Q. Where does the man go from Purgatory?
A. When the purgatorial existence is over the purified Spirit rises into the First Heaven, which is located in the three highest regions of the Desire World.
Q. What change occurs here?
A. Here the results of its sufferings are incorporated in the seed atom of the desire body, thus imparting to it the quality of right feeling which acts as an impulse to good and a deterrent from evil in the future.
Q. Is the past life again reviewed here?
A. The panorama of the past again unrolls itself backward, but this time it is the good acts of life that are the basis of feeling.
Q. How does this affect us?
A. When we come to scenes where we helped others we realize anew all the joy of helping which was ours at that time, and in addition we feel all the gratitude poured out to us by the recipient of our help.
Q. Do kindnesses from others aid us also?
A. Yes, when we come to the scenes where we were helped by others, we again feel all the gratitude that we then felt toward our benefactor.
Q. What lesson can this teach us on Earth?
A. We see from this the importance of appreciating the favors shown us by others because gratitude makes for soul growth. Our happiness in heaven depends upon the joy we gave others and the valuation we placed upon what others did for us.
Q. Is not this giving limited by our possessions?
A. No. The power of giving is not vested chiefly in the monied man. Indiscriminate giving of money may even be an evil. It is well to give money for a purpose we are convinced is good but service is a thousandfold better.
Q. Is this First Heaven a place of happiness?
A. The First Heaven is a place of joy without a single drop of bitterness. The Spirit is beyond the influence of the material, earthly conditions, and assimilates all the good contained in the past life as it lives itover again.
Q. Are there additional advantages to the Spirit?
A. Yes, here all the ennobling pursuits to which the man aspired are realized in fullest measure. It is a place of rest and the harder has been the life, the more keenly will the rest be enjoyed. Sickness, sorrow, and pain are unknown qualities.
Q. What does this region give the religious-minded?
A. This is the Summerland of the Spiritualists, and here the thoughts of the devout Christians have built the New Jerusalem. Beautiful houses, flowers, etc., are the portion of those who aspire to them; they build them themselves by thought from the subtle desire-stuff.
Q. May we say they are real?
A. These things are just as real and tangible to them as our
material houses are to us. All gain here the satisfaction which Earth life
lacked for them.
— Ref: Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception
