Our experience of life widened when we began to encounter ourselves not only in oneness with the Spirit Father and our fellow living spirits, but also in relation to the forms we were creating for ourselves. A new dimension emerged. We could now sense the difference between our formless being and the living spirit that appeared within a particular form.
Studying these forms and shaping them became an alternative preoccupation. It was a gentle shift, subtle and temporary, yet distinct from our primary preoccupation of dwelling in oneness with the Spirit Father and with one another. This shift marked the earliest stages of spirit forgetfulness. Many living spirits slowly drifted from their awareness of the Father’s love and from the shared love that once defined our life together.
Dear living spirit, you have worn many forms. The one you now hold is only one among countless others you will carry. Each form brings its own lessons. And the more you learn, the more you may desire to make decisions about the form you inhabit in relation to your formless self.
This experience is far from yours alone. A multitude of spirits are passing through different variations of the same journey. Life in forms introduced more than existence. It introduced doing, shaping, and owning. You came to feel that you owned your form, and this closeness made the experience deeply personal. No other spirit could fully step into that experience with you.
Even if another spirit shared your form with you for a moment, it would soon discover that each being experiences the same form in its own way. This is where individuality began to take shape, forming unique personalities within each spirit.
From here on, others began to perceive our personalities differently from how we did, yet their perceptions were just as valid as our own. You couldn’t say, “But I’m not like that,” because, if they did not see it, they would not have said it. None of us had malicious intent towards another. None of us knew what hatred was or could be. And there was still no regulation over what forms we took. No guidance on how to view ourselves or how to perceive one another. The Spirit Father was all the guidance we had, and being our life’s anchor, it was more than enough.
We not only saw through the Father’s perception. We now saw others through the lens of how we saw ourselves. This became the seed of judgment. Even so, no one fought over these perceptions. We all understood that differing views were part of the eternal learning curriculum.
Despite our diverging interpretations of our new experiences, love remained our foundation. We continued to exchange forms freely. Each form we took up revealed a new angle to our experience of life. Although form was not our primary reality, some forms felt more enjoyable or more fitting to us than others, depending on how they interacted with our consciousness and the consciousness of our fellow living spirits. When one spirit was enjoying its form, other spirits could feel the joyfulness, and we all shared it with the concerned spirit.
Naturally, we desired to linger in forms that brought us greater joy. We sought to create more of what excited us. This was the beginning of preference. We began choosing one experience over another, one form over another.
At this point, it became clear that we were doing all this for our own reasons. We recognized that we were the creators of our forms, and that we were enjoying it. This realization was our first step into a new kind of existence, one where we saw ourselves acting independently of the Spirit Father, not in rebellion but in creativity. We knew these actions were ours.
We continued as spirit children of the one Spirit Father. Yet we lived in our own company, expressing our creative abilities and shifting into whatever forms brought delight to our being. In all these, the Spirit Father remained as always, pouring forth love to all, a reminder of the truth.