CHAPTER VII

IMMORTALITY

1. Man craves for immortality, and this craving of itself is sufficient proof that man participates in eternal life; for there is no desire in man's heart which has not its corresponding goal in reality. Man does not desire things which have no existence, he does not cherish ideals and hopes which cannot be realized. His powers were given to him to reach out for things that are, for things that can be attained. He craves for love, because somewhere there is love for him. He craves for joy, because there is joy in the world for him. He craves for serenity, for peace, for happiness, because these are realities; he would never aspire to them, if they did not exist. No aspiration could be aroused for the acquisition of things that have no reality. The fact, therefore, that man craves for immortality is evidence that immortality awaits him.

2. We learn in Jewish Science that man's existence, as well as the existence of all realities, is an emanation from the Divine Mind. Man is but a spark of the Divine Mind expressing itself in flesh and blood. The real essence of man-his life, his power of thought, feeling, aspiration, his soul, in short, is Divine in its very nature. When we say it is divine, we do not mean that it is some

thing given away by God to man, just as a gift is given by man to man, with which the donor loses all connection after he has given it away. Man's life, man's soul, is a ray of the Divine Light. God does not give this ray away, for it could not subsist independently of the Fount of Light from which it emanates. Man's life is but a projection from Divine Life; his heart beats to an infinitely larger flow of life than that which his body can contain, the thought to which his brain reacts is an outflow from Thought infinitely vaster than that within the circumference of his reason. The ray of Light which is in man can never be extinguished; this essence of man can never die, for its fountain is eternal. Man is immortal because the Source of his being, of which he is an integral part, is immortal.

3. We have been accustomed to the thought that we receive life from our parents, that they are our creators. In truth, parents are but the agents of creation. They are God's instruments in the creation of new life. If parents were the creators, they would be able to determine in advance of its birth, the nature and character of the child, just as the creator of anything else—a sculptor, an author, an architect, designs in advance the nature of the object which he intends to create. But the parents do not even know, before its birth, the sex of the child, and, needless to add, they are ignorant of the emotions, thought, and aspirations that will constitute the man when he is mature. Parents, it is clear, are only agents to supply the form, while the vital essence is supplied by the Divine Mind. Just as the parents supply

the form from their own form, so does the Divine Mind supply the vital substance of life from His own substance. That which parents supply is separate from its source and transient, since it comes from that part in them which is ephemeral; the portion supplied by the Divine Mind is an inseparable part of Himself, and is everlasting, because the Divine Mind is eternal.

4. In Jewish Science, we do not believe in resurrection, but we hold implicit faith in immortality. We do not believe that the portion of man that is interred will become recharged with life, in days to come, and move again among men, but we do believe that the vital substance, which is man, continues in a higher realm. Even in our present state of existence, the physical substance of our being occupies but a subordinate position in our consciousness. We are not conscious of our brain, but we are conscious of our thoughts, of our reasoning process, of our memory; we are not conscious of our heart, but we are conscious of our emotions, feelings, hopes. It is the spiritual, not the physical phase of our existence that plays the dominant part in our consciousness. (Likewise, it is the spiritual in us that establishes our valuation among men. History and contemporary life are filled with instances of those who have been acclaimed and loved by the whole of humanity not for any physical endowments but for the greatness of their spirit.) We see, therefore, that the physical is of insignificant value even in our present existence, and that it is the spiritual that constitutes the man. In the life hereafter, where existence is of a higher order, it is surely not to be expected

that the flesh should constitute any part of existence. The Talmud describes the life to come in these terms: "There is neither eating nor drinking nor any sensual pleasures nor strife." But the joys there, are of a spiritual nature, more lasting and more keen. Immortality means the elevation to a higher realm of existence, where man is free from anxiety, from fear, from care, from bitterness, from hatred, from the very load of his physical armor. It is a state where man's harmony with God is more perfect; it is a state wherein the Divine Mind emerges from the background of man's consciousness to the foreground, embracing the whole of his being; and he thereby enjoys eternal bliss.

5. The more we reflect upon death, the more we must realize that when a being is dead it does not mean that its future is over, but only that its past has been removed to make room for a better future. We go through many deaths in our present existence, although we do not call them by this name; first, we live the life of an infant, then of a babe, then of a youth, then of mature age, then of old age, successively. We live through one stage until it dies to make room for a higher state, and this higher state, in turn, dies to make room for a still higher state. Thus our infancy dies in order to make room for babyhood, and our babyhood dies to make room for childhood, and our childhood dies to make room for youth, and youth for maturity, maturity for old age, and old age for eternal life. In each instance, the lower state dies in order to permit the higher to take its place.

6. It is, therefore, folly to fear death. Man has been fearing death, because he did not understand its nature or its purpose. The past had enshrouded death in a veil of mystery and sadness. But we learn, in Jewish Science, that there is no death in the traditional sense. What we call death is but a loftier state of life-a life purer and nobler, a life in which man is transported into a state wherein he is as close and as kin to God as the angels of theologic tradition. It is a life refined of all terrestrial baseness and misery-it is a life of pure happiness. Man must therefore face death with hope and cheer-not with the sense that all is coming to an end, but with the joyous knowledge that he is stepping out from "the entrance hall into the exquisite parlor"; that he is closing his physical eye in order to behold a more glorious light which this physical instrument is too frail to behold; that all his physical senses and powers stop their functions in order to make room for the greater invisible powers in him to assert and express themselves. There is no reason to fear death; God created everything for the good of that which He created. And death is the step to the supreme good.

7. When we realize that death is not a cessation of existence, but an elevation to a higher life, we realize also that we do not need to lament the dead. We have been trained, many of us, to regard sorrow as sacred; we foster it and cherish it and dress it and engrave it in our hearts and brood over it, so that in time we come even to be attached to its gloomy presence, and resent the efforts of our friends to enliven us and make us forget.