There is no pain on the spiritual side of life.
But there is a sort of anguish, a Spiritual suffering, due to two things, namely—to our being or getting out of harmony with the purpose of life, and to our having those who are near and dear to us make such mistakes.
When those who are near and dear to us, on any of the planes of life, fail to live as wisely as we do, they are soon separated from us by the law of evolution, which causes them to evolve less rapidly than we evolve, and therefore to be left behind us on some of the lower planes or worlds of life.
This separation causes us spiritual suffering or anguish and even sometimes delays us on our journey to higher spiritual zones.
We sometimes attempt to delay our own spiritual development to carry those with us who are near and dear to us, but usually, we find this task useless, or hopeless, and so depart in sorrow, knowing full well that it is our own spiritual development that is of importance to each of us.
Some of us who are struggling through the physical world today might have been where some of our loved ones are in the spiritual world if we had lived more in harmony with the law of spiritual evolution in some of our former lives.
Had we so lived, much spiritual anguish and sorrow would have been saved to us and to them, and we should not have been separated by the law of evolution until more than one lifetime lies between.
Benjamin F. Woodcox, Fragments
of Spiritual Knowledge Pertaining to the Spiritual World, Woodcox & Fanner, Battle Creek, Michigan, 1923
