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The Thirteenth Lesson: Spiritual Cause and Effect197
It is hard for us to fully realize that we are what we are just by the result
of our experiences. Let us take one single life as an example. You think that
you would like to eliminate from your life some painful experience, some
disgraceful episode; some mortifying circumstances; but have you ever
stopped to think that if it were possible to eradicate these things, you would,
of necessity, be forced to part with the experience and knowledge that has
come to you from these occurrences. Would you be willing to part with the
knowledge and experience that has come to you in the way mentioned?
Would you be willing to go back to the state of inexperience and ignorance
in which you were before the thing happened? Why, if you were to go back
to the old state, you would be extremely likely to commit the same folly
over again. How many of us would be willing to completely wipe out the
experiences which have come to us? We are perfectly willing to forget the
occurrence, but we know that we have the resulting experience built into our
character, and we would not be willing to part with it, for it would be taking
away a portion of our mental structure. If we were to part with experience
gained through pain we would first part with one bit of ourselves, and then
with another, until at last we would have nothing left except the mental shell
of our former self.
But, you may say, of what use are the experiences gained in former lives,
if we do not remember them—they are lost to us. But they are not lost to
you—they are built into your mental structure, and nothing can ever take
them away from you—they are yours forever. Your character is made up not
only of your experiences in this particular life, but also of the result of your
experiences in many other lives and stages of existence. You are what you are
to-day by reason of these accumulated experiences—the experiences of the
past lives and of the present one. You remember some of the things in the
present life which have built up your character—but many others equally
important, in the present life, you have forgotten—but the result stays with
you, having been woven into your mental being. And though you may
remember but little, or nothing, of your past lives, the experiences gained in