seth's reply to.

 No man or woman consciously knows for sure which day will be the last for him or her in this particular life, that each calls the present one. Mortality with its birth and death is the framework in which the soul, for now, is expressed in flesh. Birth and death contain between them the earthly experience that you perceive as happening within a given period of time, through various seasons, and involving unique perceptions within areas of space - encountered with other human beings, all to one extent or another sharing with you events caused by the intersection of the self and time and space.

 Birth and death then have their function, intensifying and focusing your attention, Life seems more dear in your terms, corporeal terms, because of the existence of death. It seems, perhaps, easier to have no conscious idea of the year or time that death might occur. Unconsciously of course each man and woman knows, and yet hides the knowledge.

 The knowledge is usually hidden for many reasons, but the fact of death, personal death, is never forgotten. It seems obvious, but the full enjoyment of life would be impossible in the framework, now, of earthly reality without the knowledge of death.

 You have been given an opportunity to study life and to experience it more fully than you ever have before in this existence. Its intensity and brilliance, its contrasts and similarities, its joys and its sorrows, are here for you to perceive, whose eyes are opened by the fact of the doctor's pronouncement.

 Now I tell you: That intensification, appreciated and understood, and the experience of life and living, accepted unconditionally, can bring you in this lifetime another birth in which the doctor's pronouncements are meaningless. Spiritually the death sentence given you is another chance at life, if you are freely able to accept life with all of its conditions and to feel its full dimensions, for that alone will rejuvenate your spiritual and physical self.

 The experience that you wrote of was significant on several levels, and of course was meant to reassure you ahead of time because of the events you knew would occur. The experience was to inform you emotionally and spiritually of the great meaning of each individual, portray the lovely brilliance that is within each human being, and let you know that the integrity of the self and the soul exists beyond the possibility of annihilation, as you yourself will continue to exist regardless of which path you choose to take - dying within two years, or living physically on for many more. In other words, you will continue to exist and to be fulfilled within that love you sensed.

 You felt before, unconsciously, that you were drifting and that life had little meaning. Beneath the surface of events you felt unfulfilled, and felt that you had great courage and abilities with never a chance to use them. and no "heroic" episodes then to rouse you to fuller understanding, and no real impetus to lift you or to bring excitement into your days. Unconsciously, therefore, you chose a situation in which a crisis was precipitated, rousing all the greatest elements of heart and soul, so that they must strain to understand, to perceive, to triumph. And so you shall, in whatever way is most important for you, and you will learn more and be more fulfilled than you would have been had those conditions not been initiated.

 This does not mean that there were not other ways available that you could have chosen. You chose the set of conditions that you did because in past existences you were so terrified of death that you tried to hide its knowledge from yourself, and this time you placed it in the forefront of your attention.

 In the entire fabric of your existence, this life is a brilliant, eternally unique and precious portion, but only a portion, from which you emerge with joy and understanding whether you die tomorrow or in years to come. The choice of life and death is always yours.

 Life and death are but two faces or your eternal, every-changing existence, however. Feel and appreciate the joy of your own being. Many live into their 90s without ever appreciating to that extent the beauty of their being. You have lived before, and will again, and your new life, in your terms, springs out of the old, and is growing in the old and contained within it as the seed is already contained within the flower.

 We are all travelers, whatever our position, and as one traveler to another, I salute you. End of reply.

to not hurt when they feel hurt

 A man asked, "how do you end a relationship without being hurt by the other person being hurt? If you decide that it's time to move on and the other person is not ready to move on, so he or she is very distraught, how can you keep your balance in a situation like that?"


 When you attempt to guide your behavior by paying attention to how someone else feels about your behavior, you are powerless because you cannot control his or her perspective, and therefore you can not achieve any consistent improvement in your own vibration or point of attraction or how you feel.


 If you have decided to take the action of leaving a relationshp before you have done the vibrational work of focusing upon what you want and why you want it, any action that you take can only bring you more of the same discomfort that you have been experienceing. And even once the relationship has ended and you are alone or beginning another rerlationship with another person, those old lingering negative vibrations will not allow a pleasant unfolding. Simply put, it is so much better to find your vibrational balance before you take the action of separation, or you may experience a rather long time of discomfort.


 Let us examine the components of this situation and bringing some clarity to your options: You have come to the conclusion as a result of being unhappy in this relationship for a while that it would be better to end it. in other words, you do believe that your chance of hapiness is greater outside of the relationship than inside it. But when you announce that to your partner, your partner becomes even more unhappy. And now because your parter is more unhappy - you are more unhappy.


 One option is to stay - to say, "never mind, don't be unhappy. I've changed my mind. I'll stay." But all that has happend is that you were both feeling unhapp; you made a decision to leave, which made your partner even more unhappy; and now you have pulled back from that decision so your partner is now not quite as unhappy as before - but still neither of you are happy. So, nothing has changed except that things got a bit more intense for a while, but basically you are still unsatisfied and unhappy in this relationship.


 Another option is to just leave. You could focuse upon all of the things that have caused you to feel uncomfortable in the relationship and use those things as your justification for leaving. And while that negative focuse upon negative things will give you the conviction to take the action of leaving, you will not really fell that much better. While you may feel some releife from the intensity of your unhappiness once you are on the outside of the relationship, you will continue to hold you in an unpleasant state. So even though you have walked away from the things that were really bothering you, you will still feel bothered.


 Really, there is nothing that you can do to prevent others from feeling bad, because they do not feel bad because of your behavior. There is no greater entrapment in relationships or in life than to attempt to keep others happy by observing their emotions and then trying to compenstate with YOUR actions.


The only way you can be happy is to decide to be happy. When you take upon yourself the responsibility of another's happiness ,you are attempting the impossible and you are setting yourself up for a great deal of personal discord.


 So now let us consider the options of Pivoting and positive Aspects: Stay where you are for now, making no big change in your action or behavior. In other words, if you are living together, continue to do so. If you are spending time together, continue to do so. This option is a change in your thought process, not your action process. These processes are designed to help you to focuse diffrently and to begin telling the story of your relationship, or of your life, in a better-feeling, more self-empowering way.


 For example: I've been thinking about leaving this relationship because I find that I'm not happy within it. But as I think about leaving, I realize that when I go, I'll take myself with me - and if I leave beacuse I'm unhappy, I'll be taking that unhappy person with me. The reason that I want to leave is because I want to feel good. I wonder if it's possible to feel good without leaving. I wonder if there is anything about our relationshp that i could focuse upon that does feel good. I remember meeting this person and how that felt. I remember feeling drawn by this person and eager to move forward to see what more we might discover together. I liked the feeling of discovery. I liked our relationshp as it began. I think that the more time we spent together, the more we both realized that we were not really a perfect match. I don't believe that there is any failure on either of our parts in that. Not being a perfect match doesn't mean that either of us is wrong. It only means that there are potentially better partners out there for each or us. There are so many things about this person that I like and that anyone would easily appreciate: so smart, and interested in so many things; laughts easily and loves to have fun... I'm glad that we've come together, and I believe our time together will prove to be of value to both of us.


 So, our answer to your important question is this: You cannot control the pain that any other feels by modifying your behavior. You can however, control your own pain by directing your thoughts until your pain subsides and is replaced by improved feelings. As you give your attention to what you are wanting - you will always begin to feel good. As you give your attention to the lack of what you are wanting - you will always feel bad. And if you give your attention to the lack of what someone else is wanting - you will feel bad, also.


 You are so action oriented as physical Beings that you really think that you have to fix everything right now. Your partner did not get to this place all of a sudden. Your partner did not even get there only during your relationshp. This has been a long path. Momentum has been gathering along the way. And so, do not expect that a conversation that you two are having in this moment is going to make all of the difference. See yourself as one who is planting a seed - a very strong, sure, powerful seed. You have planted it perfectly, and you have nurtured it for a time with your words so tha tlong after you are gone, that seed will continue to blossom into that which it is to be.


 There are many relationship that are not appropriate for you to continue, but we would never walk out of a relationship feeling angr, guilty or defensive. Do the vibrational work, get to feeling good, and then leave. And then what comes next will not be a replay of what you just left.

My sympathy is of no value to anyone

 If you do not focus upon others' problem, you can continue to fell good, but they will still have the problem. That is true, at first. But if you do focus upon their problem, you fell bad, they continue to fell bad - and they still have the problem. And if you continue to focus on their problem, you will have the problem, too, in time. However, if you do not focus upon their problem, but instead try to imagine their solution or a positive outcome, you feel good - and their is then the possibility of your influencing them to more positive thoughts and outcomes.

 In simple terms: You are never of value to another (and you never offer a solution) when you are feeling negative emotion, because the presence of negative emotion within you means you are focused upon the lack of what is wanted, rather than what is wanted.

 So if someone is having a bad experience and they come into your awareness with a powerful wind of negativity wrapped around them, if you have not already deliberately achieved your alignment with feeling good, you may be swept into their negativity; you may become part of their chain of pain, and you may very well pass your discomfort onto another, who will then pass it on to another, and so on.

 But if you have been deliberately setting the tone of your day by putting your head on your pillow each night and saying, Tonight, as I sleep, all attention will stop, which means tomorrow I will have a new beginning; and tomorrow I will look for what I am wanting to see because I want to fell good - because feeling good is the most important thing! as you awaken in the morning, you will be upon a fresh path bringing no negativity from the day before. And then, as you walk into a room and you see someone with pain coming toward you, as this person comes with his or her pain, you do not become part of it, but instead you provide a better example of happiness, for that which you feel is that which you radiate.

 Now, it is not likely that just because you remain happy, other will immediately join you in your happiness. In fact, when there is a great disparity between the way you are feeling and the way others are feeling, you will have a difficult time relating to one another; but in time, if you maintain your positive vibrational stance, they will either join you in your positive place or they will vibrate right out of your experience. The only way unhappy people can stay in your experience is by your continuing attention to them.

 To sympathize with others means to focus upon their situation until you feel as they feel, and since everyone has the potential of feeling wonderful or feeling awful - of succeeding at their desires or of failing at their desires - you have options about which aspects of them you sympathize with. We encourage you to sympathize with the best-feeling aspects of others that you can find; and, in doing so, you may influence them to an improved condition, also.