LIFE AFTER DEATH

Following thoughts are gathered mostly from Pekka Ervast.

THEORIES
What would Masters say about life after death? - "Everybody's right; Materialists are right, Christians are right, Buddhists are right, Sceptics are right and Theosophists are right; everybody's right, because all these theories represent some aspect of the truth and they all fit into reality itself. Man is such a complex and remarkably composed creature, that there is both life and death in him, and also everlasting life. There is something that will be born again and something that will not. Therefore all theories are right, but right within the limits of their own; they are not right alone but all together. Alone they only solve small part of the riddle of man's everlasting life, but together they give more complex picture of this everlasting life.

SLEEP
Death has been compared to sleep, dream is a younger brother of death, it is said, and there is a clear analogy between sleep and death in perspective of death and our physical or bodily consciousness. When laying down to sleep at night, man as a conscious being vanishes out of the visible life - his consciousness is transferred to astral body while asleep - and waking up in the next morning he comes back here in the visible life, as if he was born again here, yet this rebirth is not complicated for he's still got the same body - he will soon become conscious to continue his life from yesterday. When a man dies he leaves the visible life but will be born again after some time. Reincarnation and going back to Spiritual World is same as change between daily work and rest at night. If a man could stay "awake" - conscious from one life to another - he would remember being in Spiritual World and what life after death was like.

SPIRIT, SOUL, AND BODY
St. Paul says man is spirit, soul and body. Spirit is the third one, practically unknown for most of us. It's not of this materiality but of higher source of life. When we keep in mind that man is threefold in nature, and all these aspects are independent in him, we understand we're spirits, souls and bodies at the same time. Life after death is life as a soul, life without visible body. But if it's not life as a spirit it cannot be eternal because only one is eternal and it is spirit. Life after death as a soul is temporal, it will vanish. When a physical body dies, man is wearing another body that is nowadays called an astral body. St. Paul calls it flesh, sarks; When he speaks of physical body he uses a word soma. In flesh dwell all our desires and feelings. Therefore we understand how St. Paul could speak of the physical body with respect, calling it the temple of the Holy Spirit. Sarks, this flesh, is evil spirit, tempter, devil at everyone's heels.
In death man departs from the temple of the Holy Spirit and is torn by his own flesh. We are not angels. In this body we may very well cover up many things - it takes awhile until we can turn it into such a dwelling place of demon that all might see it. On the contrary, when a physical body - the temple - suffers, it is great reconciliation, a blessing. After death man lives in sarks, he is what he is. Man is like possessed by his own thoughts, mental images and feelings. He cannot satisfy his lust.
Man is a soulful being, he thinks, he feels and he wills, and even though he does all this through his body, he himself is other than this body. When a man dies, there is no more thought, feeling or willing; no more soulful life left in the body. As long as we live in the body, we live as soulful being, souls. If something exists after death, it cannot be anything else but this soulfulness of ours, which has to be objective in its own way, because it's not same as universal life, which is formless, eternal and infinite. Ability to say "I" suggests that man is formal and limited being. If we have a body in afterlife, it is woven of "thoughts and feelings", thus much closer to consciousness than this physical body - so close that thought immediately affects it. If we have such an organism then, we must already have it as mediator between body and soul. Consciousness in itself would be unconscious and thus not existing unless it had a form in which and through which it would manifest. It is a metaphysical axiom that our thoughts, our beliefs, are thousand times stronger in that world than ever here.

"PHANTOM"
We have a spiritual-physical body, invisible "phantom" which grants us the form and keeps the sunbstance together - substance which is only burrowed form nature and same essence as for instance the mineral kingdom. All cells of the body are renewed from time to time, but the body remains the same. Man loses his body in death.
This phantom was originally created for support to his spirit and base for his soul. In consequence of the fall it has ended up in too close connection with the material substance and goes the way of natural destruction. This body and its karma must be carried til it's all accomplished, til immortal body has been born and formed out of that body. We don't have immortal body yet, we only have a body in which we can live in another world, until the second death in astral level. Without the force of phantom keeping together and giving form, man is threatened before long by "vanishing" into the infinity of the Spiritual World. This forces him to look for another incarnation on earth to strengthen the power of his ego and to experience a sense of a body. Christ Jesus spiritualized his body, his phantom, inside out; he conquered it form the grip of death to make it possible for all of us one day: that is the resurrection of the body on the last day.

LAST JUDGMENT AND RESURRECTION
As H.P. Blavatsky taught, man is not perfect until he's made himself perfect. Though he forgets his vices after death, entering heaven, it's not his own before he has truly overcome himself in this visible world. Therefore it is grace of nature, God's grace, that man may be born again here on earth. Death is like a last judgment for everyone, for each personality. That last judgment concerns man as a personality. It cuts man in half with a big sword. On one side there is left evil, on the side of damnation, and good goes to heaven. But then comes the resurrection. Man is born back in his flesh and receives new temple of the Holy Spirit for a loan.

SUN AND MOON
Just as we, the living, live on the face of the earth, yet we may work in the mines underground or rise up to the sky on airplanes, so are the dead, so to speak, "underground", on earth, and high in the sky "until the moon". In Spiritual World "far" is that which repels, is disagreeable or makes no difference. "Near" is that which attracts, makes you feel sympathy or makes you interested. Symbolically speaking we may say, that first the life after death is spent in the Moon and then in the Sun. In purgatory man's soul is under the influence of the Moon. We live in the middle of the Moon where everything glows (the word "astral" comes from aster, a star); It's a star world where everything glows with weak but clear light like stars and moon. That astral life is like a night life. Life in heaven is transferring from moon and its influence to the Sun.

HEAVEN
Everyone has definitely deserved heaven on the basis of years one has spent on earth, where life - despite of dreams - so far is all but rosy. Short earthly life is followed by shorter heaven, rich earthly life is followed by weaker heaven. But spirituality and goodness naturally lead to long and intense life in heaven, even if one was happy also on earth, because then one's happiness was inward and spiritual by its quality. Selfish and evil person is preparing for oneself thin and short heaven, because on the fields of bliss evil is not feeling at home. Whatever good man has willed during his earthly life, it is there for him in heaveanly life. Heaven is wonderful: Man's personality is like enormously wiser - even though he won't begin anything new, everything old he got in earthly life, developes as far as it can.
Heaven is the innermost mystery of life after death; It is man's real life. It is as if a man lived his earthly life over again, but this time without its sorrows, disappointments, contradictions. He is what he was at his best on earth, when he loved, willed good, did good. Heaven is also a state of soul which can be compared to most wonderful moments of happiness one has tasted on earth. Everything he dreamed on earth will come true to him in heaven, without earthly sorrows and concerns. Heaven is a thought-world, manifestation of ideals. Wise men say, earthly life is more real: In heavens we reap the fruit, but on earth we sow. Part of us - the best of us - always abides in heavens, whether we were on earth or in hell.
Heavens are like great batteries, thoughtforms, hovering above our humanity in its secret consciousness and inspiring still the modern people. It is right that people remember the dead with love, but if it is only manifested by decorating their graves, that is for ourselves, that's our vanity. The dead are pleased only when we remember them with love. They know nothing about tombstones and material flowers, but our loving thoughts are roses going up to them.

PURIFICATION
In earthly time hell is much shorter than physical life, just as heaven is much, much longer. Purification only applies to evil which was manifested in man during his life. It won't dig up any latent evil out of his being. Man's inner possibilities for good and evil will eventually rise up on the surface through the course of lifes; today this and tomorrow that. After Jesus Christ came to earth, everyone who's heard of him, every Christian, has had a kind of "mark of Cain", he's been marked, so that he knows in his heart that the secret of life is selfless love. And when a Christian dies he meets his Judge - the Christ: "I did not follow love at all, didn't understand anything about love. I have been a selfish man; my life has gone to waste; it was a lost life."
Thus man judges himself. But he won't be lost. He will go to heaven and be born again on earth. When a man comes to life beyond, feeling only a sinner, when he's been scared to tremble before the justice of God, he's possessed with suffering and pain. Man can overcome death by dying here and now away from his selfishness and ignorance and becoming a spiritual being he in fact is, conscious citizen of another world. And when a man follows the footsteps of a Master, growing brighter and brighter in this spirit-being, he will arrive at the psychological state we call eternal life, nirvana, tao.

LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN
The Kingdom of heaven is for those who become like little children. Little child is the most sensitive about the truth; as long as he sees his parents telling the truth, he believes them. But he always wants to explore and try everything by himself, making mistakes too. Besides, a child who lives "in heaven" here and now, at the same time enjoys the world and life through his senses and cannot see anything essentially bad about that. Child-likeness is a quality of soul, not a matter of reason. Souls who are like innocent children feel that there is so much sorrow and misfortune in the world that they don't want to increase it in any way. On the contrary, they would like to carry the cross of others, to lighten the heavy burdens of others, to do anything for others, but never cause anything bad in the world.
Child symbolizes the developing aspect of man. Jesus says: "Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven" (Mt.18:10). If we mean by "child" forces of human soul, then an angel in heaven is the spiritual core of the soul: Through the eyes of our spiritual Self we always see the face of Father, because it is one with His essence. Spirit of God is living and affecting in us, we are His children and we receive fatherly help, guidance, comfort, forgiveness from Him, as in the story of the Prodigal son. But child grows and Father expects us to become adults some day.
Marko Pogacnik has explained the parable of the lost sheep (Mt.18:12-13) so that the 99 sheep faithfully following the pack are people not awakened spiritually, who won't listen to their innermost being but "go with a flow." The sheep which wandered away symbolizes man's individualizing process: The one who walks his own way must be ready to get lost too. "The Shepherd of humanity" supports man's personal independence.
What do children have what adults don't have? (Mt.18:3, 19:14) Children are open, trusting and honest. They accept the words of their parents as absolute. Adults are introverted, suspicious, and dishonest. We hold things and don't share our feelings, our mind or our heart. We tend to question everything and accept very little. You must learn not to care for the head when it comes to spiritual matters; Only listen to your heart, for heart is a center of love. Spirit dwells in hearts of us all, expecting us to notice and to listen to it.

LOSE YOUR LIFE
One must lose his life to find life - to lose selfishness to find his true Self. Selfishness is that which darkens man (Mt.6:23). We won't be released from our faults by analyzing darkness but bringing them into the light of understanding. Whatever we wish to keep for ourselves, we'll lose. What you give, you get. We have to live, let life flow through us, help others to live while constructing our own life. There is no life without death, no regeneration without death of the old. Grapes must be crushed to make wine. We must let go of old thoughts and make space for new concepts, to die away from ignorance and illusion, before we can be born again in spirit.
The last sacrifice of Christ on the cross - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" - the last sacrifice we must offer, is my God - ego's image of itself expanded to God. Old Rosicrucian confession says: We were born of God, We die in Christ, and through the Holy Spirit we are born again; That is, We die while living and are born again in the Spiritual World. Salvation has two meanings, says Paul Brunton: To free you from your destiny and rebirths to physical body caused by that, and to lift you up from spiritual ignorance you are in.
Grace is very misunderstood word; Usually we have an image that it is a favor the Higher One can do to the lower one, as if it was an opposite to cruelty. It's not an amnesty granted by Tyrant for a criminal. It is just bliss, happiness, harmony hidden in the universe, which everyone misses and everyone is called to participate with. Religion isn't actually more than shouting at the people: "You don't have to live in the darkness and suffer all these things without knowing what they are, because you can be set free, to be free from both all suffering and all ignorance. You can overcome that suffering by knowing what it is, where it comes from, and what is its purpose. When you take right attitude to all suffering you will discover you may keep inner bliss, happiness - in the middle of all suffering."

HIGHER SELF
In order to be able to understand this everlasting life and life after death, one must first of all get the idea that there is in man something called "Higher Self", divine aspect, real immortal ego etc. Whatever name is used, even if we said Christ, Saviour, they mean there is within man something hidden in him, which is higher, eternal, immortal. It is this Higher Self that makes man a man. It's manifested first as a conscience. Secondly, it's manifested by man's search for truth, his dreaming and philosophizing, and his love for beauty. Thirdly, it's manifested through pure, selfless, noble love that wants the best for others. During physical life we have along this companion, an angel. In death this true Inner Self which was tied up with visible personality, is released and lives its own life. After death man is not free as he is here. If you don't look for God now, it's nearly impossible to begin after death. Man is inwardly bound, or forced to continue life he lived here.
It is a natural fact that in death we lose connection with our Higher Self. We are not connected with it in this visible world just like that, without any effort. The light of Higher Self is not far. It is hidden in our heart. Sincere and devoted effort will open for us the gates of the kingdom of light. But after death it may take hundreds of years; However, ultimately man will reach this connection in life after death, but often after such an intense efforts that almost whole past personality will vanish. Man forgets all bad when he's purified. He walks through the lonely, hot desert of soul until he becomes more and more like a child. From darkness to light! He has had to give up selfishness completely - and then there is nothing much left of the personal human being. His own personal consciousness becomes thinner and thinner, and more transparent; the radiance, the light of truth, the beauty attracting him there is so intense that he will in a way fall asleep out of himself. Therefore we cannot remember anything when we are born again on earth; We have a whole new soulful personality. Heavenly state will end with last judgement when Divine Ego of man draws to itself from personality that which is holy and high.

TREASURES IN HEAVEN
It is extremely significant for the development of human soul that men gather the treasures which no moth and rust will corrupt, not for any external causes, not in order to do better here on earth or after death, but just because truth and goodness are worth it.
The most of his life man spends after death and therefore his natural life must be that in the Spiritual World. He should prepare for that life where weight and length and money etc. don't matter, but only the spiritual values. That's the life we were created for, that's what we exist for! In our real human life only the truth, goodness and beauty - ideas that cannot be measured in dollars and cents - do matter. This visible life is so short and transient that it would not be worth while to exist for.
People who had a clear idea of life after death during their physical life, are in different position after death than others. It's like a man who travels to foreign country and has read many books about it, perhaps discussed with someone from that country, and knows the language. We are unwise if we don't want to find out about the world we're going to.
A man who keeps his eyes open while entering a state after death, who tries to keep his awareness, is in such a special position that he can be helped more than the other deceased, he can even be taught in such a way that he may be useful in invisible world. He may become a helper for the deceased who come poorly prepared or through a sudden death.

MANY ROOMS IN FATHER'S HOUSE
"There are many rooms in my Father's house" said Jesus and he meant: "In my Father's kingdom there are rooms of all religions." All religions have as if their own conditions after death, Christian religion is not special in invisible world, no more "favored by God" than any other. The faithful deceased of religions and churches form equal worlds of their own in the life after death. And there are also conditions outside of religions for those who didn't want to belong to any of them.
All religions are like roads to Christ. In old religions there was highly moral world view which did not pay so much attention to evil or which emphasized more goodness. No religion takes man to Christ or God just like that. Man must take a real position on his religion. It cannot be like a cloth he takes off or it's nothing. His religion, his faith must be his life. Not all religions are equally suitable for anyone, that Christian might as well become a Muslim. Equality of religions doesn't mean this at all.
Jesus Christ has his own heaven, outside and independent of heaven of Christians, above all other heavens. Yet in this particular room in Father's house there are all other great teachers, Buddha, Zoroaster, Muhammad, Moses etc. None of the wise men in the old covenant or saviors of the religions had loved men as much as Jesus of Nazareth... Jesus brought Father's love to humanity so that the Son of God lives in our humanity and it is immediately close to each individual human being. By the power of his love Jesus Christ had a chance to change immensely those so called mysteries concerning physical life and life in purgatory, hell and heaven after death. He brought something new into all that.
Invisible worlds and life after death are closer to his conscious influence and so it is natural that in the invisible world he's able to do more than in the visible one. Therefore, he has brought a new stream of force, new impulse to the life after death and karma after death. Faith St. Paul was preaching to so called heathens was faith in Jesus Christ being a friend of humanity, a lover and miraculous helper, that whoever believes and trusts in him will be helped by him after death.
While Christ's heaven is above other heavens of the atmosphere, at the same time it is also within, around and outside of them. Heaven after Christ's death is the heaven of love embracing everyone. The deceased who enter Christ's heaven, come through heavens of groups of all different religions and those outside of religions. They are not Christians alone, not all of them have even heard of Jesus Christ. Some of them have even denied all supernatural. Those who enter Christ's heaven have got in touch with Christ in their souls during life, often without knowing. God has always been the God of all people.
But in new covenant Christ through Jesus has descended into the physical world, so that the consciousness of Christ is living already behind this visible life, and anyone of us may in one's soul get in touch with Christ-Consciousness or the Son of God. It is now required that man in one way or another, will forget his own tiny personal ego and at least momentarily is filled with human feelings, for example hearty love for another one or something higher. New covenant is just that: "Covenant with God" nowadays is closer to humanity than before.

PRAISE THE GOD OF LIFE!
We feel how in our souls we go down on our knees. We cannot but praise life and God of life, who is so infinitely higher than our ideas of him. We are used to think here in this physical world that one religion is more right than the other, and ours is perhaps the only right one... Life itself, God, is above all, life won't make difference between people. Life loves everybody. Jesus says: "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good." We truly humble in the spirit before the great neutrality of life. No one is blessed more specially with mercy before life, just because he belongs to certain religion. If a man is an atheist but he - even in secret from himself - listens to the language of his heart and obeys its command to be merciful, helpful and gentle, then he in fact is connected with Christ and is taken after death to the gate of the Kingdom.
The help religions wish to give people during their final hours can be compared to sleeping pills. Man has lived in the visible world mostly without remembering the death and life after death - death has been a distant issue for him. The younger he is, the more impossible death seems to him. Therefore, it is good Churches have developed these sleeping pills of death to calm human soul, to turn the mind of dying one away from visible life, to attach his mind to blessed thoughts of peace.

WORD AND LIGHT

We walk on the road with Jesus Christ (Lk.24) and He talks to us (gospel), making our hearts burning within us like a coal in a censer, as our prayers rise with a smoke (offering); He comes in and abides with us (transsubstantiation), and finally we are at the table with Him and we go to the world as His messengers (Communion).

Through the four phases of the Act of Consecration, we are led from receiving to giving, but constantly staying active within. Participants appear to sit still just observing, but it's not mere stillnes of meditation, when people sink deeply into their own inner being, finding their true essence and strengthening the Self; It is more like common prayer, since prayer is about devotion, not words repeated aloud - and in prayer man is expanding outwards until he loses himself meeting the One greater than himself and completely the Other. In Him we are all One.
From the depth of our souls we gather little pieces of eternal value - that which is gold among the led of lower nature - lifting our hearts up to heaven with this treasure. Together we form a cup of human community. Thus a new force poured into this cup may help us to transform more of our nature to gold. Ultimately, each of us is a chalice: New wine into new wineskins.

Through the meeting with Christ as that timeless stream from Golgotha reaches us in time - provided that we are ready and willing to receive it (for instance in sacraments) - our innermost being is awakened. It will be in us "as well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jh.4). Whoever drinks this water will never thirst. But this world offers us only the wine vinegar to drink. On the Mount of Olives Jesus prayed: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (Lk.22:42). This is the true spirit of prayer! Jesus drank the cup til the last bitter drop. Yet we are promised in the Psalm 23 that "my cup overflows" when I'm at a table in the presence of my "enemies" - my fears and worries etc. - and my head will be anointed with oil, with the sign of the Risen Lord! Once you grow in spirit, this growth in one aspect of your nature will flow to other cups too!

Fr. Anthony de Mello points out that with the Communion bread everybody receives the whole Christ - I receive the whole Christ, you receive the whole Christ, so does the one next to you and so on. So great is His love!
When Jesus during His ministry repeatedly had supper with people, only requiement for joining the company was to accept HIM at the table! He as a host surely welcomes all!
Communion is the true Mystery of the Bridal Chamber, foretaste of the Wedding of the Lamb, when soul as the Bride meets her heavenly Bridegroom.
As my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit - the Christ in me - so we are members of the Body of Christ; we are the Church. Kingdom of God is both within us and amidst of us. In Jesus Christ God incarnated, through the Holy Spirit Christ dwells in us. As He came in human form 2000 years ago in Palestine, so He comes again and again today in Consecrated elements of bread and wine, nourishing our inner man.

Several times in the gospels we are told "Behold!", and "He that hath an ear, let him hear" and Psalmist also says "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good." We have tasted the good word of God (Heb.6:5). We meet a piece of heaven here on earth provided that we're open for it.
Someone said the Lord's Prayer is a gospel in a nutshell. With these words we are offering the fullness of our heart and soul - our devotion and worship - to Godhead. By prayer we can't change God; Instead, God will change us, even if it is so subtle we don't see it. What we receive through this prayer is really a "Communion of the Mystical Bread"..."Daily bread", artos epiousios or panem supersubstantialem as the Vulgate translates, is supersubstancial bread: That's how many early Church Fathers interpreted the sentence, that's how the Cathars understood it, that's how Pekka Ervast explains in his book "The Sermon on the Mount or the Key to Christianity". It's obvious once you take a closer look at the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 6: Soon after giving His prayer, Jesus says: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what you shall drink"..."For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
It is the presence of Christ Himself - "I am the Bread". It is Grace (or love), charis - charismata as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Catholics acknowledge the act of spiritual communion beside the Mass - but never without.

Now we may understand that the Lord's Prayer is said in the Act of Consecration - as well as in any liturgy - right after transsubstantiation, in the beginning of Communion, and why I like to think of it as Sacrament! Mind is a priest and heart is an altar, as Kahlil Gibran wrote, as we pray "in spirit and in truth" - that is, by the power of spirit and understanding the truth (of what we are praying for). One of the names Jesus gave to the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of Truth. Big heart and open mind is what we need.
The heart of man is supposed to be the spiritual Sun (the "Sun" of God) - the centre of his being - and his mind, his intellect, was meant to reflect its light just like the moon. Otherwise, if it rebels against the heart as often seems to be the case, mind will become Lucifer with its false light misguiding us. "You are the light of the world"..."If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Mt.5:14, 6:23)

In Scripture, word and light go together; The first thing God said, was "Let there be light" - "and there was light." Along with this creative fiat light comes forth from the very essence of Godhead, which is light itself. St. Luke tells us that when the angel of the Lord appeared before the shepherds in the field to bring them the good news of the newborn Messiah, "the glory of the Lord shone round about them." This glory is doxa in Greek - a word used of the presence of God in the Scripture (as in the doxology of the Lord's Prayer!): "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Remember the golden radiant sphere depicted in icons round the heads of the holy men and women of God: They glorify God! In Eastern Orthodox tradition, so called theosis or deification of man, has mostly as outward characteristic a phenomenon of light - enlightment, transfiguration. This light was seen by the holy people in prayer, it was not merely symbolical nor sensory perception. It was the light that shone forth from Christ as He was transfigured and it will light the whole world on the day of judgement. St. Paul also witnessed the light on his way to Damascus. According to Origen, once a mystic takes his final step to unio mystica, when he's united with God, he participates with the light of Logos.

Like a breastplate of the High Priest with engraved gem stones, once memorized, we shall keep the words of the Lord's Prayer upon our heart, each word as a precious stone shining in the Christ-light. Like jewels in all the colors of the rainbow in the golden plate, the Lord's Prayer consists of the full splendor of Christianity.
Prayer by prayer, we are building heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, which will descend from above; "And its brilliance was like that of very precious jewelry"..."And the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp" (Rev.21:11, 23). "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb.11:1): By prayer, we do invisible work, for words are works; "As above, so below" - "as in heavens, so also on earth". Spirit to matter.
Christ Jesus gave us the words of the Lord's Prayer, He is praying for us, with us, and in us; in fact, He is in every word of the Prayer. - After all, He is the Word of God!
"And God said, let there be light" (Gen.1:3).
"In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1).
"Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).
"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you" (John 15:7).
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Mt.24:35).
"The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26).
"God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father" (Gal.4:6).
"For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us" (2 Cor.1:20).
"[God] Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, when he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high..." (Hebr.1:2-3).
He is "Alpha and Omega" (Rev.1:11) and "the Amen, the faithful and true witness" (Rev.3:14).

No doubt the prayer is the highest form of human speech: In prayer we address God and at best we're completely selfless. Our will is the will of God in action. God's voice is made audible through human voice. "For thine is"... I can't do anything of myself, without God; "The kingdom": The substance of all the realms; "The power": One Life Force that penetrates the worlds; "The glory": Final result, fully perfected, divine being; "For ever and ever": If we only worry for material things, we don't store up for ourselves treasures in heaven - that which is eternal; "Amen": Signature and seal. The church pleads "So shall it be" and God confirms "It shall be so." The word came through Egypt originally from Sanskrit: AUM or OM - and represents the creative fiat, Logos.

Christian writing from the first century says that "Christians are for the world same as soul is for the body". Christ the Sun-Spirit is the Higher Self of the earth. Bread and wine being the true body and blood of Christ, we bear the spiritual homeopathy along with us unto the world, as Emil Bock writes in his book, "The Three years".
"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:51).
Christ-impulse will grow through us, expanding all over the world!

What I have come to learn about Karma & Grace

When it is said that the Christ suffers " for men", that His strength replaces their weakness, His purity their sin, His wisdom their ignorance, a truth is spoken; for the Christ so becomes one with men that they share with Him and He with them. There is no substitution of Him for them, but the taking of their lives into His, and the pouring of His life into theirs. For, having risen to the plane of unity, He is able to share all He has gained, to give all He has won. Standing above the plane of separateness and looking down at the souls immersed in separateness, He can reach each while they cannot reach each other. Water can flow from above into many pipes, open to the reservoir though closed as regards each other, and so He can send His life into each soul. Only one condition is needed in order that a Christ may share His strength with a younger brother: that in the separated life the human consciousness will open itself to the divine, will show itself receptive of the offered life, and take the freely outpoured gift. For so reverent is God to that Spirit which is Himself in man, that He will not even pour into the human soul a flood of strength and life unless that soul is willing to receive it. There must be an opening from below as well as an outpouring from above, the receptiveness of the lower nature as well as the willingness of the higher to give. That is the link between the Christ and the man; that is what the churches have called the outpouring of "divine grace"; that is what is meant by the "faith" necessary to make the grace effective. (Esoteric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries by Annie Besant.)

I consider quote above quite useful, as the whole book by Besant, no matter what one might think of her twisted Christology - a reason that caused Rudolf Steiner to leave the Theosophical Society for good and found his own Anthroposophical movement.
In his Lecture in Münich, 3rd May 1911, titled: The Concepts of Original Sin and Grace, which I have found very enlightening, Rudolf Steiner explains how Luciferic influence came when a man was on the point of receiving his ego, so at that time still a child-like man could not discern between right and wrong: "This temptation was a deed to which man yielded before the period of ego-development but which has cast its shadows into the whole of this development."A man sinned with his astral body, for he had not his ego yet: "That is the radical difference between the sin we now incur as men and the sin which at that time crept into our human nature." [...]
"What the astral body has become as the result of the temptation of Lucifer is a perpetual cause of degeneration and deterioration of the human race."
This has continued through the course of the incarnations, since Luciferic impulse was implanted in heredity causing increasing deterioration in that process, says Steiner, and that is the true meaning of the "Original Sin", Inherited Sin in some languages like Finnish."This sin which, in its consequences, is inherited, which represents sin in man of which he is not guilty in the real sense, must be counterbalanced by the possibility of re-ascent, also without merit of his own. Just as without guilt of his own, man was obliged to fall, so he must be able to re-ascend without merit of his own — that is to say, without full merit of his own. We fell without being ourselves guilty and we must therefore be able to ascend without merit of our own." [...]
"Just as man has worsened his astral body through incurring Original Sin, so he heals it again through the Christ Impulse. An inflowing power repairs the astral body to the same extent to which it has deteriorated. That is the Atonement, that is what in the true sense is called ‘Grace’. Grace is the concept that is complementary to that of Original Sin. So the Christ Impulse has made it possible for man to become one with Christ, to say with St. Paul: ‘Not I, but Christ in me’, thus giving expression to everything that is designated by the concept of Grace."
Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer (1872-1938), a well-known Protestant Minister in Germany, who became a first leader of The Christian Community in 1922... "Tells us of his experiences with Rudolf Steiner over a period of ten years of apprehension, critical investigation and cautious scrutiny of the new body of thought, and his final conviction of the unparalleled greatness of Rudolf Steiner's spirit" (note by D.S. Osmond, translator of his book, Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life). Friedrich Rittelmeyer writes among other things about karma and grace:

But - Sin and Grace? This was, after all, the most fundamental experience in Luther! "Rudolf Steiner has not understood that at all," - so say the theologians. - He understood it so little that he spoke more profoundly and poignantly than all his contemporaries of the actuality and influence of Evil. He investigated the history of the Fall into Sin and perceived its consequences on the one hand in nature itself and on the other in thought, which has become abstract, vapid, dead, wherever one looks in theology. A later epoch will be faced with the remarkable phenomenon in history that the man who spoke as none other before him - not subjectively but objectively - of the terrible havoc wrought by Evil, should have had to put up with being reproached by theologians that he did not know the meaning of Sin.

And Grace? He understood it so little that, as none other before him, he taught the Christ-Deed - that act of Grace unmerited by us and far transcending all our thinking - as the all decisive event in human history without which the whole of mankind would have been lost, but which they could not have brought to pass of themselves - an event so decisive that upon it rested the whole future of humanity and of each individual. He understood "so little" that he said: "The higher one rises, the more does everything become Grace." But he said little about it, and he did not speak in the language of the theologians.

Karma and reincarnation - the laws of destiny and rebirth. They are exactly contrary to the Christian experience of Grace and the biblical Gospel of salvation - so it is said. Over against this let it be stated with all emphasis that in our time both these truths, although they are not found in the Bible, can be recognised as Christian truths. For me they are not so much scientific results of spiritual research with which Christianity has to come to terms - although they are that too - but far rather actual demands of Christianity when it is rightly understood.
Think of it for a moment: a man passes into the higher world. How will it be with him? For a time he may rejoice to find himself free of the earth and all her misery. But then, if he is allowed a prayer - what will it be? He will surely wish again to meet all those human beings whom he wronged in earthly life, and he will crave for the opportunity to do good to those whom he wronged on earth. "Grace" will lie precisely in this, that he asks if this may be granted him. The law of Karma may have appeared in the East as irrevocable world-necessity - in the light of Christ it becomes an act of Grace, our own free wish. But that act of Grace - the only one of which we usually hear mention - namely that a man has been seized by the reality of Christ, that act of Grace must have gone before in order to make such a wish possible at all.
And now suppose the man in the other world is allowed a second request - what will he wish? He will wish that he may help the Christ where His task is heaviest and most menaced, where Christ Himself suffers and has to fight most bitterly. This wish, if it were fullfilled, would lead the man back again to the earth.
It is not Christian to long for the rest and blessedness far from the miseries of earth. It is Christian to bear within one the consciousness which once brought Christ from Heaven to earth, to find one's joy in being like unto Him and to work with Him wherever He may need us.

Rittelmeyer adds however, that there are no dogmas in The Christian Community, so reincarnation certainly is not one either. Together in devotion to Christ one can even reject that.
James H. Hindes, a priest in the Christian Community, summarises Steiner's ideas of salvation in his excellent book, Renewing Christianity:

The weight of sin through the ages would have already destroyed the earth and with it our possibility of any future existence as human beings were it not for the intervention of God in the person of Christ Jesus. In uniting with the earth he has taken on the consequences of human misdeeds which burden the earth. He is the one who 'takes away the sin of the world.' When Christ says to the sick man in Chapter 9 of Matthew's gospel 'Your sins are forgiven' this means, according to Steiner's interpretation, 'Christ has forgiven you so completely that even the destructive spiritual consequences for the earth have been eradicated.' What we by ourselves cannot do - to undo the consequences of our sins for the earth - Christ has done for him. [...]
What is here essential is that the personal consequences of our sins be transformed into destiny. To take away this aspect of sin would be to rob us of the possibility of advancement, ultimately, of salvation. Salvation cannot be a purely passive process or we would be robbed of our freedom.

You may also want to meditate these Bible passages:
"A man reaps what he sows." - Gal.6:7
"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." - Mt.7:2
"For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done." - Mt.16:27
"It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of pen to drop out of the Law." - Lk.16:17
"But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'" - Mt.9:13
"Love covers over a multitude of sins." - 1 Pt.4:8
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world trough him." - John 3:17
Also consider this: A Greek word generally translated as "judgement" means actually crisis; Crisis is a turning point with a possibility for something new!

Paul Brunton wisely said that Buddha was born in a country where priests had made people to believe that all sins can be redeemed and their effects on karma deleted through some payed ritual, or sacrifise, or magic. Therefore Buddha wanted to lift the morality of his people and denyed forgiveness of sins affirming the strict and unchangeable rule of the law of karma.
Jesus was born in a country where religion declared "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Because he was as wise as Buddha, he emphasized the forgiveness of sins and God's mercy. He might have acknowledged Buddha's view but he would have added, "There is also the law of love for those who have faith to call it and will to obey it."
There is no jugdement or punishment in destiny, it is a neutral and impersonal force. God's Love is not sentimental; it is tough love seeking the ultimate Good for us, therefore it won't protect us from experiences we need in order to grow. Man is an active participant in his life, not just an unwilling observer. Life is a sum of countless opportunities and choices. Past influence only provides the frames for possibilities and probabilities. In God's "Blue print" there are only outer limits of the building, not details or materials for interior decorating: that's left for the man himself.
Same difficulties may make one man bitter and another man may see them as an opportunity. Reactions order how things evolve. Good deeds are followed by contentment and bad deeds are followed by sorrow.
"And forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us." This is the law of balance and harmony, doctrine of cause and effect. As karma is one side of the coin, so are the compassion and grace another aspect of the same universal law: too much and too little - sin to grace - vices to virtues.
The immortal I-amness, real center and source of our consciousness, preserves all lessons that our earthly, ordinary self cannot comprehend. It is the vine and personalities on earth are the branches.
"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouds and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head." Mark 4:26-28
Here sleeping means the sleep of death, but the seed is growing night and day. It won't result fast and suddenly but nothing goes backwards - everything goes forward.
In another parable of Jesus (Mt.21, Mk.12, Lk.20), Vineyard is earthly life and man is only a tenant not an owner. He must pay the rent, to bring some fruit to the Giver of Life, that is, to find something in his experiences of life that will nourish his eternal being, or else he's wasted his life.

See also: Karma & Grace by John Van Auken (Edgar Cayce's viewpoint),
and Grace and Mercy - Wisdom words (quotes from various authors).

Spirit of Pentecost

"When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. "

(Acts 2:1-4 New King James)

Even though everyone must find his/her own truth, we can understand each other. As christians we are the blood brothers and sisters in Christ, more related to one another than to our biological family. The spark of One Life has descended into each of us; it may enlighten our thoughts, warm our hearts, and ignite our will... and once gone up in flames it may unite with the Highest Fire!
Fifty days after the Resurrection, when the jewish people were celebrating the giving of ten commandments to Moses, the apostles experienced the Spirit individually: God moved from heavens above within a man!
On Golgotha the universal Love was born on earth and now it warmed up the hearts of the apostles; The deed of Christ came alive in their souls - the great communion of humanity! Tongues of fire descended in the same Upper Room where the Last Supper took place - and surely not by chance: the connection is clear.

The Holy Spirit is the feminine, motherly aspect of the Trinity, often associated with Virgin Mary and also with Divine Wisdom, Holy Sophia. Besides that, the Holy Spirit is Christ within us; the aura of Christ surrounds the earth and we can get in touch with it - the fire of the Holy Spirit fulfills us. It is the blood of Christ, the astral radiance of his fiery Love. I am the Chalice into which the new wine of the Spirit is poured, from the heart of the altar to the altar of the heart.

From week to week, month to month, year to year, over and over again as a prodigal son I may return from the world of sensual pleasures (as well as that of hunger and dirt) closest to Home here on earth - the altar. And the foretaste of the heavenly feast follows. It is the son who decides to return and takes the first steps. Grace won't fall upon your lap without any effort by you. Redemption is not yours automatically, it requires your co-operation to become fully active in your life. That means you have to open yourself and it happens through prayer and sacraments.

Alphabets of my life

You know those silly but rather entertaining celebrity inquiries in women's Journals? Here's a deep analysis of my personality...

Agape: divine love. It's not emotion, it's action. It is unconditional love, impersonal good will expressed in selfless action. You don't have to like everybody - you just have to love them. That has been a good lesson for me to learn. When you pray for someone - even an enemy - you apply the golden rule: it is deed of love.

Books: and especially The Good Book.

Cats: our furry friends and members of the family. They each have a character of their own and they sincerely show their love to their humans.

Death - a part of life and I love it!

Europe: I consider myself a European - it's something to be proud of. United States appears as a protagonist of democracy and freedom, but seen from here that's rather questionable.

Friends & Family. No explanation needed.

Gnosis. Inner knowlidge. Main concept of my faith.

Home. No place like it!

I - I am that I am. He must increase and I must decrease: not I but Christ in me.

Jesus Christ. My older brother and closest friend. He is always with me and within me.

Karma - and grace. Not one without another.

Love. In everyday life more than great emotions it's a kind of decicion: this is the person with whom I want to share my life.

Movies. I don't go to movies often; I went to see The Lord of the Rings and now I must see The Simpsons Movie. I prefer DVD's.

Nature. Couldn't live without it!

Our Father: my daily devotion.

Pekka Ervast, my spiritual teacher.

Queer - proud and happy!

Rudolf Steiner, another spiritual teacher who has influenced me.

Suomi - Finland.

The Christian Community - The Act of Consecration of Man: The Center of my life.

Universalism. Eternal punishment in hell - it's not only beyond love but all reason as well! And christianity can't be the only truth; there is not the one and only truth even among christians!

Voluntary work.

World - we share it, let's try to save it!

X as in sex. Greatly overvalued nowadays as it has been made a part of cunsumption. But a big mistake in judeo-christian tradition has been to see that sex had anything to do with the fall of man!

You - yes, you! Who are you?

Zarathustra. Prophet and founder of religion that influenced judaism & christianity more than some people would like to admit. I don't see it decreasing the meaning of christianity - I see how God has always worked in this world! Christ is just wearing the clothes of old cultures, as Rudolf Steiner has said.