown era and moving indefinitely forward to the future in such a way that the earthly life, even if it last a whole century, is nothing more than a dot in that lengthy path. If the whole life is so little when compared to the life of the soul what then should we think about the incidents of life?
Nevertheless, when a person is located at the center of this earthly life she becomes so concerned as if this life would last forever; everything acquires colossal proportions; feels to be hurt by a mountain when hit by a little pebble; a deception is reason for desperation; an upset is reason for abating; a single word is reason enough to become furious.
Her vision is limited to the present and on what can be immediately touched, thus exaggerating the importance of the minimal incidents; a failed business transaction is reason enough to lose appetite; an issue of precedence sounds like affairs of state; an injustice is reason enough to make her mad.
The target of every endeavor is triumph but what is triumph to the majority? Is it the establishment of a tranquil life through honest means if there aren’t other means of living? Is it the noble undertaking of acquiring talent and developing intelligence? Is it the desire to leave behind an honorable name and carry out useful tasks to humanity? No. Triumph is to surpass the neighbor, to overshadow and keep her away or even overturn her to take her place; and it is for that beautiful triumph that death may not allow you to enjoy for twenty four hours after so much trouble!
How much distress! The amount of which is so often wasted talent that could have been better employed! Then, how much rage and how many sleepless hours if not successful! The fever generated by the success of a rival! Then comes self-blame and the finger pointing to one’s bad luck and fatal destiny when bad luck is frequently lack of skills and incapacity.
We can say that people take the task of making their few moments spent of Earth as miserable as possible. These moments that cannot be controlled since one can never be sure about the following day. Ah! How much all these things change in the view of those who leave the narrow vale of this earthly life, and their minds ascend through the radiant, splendorous and incommensurable life of beyond the grave! It is then that people regret so much the voluntary misery created by themselves! They see the petty and futile ambitions, the jealousy and susceptibilities and the useless satisfactions of pride! It is like the observation of childhood games at a mature age, like the one that observes people in the vale from the top of a mountain.
From that standpoint will the observer voluntarily become a toy in the hands of an illusion? No. Such a person is experiencing the reality while for her an illusion is the perception of those who see things from an earthly standpoint.
In fact nobody on Earth gives more importance to something that will last a day only when compared to something else which would last a long time; nobody prefers a momentarily happiness to a long lasting one. People do not give much importance to a transitory distress when in fact the continual normal life is what really matters.
If we now elevate our thoughts so that we can foresee the life of the soul we will forcibly see, as a consequence, that our earthly life is a passing station; that the spiritual life is the real one for it is indefinite; that is an illusion to take the part for the whole that is the transient life of the body for the eternal life.
A person that sees things exclusively from a terrestrial point of view is like the one who cannot assess the importance and the form of a construction just by looking from the inside the house. The judgment is based on false appearances because its entirety cannot be seen whereas someone that observes from the outside sees the whole and that is the one that can assess correctly.
It may be argued that in order to see things that way it is necessary to have an uncommon intelligence, a philosophical spirit that is not found in the crowds, thus it would necessarily lead to the conclusion that apart from rare exceptions humanity would be doomed to drag its feet on the dust.
That is a mistake. Nobody needs exceptional intelligence to have a close connection with a future life nor does one need to make huge efforts of imagination since each person carries the intuition and the desire for that life. However, the way such a life is generally presented is not very inviting since it offers the flame of hell as the alternative or even the eternal contemplation. Both lead people to choose the void; hence the absolute incredulity of some and the skepticism of a larger number.
What was missing up until now was an irrefutable proof of a future life, a proof given by Spiritism and no more by a vague theory but by positive facts. Spiritism goes further by showing such a life in a way that can be accepted by the strictest logic since it explains and justifies everything and resolves all the open issues. Since it is clear and logical everyone can reach it; that is why Spiritism brings back so many people who have been away, turning them into believers again.
Every day Spiritism demonstrates how many simple workers, peasants and uneducated people understand this train of thought effortlessly. The more they find an immense consolation and the only possible compensation to their laborious and painful life the more they feel assured by this new point of view.
If such a way of seeing worldly things became generic wouldn’t it consequently destroy the ambition that stimulates great undertakings, that creates more useful work and even the work of the genius? If the whole humanity only dreamed of a future life wouldn’t everything perish in this world? What do the monks do in their monasteries other than think of heavenly things? What would happen to Earth if everybody became monks?
Such a state of affairs would be catastrophic and the inconveniences greater that one can suppose since people would be lost on Earth and conquer nothing in heavens; however the result of the principle that we have just explained is completely different if not partially understood as explained below.
The corporeal life is necessary to the spirit, or soul which is the same thing, so that it may accomplish in this material world the functions designated by the Providence: it is one of the engines of the universal harmony. The activities unsuspectingly carried out by the spirit who believe to be self-driven help in the development of the intelligence and facilitates its advancement. Since the spirit’s happiness in the spiritual world is proportional to its advancement and to the good deeds that were done when incarnate it then follows that the more a person sees the importance of the spiritual life the more that person feels the need to do whatever may be necessary to guarantee the best possible place in that future life.
The experience of those who have already lived demonstrates to us that a useless earthly life or a badly employed life does no good to the future and those who only seek the satisfaction of their material needs here pay a high price for that be it through their suffering in the spiritual world or be it by the obligation that they feel to restart their tasks in more difficult conditions than those of the past; such is the case of many who suffer on Earth.
Hence, when considering the things of this world but from an extracorporeal point of view, far from being stimulated to carelessness and idleness, people understand better the need for work. From an earthly standpoint such a need is an injustice to them when compared to those who can live and do nothing; people then envy them and feel jealous. From a spiritual point of view such a need makes sense and has its utility and it is then accepted without complaints since people understand that without work one would remain indefinitely inferior and hindered from the aspired supreme happiness which could not be reached but through an intellectual and moral development.
From that point of view it seems that many monks do not understand well the objective of the earthly life and even less the conditions of a future life. In their rigorous isolation they curtail the means of becoming useful to their fellow human beings and many of those who are in the spiritual world today have confessed to us to be completely mistaken and that they now suffer the consequences of their error.
Such a point of view has another huge and immense importance to humanity: it turns the miseries of life more endurable. It is very natural and nobody is prohibited from seeking their well being and to spend their time on Earth in the best possible way. However, knowing that one is only momentarily here and that a better future awaits, one does not give so much importance to the deceptions that are experienced and seen things from above one then sees the difficulties in a more favorable way; remains indifferent to traps that may be found on the way created by jealous and envious people; diminishes the ambition to its fair value and remains above the little susceptibilities of self-love.
People are then free from concerns created by others who are limited to their restrictive spheres, and see the grandiose perspective that unfolds ahead, and contrary to others, feel freer to dedicate to a work that is beneficial to all. The embarrassments, the diatribes, and the wrong doing of the enemies are nothing more than imperceptible clouds in the immense horizon. One then no longer worries about these things more than one would with the flies that hum on the ear for one knows that soon one will be free from all that; in the same way, every misery that runs their way becomes like the water rolling on the granite.
From the stand point of an earthly life the same person would perhaps get irritated and seek vengeance. From an extraterrestrial point of view those things are negligible as the little splash of mud onto an unconcerned walker. They are like thorns thrown on the path and that one does not even care for removing to avoid delays to achieve a more serious and pre-established objective.
Far from having hard feelings towards the enemies one is thankful for the opportunities given in order to exercise patience and moderation, thus benefiting one’s own future advancement whereas the fruits would be lost if one would lower to the level of revenge. One is then sorry for others having caused so many useless difficulties and tells oneself that they are the ones stepping on thorns for their concern in doing harm. That is the difference between the points of view from which life is seen: one gives you concerns and anxieties; the other calmness and serenity. To the Spiritists who face deceptions, leave Earth for a moment in your thoughts; ascend to the high regions of infinity and look at them from above and you will see what they really are.
Sometimes you hear this: “You who suffer look down below and not above and you will see people even more unfortunate”. That is true but many also say that other people’s ailments do not cure yours. The remedy is always in the comparison and it is only there for those who have difficulties to look to those better off and say: “Why do those have what I do not?”
On the contrary, once we stand on the point that we mentioned above that we will soon be forced to do, people would be well above those who they could possible envy because seen from there they would seem much too small.
We remember having watched about forty years ago, at the Odeon, a play entitled Ephemeral, whose author we do not remember, but although still very young that play left a strong impression on us. The act took place in the country of the ephemeral whose lives would last only twenty-four hours. In that twenty-four hour interval we saw them growing from childhood to adolescence, from youth to maturity, from maturity to elderly age, decrepitude and death. During that span of time they covered all situations of life: baptism, marriage, public and private businesses, etc. but since time was short it was necessary to hurry up. Everything happened prodigiously fast but that did not preclude them from gossiping around and suffering a lot to satisfy their ambitions and outperform one another.
As it can be seen that play had a profound philosophical content and the spectator who would involuntarily observe every stage of life unfolding before their eyes thought: How silly these people causing so much trouble to one another given the little time to live! What is left of their hourly ambition? Wouldn’t they do better if they lived in peace?
There you have a perfect picture of a human life seen from high above. The play, however did not outlive its heroes since it was not well understood. If the author is still alive, something that we do not know, he would be a Spiritist today.
A.K.
