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A Thumbnail Sketch of Life and Death

Following are two questions asked by Study Group Members in one of the Monthly Study Group Readings:

1. "Please elaborate on the relationship between a soul and its human self. You have said that we do not need to worry about dying because we are eternal souls. But, I think you have also said that the human personality self, the personality matrix, is self aware for a short time after death, and then merges back into the soul. So, really it would seem that the human personality self does end. Would you please clarify this?"

Answer by the Guides through Ron Scolastico: If you can truly understand the following, then all fear of death will vanish: Your human personality self can be likened to your left thumb as you are sitting in a cathedral where there is beautiful architecture, colored glass, and holy sounds being sung by a choir. If you turned your attention only to your thumb, you would not notice any of that beauty. You would only notice your thumb.
As a soul, you are sitting in a cathedral of eternal love, perfection, creativity, beauty, and goodness. Only a certain part of your soul attention is focused on your thumb—your human self. In other words, what you experience as you-as-a-human is a small portion of the awareness of you-as-an-eternal-soul. The rest of your soul awareness is blocked out from your human awareness.
When your body dies, that ‘sliver’ of soul consciousness that has been focusing on its thumb—your experience of your human self—is turned back to the full soul attention in the eternal cathedral. What you experience as you simply stops being small, and it becomes large. Your human self does not vanish. It simply wakes up to its existence as an eternal soul.

Knowing God as our "Beloved"

2. You have spoken of God as our “soul mate.” How do we open ourselves to knowing God as our beloved? How do we shift from the perception of God as an external beloved to God as an internal beloved? Additionally, how can we utilize our close relationships with people to enhance this experience?

Answer by the Guides, through Ron Scolastico: As most of you already have learned, this is a very difficult area. It is as though you would say, “How do I draw a picture of the wind?” You cannot see the wind, but you can feel it.
Quite clearly, you cannot see God. Some of you have had certain visions that you might attribute to God, but these are simply human translations into some visual form. The forces of God in their purest state have no form. In complex ways, they take the form of souls, they take the form of the physical world, they take the form of your human self, they take the form of your physical body. But, the pure love that is God itself has no form that humans can see or perceive with the physical senses. Therefore, you must imagine the form.
However, you can feel the essence, which is the love. Most of you have already learned that whenever you feel a feeling of human love—the emotion of human love—you are coming closer to perceiving God. This is a very complex area when put into words, but when you feel divine love, it is not complex at all. You are deeply touched by it.
A beneficial starting point in loving God that is not so difficult to work with is: love for yourself as a wonderful human being. Then, love for other humans. Then, love for idealism, honesty, sincerity, kindness, compassion. Then, love for activities that you believe are important and meaningful. Then, perhaps love for society, love for the human race, love for human life. Any time that you can find a focus that helps you feel love, you are coming closer to God.
For the greatest benefit, there needs to be a very personal sense of God. So, in any way that can help you, imagine God loving you. If you are scientific, you might imagine love energies. If you are religious, you might imagine a divine angelic being loving you. Whatever helps, imagine it.
Since the pure love of God has no form, you will never perceive it directly while in human form, but you can work to feel its love, its presence. You can feel the wind even though you do not see it. At times, you can imagine the wind with a form. You might imagine some light. You might imagine a beautiful ray, or aura. You might imagine a heavenly chorus, participating in the wind of love. The key, of course, is to know that this love is personal for you. This is difficult for many because there are so many humans that often ones will think, “How can this God personally love me and at the same time love billions of living humans?” There is simply no way to beneficially imagine this, so, simply ignore the question. It does not matter. The truth is that the love of God does love you personally. If you cannot understand how, that does not matter. Simply try to rejoice in being loved personally by the perfect love that is God itself.
It can help to imagine your soul and other souls—perfect divine beings—also loving you personally, sharing in the love that is God. That love is your constant companion. That love loves you personally without cease.
Do the best you can to create some thoughts and imaginings about this area. But, give most of your attention to the feelings, doing whatever you can through attunement, through study, that can help you feel the love that is always there. Also, remind yourself that when you are struggling mentally, emotionally, or physically, it is very difficult to feel the love. So, usually, it requires a calming, or a temporary stepping back from the complexities of the human world.