“Tied to this world, these people live to the extremes of desire without considering others.” Or, in the words of the Christian apostle Jude, “These people are grumblers and complainers, even though they live to satisfy their desires.”

“The words of higher spirits can nourish the souls of those who live on Earth. In contrast, there are some spirits who are unable to say anything valuable, and only grumble or moan.”  -Ryuho Okawa.

To be honest, I think this is not limited to the afterlife – in fact, I have no memory of the afterlife, so I would not know – but rather I see the same thing here in this world on Earth. Even though we may speak the same language and seemingly talk about the same thing, some are already praising the Light in song, while others are grumbling and moaning. This becomes evident when you manage to get a glimpse through the thick stream of words into the real thoughts that lay beneath or within.

There are people who can use long words and long sentences, yet if you were to sum up their message, it would basically be “moan, moan, grumble grumble”.  Even though they have that much brain to speak or write with, there is little if any gratitude.  Rather they will blame, blame, blame: Bush or Obama, their parents or their boss, their illness or their finances. Everywhere their path is blocked.  It is as if one sees a shade in Hades, stumbling in darkness, not knowing where they are or what happened to them. This is a terrible plight indeed.

I hope to be around to encourage you until I am 120, but whether that happens or not, I implore you: Believe in the Light! Acknowledge the invisible force of Goodness that is everywhere present in this world and any other world. When it seems that you receive less love than you give, that is when you can open your heart to this power. If you are already filled with the goodness that comes from others, there is no empty space inside for the Light to flow into. When you are empty, that is when the Light can fill you, so you can shine brightly from within, like the sun rather than the moon.

Of course, many people really are suffering. It is not something they make up. Truth to tell, this is the human condition, that from time to time we experience things we deeply wish we would never see. Loss is certain: If we do not lose everything in this world gradually, we shall lose it suddenly.  But let that not define us. Let it not shape our souls, so that we live our lives and die our deaths in despair. Let us believe in the Light, and gratefully receive the power to take one small step forward.

Or that’s what the voice inside me says. If I must be honest, there are terrible trials that others have gone through and not I, trials that I even now sincerely hope and pray that I shall never know.

But on the other hand, there are those who would consider my fate unacceptable, and my life not worthy of continuing.  I have been single all my life, for instance, while I have friends who feel sorry about spending a week without their spouse. (Whom they not usually praise as highly as you would think from this.) I earn far less than is common in this country, and am always passed by for promotions ever since I started working 30 years ago.  I care none about this. I do not remember it without actively looking for an example of what I might grumble about.  I did, however, grumble and moan when I was young, and was filled with bitterness because of the bullying I experienced in school as a child. At the time, I thought myself innocent, that I had done nothing at all to provoke the bullying. (It might have happened anyway, actually, since I was chronically ill and children are evil. But we’ll never know, because I was taunting them on a regular basis.) Anyway, I was bitter, and I was in a very real sense in Hell, or at least in the antechambers of Hell. For where your soul is, that is where you truly are.

I do not entirely make this up to sound good and holy, in other words. I know the grumbling and moaning, and I fear ever getting into that pit of darkness again.  May the Light Everlasting preserve us all, and may we let ourselves be so preserved.