because of the human propensity to slide into the false, the negative and harmful. This first human level of consciousness is the first voice of wisdom, conscience, the witness within the heart coolly observing our attitudes and actions, offering the commentary which we can choose to pay attention to or ignore. The choice we have is a manifestation of the freedom we have been given, freedom to follow the dictates of this voice or to perpetuate a disinclination for the good, sometimes called free will. There are several religious traditions, for example the Calvinists in Christianity and certain Muslims, based on a misreading of the Qur’an, who insist that our destiny is completely written for us in advance, nothing we do here can alter our fate or our choice for good and bad, both carved in stone without input from us, without the possibility that the thoughts and acts we engage include an ability to change, the possibility of rise and fall. Yet the soul arrives in this world in a state of purity, it comes from the world of souls as a ray of light from God, not in a garment of inescapable sin. When that soul is clothed in a body, the accretions of karma and the elements come too, but these are materials put in our hands to make what we can of them, we all start with these ingredients to write the story of our life. God does open our heart with His grace, He does put the seeds of His qualities within us so that we can hear His voice if we choose; there would be no reason for Him to send us to this world if there were nothing for us to do, if the efforts we made were irrelevant, of no consequence. When this level of assessment or judgment, this discriminating 37 |