Page:Alchemyofhappiness en.djvu/87

Rh It has been clearly shown to you, student of the mysteries, that the human spirit in its essence and attributes is to live forever, and that it is able to exist without a frame, that the meaning of death is not the annihilation of the spirit, but its separation from the body, and that the resurrection and day of assembly do not mean a return to a new existence after annihilation, but the bestowal of a new form or frame to the spirit, which shall be under its control in the second period, as the body was under its control in the first period....

In saying that in the second period, the control of the spirit is easy, it is said in respect to our contracted understandings, and in comparison with our operations, and to make the matter intelligible to others. When God says in the powerful Koran, "It is easier," and "For me it is easy," he uses the phraseology only for the sake of being understood by man. On the contrary in the first period, there was nothing difficult for God: it would have been nothing to him to have created without matter, in a moment, a thousand worlds like this which we inhabit.

It follows from what has been said, that it is not a necessary condition of the resurrection and restoration that the spirit should possess exactly the original mould. For that which we seek is not the vehicle of the spirit, but the spirit itself. This mould undergoes change even in this world. Thus, for example, the materials derived from the condensation of the exhalations and the inspissation of the blood in the stomach of the mother are changed by food, and new flesh is produced. Many questions may be asked of those who say that the identical mould must return and rise in the resurrection, and that its absence can in no wise be tolerated, and they will find much difficulty in answering them. One may ask for example, if one man eat another man, and the man eaten become a portion