Luciana Medeiros
Brazil
Joy, sadness, apathy, curiosity… what are you feeling now?
When our feelings get mixed up and confused, there can be many influences. Among them, the illusion about what we imagine we possess and control, the anxiety for the next moment or the disenchantment for what we think we have lost, be it time, people, material things, and even followers on social networks. And all this can cause us a lot of suffering.
Suffering, be it physical, emotional or spiritual, is always pain and every pain promotes a natural search for an end. We need relief and, in an increasingly virtual and immediate world, when this does not happen quickly, we feel frustrated and life seems to lose its fun, meaning, color.
In the speed in which everything happens around us, and with an increasingly superficial and instant vision about things and people, as well as about ourselves, can we discern what is really important to live for?
Thinking about the spiritual life is very important. In question 136 from The Spirits’ Book (1), Kardec asks: “What would our body be if it had no soul?” And the Spirit of Truth answers: “A mass of flesh without intelligence, or anything you might want to name it, except a human being.”
The physical body serves as a wrapping for the soul so that it can, through reincarnation, live experiences that contribute to its spiritual progress. As the needs of the body must be met in order to fulfill its divine purpose, but they should not be the purpose of our life, because that is not what our soul inhabits.
If we do not meet the evolutionary needs of our soul, how will we feel spiritually?
The essentially materialistic point of view can hardly see in perspective the sufferings of the world, understand them and give us encouragement, and this can lead us into a state of melancholy, to which we must pay attention.
The Spirit François de Genève, in The Gospel According to Spiritism (2), tells us about the need to face melancholy, because this is a state of mind influenced by the importance we give to material things or to what satisfies our selfishness and pride, instead of being concerned with our mission in the world.
According to medicine today, melancholia is considered a persistent mood state, manifested by generalized apathy, cheerlessness, inertia, boredom, and may begin with a simple downcast mood, lead to a deeper state of sadness and culminate in depression.
The sensations present in melancholy can undermine the will to live and must therefore be combated. Care must go far beyond medications and the need for multidisciplinary medical follow-up.
About this, the spiritual friend François de Genève warns us that, while incarnated, it is natural for various feelings to affect our mood, although we do not immediately understand why. However, we must be alert to possible causes, because they interfere with the way we live, the way we relate and even the way we appreciate things and the importance we give to them.
He reminds us that the desire for happiness and freedom is natural to every human being, but they can only be achieved when we accomplish the purpose of our reincarnation and if, when we are released from the physical body, we are at peace with our conscience, according to the commitments made in our reincarnation planning.
There is nothing wrong with making a living every day, working for the improvement of the world, and using technology, as well as seeking joy with friends and family in moments of leisure. But are we aware of the extent of energy and importance we devote to these things to the detriment of what is of interest to our evolution and that of everyone around us?
Without proper attention to our way of life, we may be attending more to the demands of the physical body than to the benefits that our soul could gain from these experiences.
Translated by Juliana Lazzari
Are we living with joy and hope, enduring the challenges of reincarnation without regret, with faith in God and His purpose for us?
The way we strive to fulfill our spiritual duties to our family and society, whether we are developing love for our neighbor and taking advantage of the experiences of reincarnation to evolve morally, shows us in what sphere our thoughts and heart dwell. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34).
Bibliography:
- The Spirit’s Book, question 136.
- François de Genève, The Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter V – Blessed are the afflicted, Instructions from the Spirits.
Translated by Juliana Lazzari
