We continue the methodical study of the Pentateuch Kardec, which focuses on the five major works of the spiritual doctrine, in the order they were first published by Allan Kardec, the Encoder of Spiritualism.
The answers to the questions presented, founded in the 2th edition published by FEB, based on translation of Anna Blackwell, are at the end of the text below.
Questions for discussion
A. The Spirit has a wrapper that can help in your personal identification?
B. Spirits are all equal, or there is some hierarchy among them?
C. Spiritual progress is within reach of all spirits, or just the chosen of the Lord?
D. The spirits have since its inception, the freedom of choice between good and evil?
E. Whence came the influences acting on the spirits?
Text for reading
67. Spirits are quick as thought. And they can penetrate everything: air, water, land and even fire. (L.E., 89 and 91)
68. The Spirit cannot be in two places at once, but each is a radiating center for different sides, and that is why we seem to be everywhere at once. It's like the sun, which, without dividing it radiates everywhere. (L.E., 92)
69. Spirits do not radiate the same power. The power of irradiation depends on the purity of each. (L.E., 92-A)
70. Spirits can be classified into three main orders. At first order, we can put those who have arrived to perfection: the pure spirits, which no longer suffer any influence of matter and present intellectual superiority and moral absolute with respect to other spirits. Having gone through all the degrees of the scale, are no longer subject to reincarnation in perishable bodies. In second order, which one arrived in the middle of the scale: good spirits, in which the desire of good is their concern. In the third, those who are still at the bottom of the scale, imperfect spirits, which are characterized by ignorance, the desire of evil and all evil passions they retard development. (L.E., 97, 112 and 113)
71. In the second order (good spirits), we found four classes: Spirits benevolent, wise, prudent and above. Some have science, others, wisdom and goodness. All, however, still have to undergo tests. (L.E., 98, 107 to 111)
72. In the third order (imperfect spirits) found five classes: unclean spirits, frivolous, pseudo-wise, neutral and beaters or disruptive. Some do neither good nor evil, others, on the contrary, take pleasure in evil and are happy when they find time to practice it. And there is, frivolous or blundering, more mischievous than evil, which find pleasure in mystifying and cause minor setbacks, of which we laugh. (L.E., 99, 101 to 106)
73. It depends on the spirits hasten its progress towards perfection. They arrive there more or less rapidly according to their desire and their submission to the will of God. (L.E., 117)
74. All spirits, to get to the right, pass by the road of ignorance. Endowed with free will and created simple and ignorant, are in their origin, suitable both for good and for ill. Those who are bad become so willingly. (L.E., 120 and 121)
75. Free will is developed as the Spirit becomes conscious of itself. Being able to move in a direction they desire, some succumb to temptation and others resist it. This is the big picture of man's fall and original sin. (L.E., 122)
76. Imperfect spirits seek to involve the Spirit in your home, putting in its evolutionary march block out. That is what is intended to represent the figure of Satan. This influence follows the life of the Spirit, until he has so acquired the mastery of self, that haunts the bad desist from it. (L.E., 122-A and 122-B)
Answers to questions
A. The Spirit has a wrapper that can help in your personal identification?
Yes it involves a substance, to our eyes misty, but still pretty rough for him. As it is steamy, the Spirit can soar in the atmosphere and transport himself where he likes. In this wrap Kardec he named perispirit. He graduated with the universal fluid of each globe, why is not the same in all worlds. Passing from one world to another, the Spirit changes mantle, as we change clothes and this envelope has the shape that the Spirit wants. That's how he appears to sometimes embodied either in dream or in waking, and may take a visible and even palpable. (The Spirit's Book, questions 93, 94 and 95.)
B. Spirits are all equal, or there is some hierarchy among them?
They are of different orders according to the degree of perfection they have achieved. These orders are unlimited in number, because between them there are no demarcation lines drawn as barriers, so that divisions can be freely reproduced or restricted. However, considering the general character of the spirits, they can be reduced to three main ones. In the first place will be those who have attained maximum perfection: the pure spirits. Form the second to arrive in the middle of the scale: the desire for good is what prevails on them. Belong to the third that are still at the bottom of the scale, imperfect spirits. The ignorance, the desire of evil and all evil passions they retard progress, this is what characterizes them. (Work cited, questions 96, 97, 98, 99 and 127.)
C. Spiritual progress is within reach of all spirits, or just the chosen of the Lord?
Progress is available to everyone and, according to Spiritism, they all become perfect. It just depends on the Spirits progress more or less rapidly towards perfection, and they achieve more or less quickly, as their desire to achieve it and submission to witness to God's will. There is no setback in the evolutionary process. As the spirits move, understand what keeps them away from perfection. Completing a race, the spirit is there with the science that came to him and not to forget. Can, then remain stationary, but not retrograde. (Work cited, items 114, 115, 116, 117, 118 and 122.)
D. The spirits have since its inception, the freedom of choice between good and evil?
Yes Free will is a power that God gave to spirits and develops as the Spirit becomes conscious of itself. (Work cited, questions 121 and 122.)
E. Whence came the influences acting on the spirits?
The influences come from the best of good spirits. Bad influences resulting from the action of imperfect spirits, seeking to grab them, master them, and rejoice in doing them succumb. That was what was intended to symbolize the figure of Satan. These influences accompanying the Spirit in your life until there is achieved both empires upon themselves to give up the evil haunts them. (Work cited, 122 questions, and the 122-122-b.)
