Survival

SURVIVAL
The question is not whether you shall survive, but in what way you shall survive. Many theories of the way and time in which the Earth shall die are before you.
Some are of tidal waves and pole shifts, fire and floods, of nuclear winter and global warning, of chemical warfare and biological warfare, of starvation, of asteroid impacts, some of super volcanos, caronal mass ejections. There are many ways in which all life on Earth could die, each of which would provide a different way in which the Earth would die, as well.
"And many dates at which the death of Earth and her inhabitants were expected to take place have come and gone. The method and the time of the destruction of life on Earth have been cause for much speculation, and for many changes in the ways of living for those who believed in them. There is a lesson in each of these events.
Those of you who are wise will learn from the lessons of others. What are the lessons?
"If you only say that all have been wrong, and the lesson they learned was of failure, you are also wrong. Each who believed in a time or method of destruction that has passed was given a valuable lesson in the nature of destruction and survival. If you can find someone who has believed in a time and a way of destruction that has failed to happen, talk to that one. You will often find that person more at peace and more willing to face the reality of life because of the experience. Does this mean that there was a misconception that was a failure for someone?
No, for the lesson in failure to predict events made the failure a success. The lesson was the reality, while the expected event was the illusion. And the survival, to the extent that the survival took place, was spiritual. "For good reason, many of you have been encouraged to provide storage of food and prepare shelter for some cataclysm or holocaust. The preparation is good, and the need for it could even be provided by your creative thought in a self-fulfilling prophecy. And those who more specifically prepared for an event that never happened were faced with a few moments of disappointment and of relief. The lesson and the joy of the experience was that, while preparing, spiritual strength was developed, and a realignment of personal values was found.
Having prepared to survive the taste of death, you can be prepared to live. "This is more true for those who have been satisfied without needing knowledge of a time and way of destruction than for those who have had the time and way revealed to them. If you wonder and wish hard enough, you will find a way to develope your theory of the time and way of destruction. "But if your need for security expands into a desire for natural survival, you are less likely to be able to live in peace from day to day. This is not to say that those who have prepared for survival from something that did not happen were wrong, nor that you are right if you believe in a different way and time of destruction that is expected to come. The reality and purpose of each lesson and experience is in your attitude toward them, not in the facts of your belief or of the ensuing developments in time and space. What lessons can you learn from what you believe?
 If you learn from the lessons, or if you don’t, your beliefs will certainly change with your perspective, for you are in changing times.
"So when you learn of the beliefs of others, with respect to survival or with respect to life and its meaning, expect them to sometimes disagree with yours. To each his own, according to his perspective, is the nature of life and truth. Don’t be too sure and don’t feel the need to be too sure, of what is to come or when it shall come. Be sure that it’s coming. and that there will be survivors, and be sure that you will be one of the survivors. Beyond that, only strive to learn the lessons that cause you to live in joy and peace, sheltered by that faith and belief within you.
"The messages of truth taught to you by your Inner Self, are messages of survival. This day is the day of your survival, not some future day of the imaginary destruction. This is the day for you to learn the lessons of your survival. I do not say that it is wrong to prepare for what you believe shall come, nor do I tell you that it is right for you to prepare. Your lesson is to learn of the security of reality. By whatever method, your lesson is to teach you of the meaning of life.
"Know this by faith, have it proved to you by the events that follow your faith in that which you believe, and you shall become less and less concerned with the time and method by which you shall survive. Build survival centers if you are led to do so, and live in them as you learn the real lessons, around which the centers are built. Accept every belief of every time and way of the death of Earth and her inhabitants as a possibility. Be very humble and very loving as you consider those whose prophecies for destruction failed and are history. And if you have an idea how th cataclysm might happen in the future, don’t be too sure of it.
"But be sure of survival, both for the believers of your theory and for the believers of the theories of others. With a spirit of universal love, consider all things as possible for all others, and know that the reality of life is not overly concerned with destruction or with survival, for all theories are for a temporal purpose. There are many ways of surviving.
 If you have believed something that seem to have failed, have courage to find a new belief from a new truth.
"You need to feel no embarrassment from having been mistaken about what you once believed. The past belief has led you to this present moment, in which you are closer than you have ever been before.
The framework of the lessons of life is an illusion, but the spirit of the lessons is reality. The law kills, but the spirit gives life. Every law is concerned with the physical facts, and every spirit of life is filled with the reality of an attitude based on truth. This is how the truth, which leads to a constantly changing attitude, will set you free from the need for intense concern with survival.
"But after you have found this peace, I do not counsel you to forget your wishes for survival, even in a physical way. When a certain expected time for a certain way of destruction for the life on Earth comes and goes, there are feelings of both disappointment and relief. The spirit wishes for a release from time and its troubles, while the mind and the body wish to continue their search for a better life and for greater joy. This is well, for you are created to love life, and to wish it to continue in its present form until you find a better way.
"Only by faith can you learn to find security and peace of mind that can be found with any sort of life in any environment.
At this moment the writer looks out the window at a sunny morning. The rain has washed the leaves of grass and trees alike, and wisps of clouds hang above the valley. Above them, across the mountain tops, nothing but blue sky appears.
Cattle graze on the yonder mountainside, appearing as mere specks a mile away. You have no more reason to be concerned with survival than they are, but you have every reason to be concerned with the lessons learned in the preparation for survival.
"I do not counsel you to prepare, nor do I counsel you not to prepare, for the destruction of Earth. The way will be revealed when it is time, and the time will be revealed when it is time. You can learn little by knowing when and how the destruction shall come. You can learn little by fear of death and the anxiety of an uncertain survival. But you can learn all you need by living for today, facing the Spiritual Reality of your life and your beloved heritage, and facing the needs required only by this moment and this step of your life.
"You can survive instantly when your spirits lives. You can certainly live at any moment, and you shall live when you face the meaning of your life, which is your life.
So if you think always of survival only as it regards the present moment, you shall have no fear of failing in future survival at some unknown time and in some unknown way. Even so, I encourage you to prepare for what you are led to believe is the way of destruction if you like, and even the time of it. Just remember that the preparation for any future events is of no value unless you are preparing first for this moment and the next.
 You shall live most fully in the smallest increments of time, for your survival is not of time, but of the Spirit of Life and Truth, that Are within you."

EXCERPTED from
A NEW WAY OF LIVING, by Ventris Nukayis
Volume 10, Book 30, Section A, May 21, 1990