ALL SOULS’ DAY

 

 

November 2 is the feast of "All Souls' Day."  However, as early as the day before, people already visit the cemetery.  Filipinos do not realize the fact that for the living it is just a one-day affair of honoring the memory of their departed relatives and friends.  The Chinese for their part offer prayers and food to their departed loved ones daily.

 

What is the correct practice?  Just after death, the soul leaves the body and the silver chord is cut.  Thus the spirit of the individual cannot go back to the body.  When a person travels in the astral plane, the silver chord is the guide for him to go back anytime he so desires.  Sometimes, he is overwhelmed by the sights that he refuses to go back.  Thus, the person is said to die of "bangungot."

 

Sometimes, the person tries to come back but cannot do so for his body has been embalmed.  He can no longer return to his material self.  The end result is that he floats in the air.  He is not accepted by St. Peter because the appointed judgment day for the individual has not come yet.  It is like this.  One's life is similar to a lighted candle in heaven.  When it is consumed, his life on Earth is over and he dies.  Sometimes, when God sees that he is causing so much destruction on other people's lives, then he cuts some parts of the candles.  He dies early.  When God sees that the individual is doing good to his fellowmen, helping them, then God lengthens the candle.  He lives longer.

 

When the person dies of violent death, you can be sure the individual has incurred karmic debts he has to pay which were owed in this or the previous lives.

 

In death, the person's consciousness leaves the body.  He is no longer unconscious but to his surprise he can see the stiff body of his.  He feels "high."  He floats.  When he wills to be in one place, immediately he finds himself there.

 

But going back to our subject, you usually devote only one day of the year for your remembrance and offering of prayers for your dead, and most often on All Saints' Day and not on All Souls' Day itself.  On All Souls' Day, the spirits of the dead near the surface of Earth are allowed by God to leave their confinement and try to communicate with their living friends and relatives through mediums.  Those at the bottom near the center of Earth are not allowed.

 

The relatives can offer food.  And the spirits of their dead relatives will not get the material food for they are already on a higher plane of existence, but take in the spiritual aspect of the food, its energy.  As matter contains energy so the material has its corresponding spiritual aspect.  It is this spiritual aspect, this energy, that the spirit takes when the food or any material object is offered to him.  It is like this.  A book is made up of sheets of paper with printed matters on the surface.  This is the material side.  When it is offered to a spirit, the spirit takes not the material sheets of paper but the knowledge that goes with the book.  Knowledge is the spiritual side of the material book.

 

. The spirit, which is erroneously referred to as soul, lives on for eternity.  It does not age.  Its place in the spiritual evolution is determined by his past lives and the recently concluded one.  But evolution does not stop.  It goes on.  And the level of happiness, the level of his freedom, depends on the level of his spiritual Awareness and development.  His attainment of "heaven," therefore, is a mere expression of his level of Awareness.  It is like this.  All of you might watch the same movie. The child says it is no good because there isn’t any action.  Another teenager might say it is no good for the story is about the directions of life and he is still young and his interest is romance.  He is not interested.  Another mature individual says "Wow, what a movie! I like it."  For this man, his intellectual level of Awareness is higher.  In like manner, happiness up in the firmament is dependent on your level of spiritual development.  The higher the level of evolution attained, the greater your happiness will be.  And to think you are all crisscrossing the same universal nth dimension.

 

The spirits are aware of this fact.  That is why, they long for prayers for them to rise up faster.  Even those imprisoned inside the dungeons of Earth desire the happiness outside.  They may be happy in their limited way but since they are aware of others who are happier because of freedom, they are not fully contented.  Ironically, this desire for greater happiness has become their punishment.

 

To summarize, on "All Soul's Day," the qualified spirits of the dead are allowed by God to roam the surface of Earth for them to receive whatever offering the living give them, be it food, candle, or any material object.  The spirit takes in the energy or corresponding spiritual counterpart of the material object.  But above all, they hunger for man's prayers, for prayer is the food of the soul.

 

Let man therefore pray for their dead relatives daily.  If not you, who will remember them?  When your turn comes, it is your children who will do it for you.  This is what Christ meant, "Love thy neighbor."  Love is the vehicle for salvation for all.  Loving one's neighbor is loving humanity, living and dead.