Vatican on New Age and Spirits' response - Part 3

Make ourselves right with God according to His ethical teachings and all will be well.

The influence of our character deficiencies and misdeeds committed in our past lives on our present life situations and conditions are revealed and more clearly illustrated in the life readings given by Edgar Cayce under the supervision of the Spirits of Truth.

But of course, if we are born into the world, then we must die. How else can we go back home to heaven.

The unfolding continues

Originally, reincarnation was a part of Hindu cyclical thought, based on the atman or divine kernel of personality (later the concept of jiva), which moved from body to body in a cycle of suffering (samsara), determined by the law of karma, linked to behaviour in past lives. Hope lies in the possibility of being born into a better state, or ultimately in liberation from the need to be reborn. What is different in most Buddhist traditions is that what wanders from body to body is not a soul, but a continuum of consciousness. Present life is embedded in a potentially endless cosmic process which includes even the gods. In the West, since the time of Lessing, reincarnation has been understood far more optimistically as a process of learning and progressive individual fulfilment. Spiritualism, theosophy, anthroposophy and New Age all see reincarnation as participation in cosmic evolution. This post-Christian approach to eschatology is said to answer the unresolved questions of theodicy and dispenses with the notion of hell. When the soul is separated from the body individuals can look back on their whole life up to that point, and when the soul is united to its new body there is a preview of its coming phase of life. People have access to their former lives through dreams and meditation techniques.(26)
Soul is consciousness in a physical body. But we don't wander aimlessly. We enter into pre-planned experiences that will help us in learning what we came to earth to learn in the first place and build and refine our character.

This is similar to coming to an earthly classroom to learn our lessons. Here on earth, we are learning all about good and evil, right and wrong by undergoing the precise experiences that afford learning.

Birth is coming to class and death is returning home. After a hard day's study, we then look back at the plan we agreed on with our guides before coming to earth to review the lessons that we learned and determine whether we accomplished our objectives. Afterwards, we can then plan for our next incarnation.

Through intuition, dreams and meditation, we may be able to obtain insights relating to our past lives and likewise receive messages and inspirations from above. But this is allowed only when such a remembrance and message will be helpful to us in our present life situations.

2.32 The essential matrix of New Age thinking is to be found in the esoteric-theosophical tradition which was fairly widely accepted in European intellectual circles in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was particularly strong in freemasonry, spiritualism, occultism and theosophy, which shared a kind of esoteric culture. In this world-view, the visible and invisible universes are linked by a series of correspondences, analogies and influences between microcosm and macrocosm, between metals and planets, between planets and the various parts of the human body, between the visible cosmos and the invisible realms of reality. Nature is a living being, shot through with networks of sympathy and antipathy, animated by a light and a secret fire which human beings seek to control. People can contact the upper or lower worlds by means of their imagination (an organ of the soul or spirit), or by using mediators (angels, spirits, devils) or rituals.
While man still on earth does not have the faculties or the sufficient experience to fully appreciate higher concepts and realities, nevertheless to some limited extent, we can relate them to everyday happenings and things here.

We could think of the cosmos as a school system for developing spirits. The earth then would be simply as a classroom.

Theosophical studies cover the origin and development of the cosmos (school premises and everything in it) and human development in all the planes of being from its beginning to its end. They include the physical facilities, teaching methodologies and all other support systems in place in the school. All that have happened in the course of our studies are likewise covered in large part, along with some previews of things yet to come.

Spiritism or Guidance by the Spirits of Truth takes up the lesson proper. The studies are directly supervised by holy spirits and it is their task to help us become holy, ourselves.

In all of these studies, there is much truth, but at the same time, there is much more that are false. It is for every student to discern for himself which is which. "If you adhere to my teaching, you will really be my disciples; and you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free."

People can be initiated into the mysteries of the cosmos, God and the self by means of a spiritual itinerary of transformation. The eventual goal is gnosis, the highest form of knowledge, the equivalent of salvation. It involves a search for the oldest and highest tradition in philosophy (what is inappropriately called philosophia perennis) and religion (primordial theology), a secret (esoteric) doctrine which is the key to all the "exoteric" traditions which are accessible to everyone. Esoteric teachings are handed down from master to disciple in a gradual program of initiation.
The eventual goal is spiritual (ethical) perfection. Knowledge is just the accompanying resulting component and is simply "added to us" automatically. Knowledge not applied is useless, just as "Faith without works is dead."