Spiritual Metaphors

I find metaphors and their kind helpful to me when I’m pondering some spiritual [or other] point. A new perspective can allow me to see it from a completely different angle; the more angles, the greater the understanding, and the wiser the choices made and conclusions drawn…hopefully.
Fortunately, it has been my experience that this method works best, whether I’m trying to teach myself or others.
For example:
I find seeing Life as a book useful.
I am the Author. I wrote it, more or less, before I arrived here on School-House Earth, during that time between this life and the last one, when I wrote a completely different Life/Book that had many of the same players/souls, but as different characters with different parts to portray. The current life/book is always in a Final-Draft stage as I enter the Earth Plane and begin to read and experience what is written for each day. And each day, I choose whether to turn another page and go on to the next.
I am also my own Editor. I can choose to proceed with what’s on the page just as it’s written, or change any part or all of it. [Isn’t “Free will” great? Practically every religion or philosophy of higher powers advocates or acknowledges it somewhere in their writings, as your right to do anything, as long as you are willing to accept the consequences of your actions.]
So, as Author and Editor, I can change it any way I want, or erase, or even rip out the pages. But….the characters in the book have free will, also.
A life/book is created to help us learn those lessons that we have yet to master, some of which we may have been working on for many lifetimes. We write in the book what we can, while in the “in-between” many call the Astral. We write parts for souls with whom we have spent other lives, they helping us learn certain lessons, us helping them. We wait for them to return to the Astral, make agreements with them about the upcoming life; where our paths will cross, and how, in that life, and so on.
And through these arrangements and agreements, we enter a life with plans of certain opportunities to present themselves, throughout the length of the life, to learn those lessons that we came here to learn. You can’t learn your lessons if you don’t have the opportunities to practice, right? [A few of these lessons might be for Love, Compassion, Understanding, Acceptance, Universal Oneness, and many others.]
But, just as we can change our minds, so too, can all the others with whom you made arrangements, change theirs. Free will, remember?
Not to worry. The Universe [God] will provide, he just doesn’t say when. Sometimes, a soul with whom you have not reincarnated before, will have a similar Karmic configuration and be guided to cross your path in the same way you had needed of the other…and you're back on path.
Other times, you’re just going to have to wait until you’re back on the Astral again, and make new arrangements for the next life. You never run out of those and the Universe has unlimited time.
During daily life most of this is happening on an unconscious level, but we can become more conscious of it by learning to pay attention to what is going on around us at a deeper level. Just seeking to find the positive and loving in your experiences is a good start. Learning to ignore the negativity that you see will open up avenues to the positive. And simple meditation is very powerful. Join a group in your area and learn how. It’s easy and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how many things in your life begin to get better as you maintain daily practice.
Not enough books tell you this about meditation, so I want to make sure you hear it from me: The time that you spend in meditation is the time your body, mind, and spirit realign and retune themselves to the pulse, the heartbeat, of the Universe.
Consistent practice is most powerful. Fifteen minutes every day is much more useful than a one hour meditation every four days.
So, there you have my “Life is a Book” metaphor. I’ll be adding more, I’m sure.
I appreciate e-mail from any of you, commenting on what I’m writing.
If you would just like to hear one more person give their thoughts on any self-help area that is dear to you, ask away. The questions that get asked the most, get answered.
Love and Peace,
Jerry