“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

His discipline is improving and has improved this life, especially since the ending of the adolescent period. His smoking, dear Joseph, is indulged in for entirely different reasons than those reasons which impelled you to smoke, and the habit is difficult for him to break, though he is breaking it and he has made strides that are important during the past year.

(“Was Jane ever a smoker in a previous life?”)

No. It is his tendency to gobble here that is important. He has given up in this life gobbling food and drink. In past lives he was never temperate, neither in a physical sense, emotionally or intellectually. This was not in many ways bad. However when the intemperate personality does not discriminate then the basic characteristic can cause unpleasantness. He was always very generous for example and kind, even overly kind. On the other hand he ate and drank too much. He was just overeager as a rule.

His circumstances of birth made it difficult for him to overindulge in the rich things of life, although his present mother used rich foods as compensation for other things, and this example opened Ruburt’s eyes and actually started him on the road to self-discipline.

There has been here a willingness to experience, to experiment and to give as well as a ferocious capacity to take in. The trouble in the past has been a lack of discretion and self-discipline. He was always a pleasure-loving personality however and avoided anything unpleasant. His early circumstances in this life were chosen by him as a needed experience. In other lives he was able to exist without too much adversity and this time he chose troublesome and truly tragic circumstances as a needed challenge.

His temper when aroused was very great however and he retaliated instantly. He had never known hatred however. This time he has had to deal with it in a most intimate manner. The old stormy temper is now seen in Ruburt’s deep grudges. The personality of Ruburt’s mother was not close to him in any other life. The circumstances of birth were chosen at the last minute on his part and was made for two reasons.

Killing except for self-protection will be paid for. The idea of killing is what is at fault. If you agree with the killing of birds for example, you wind up with the killing of men. You will all be taught the sacredness of all life, and in the most practical way.

There is a very practical reason for a reverence for all life, and very practical reasons why man must learn certain facts that up to this point he has considered impractical. He has usually managed to separate his ethical conceptions from his daily business life, but this shall be increasingly difficult for him to manage.

The disability of the present mother is a result of that personality’s own problems, and Ruburt does not have to fear such a circumstance in his own condition. However a relaxed attitude is extremely important to counteract other tendencies. His fear of relaxation is actually rather simply based and superficial, in that it does not have its source in a past life but in this one.

A reverence for life is a saving characteristic of any personality who has it. It adds of itself important elements of understanding and growth in a direct manner. Reverence for life will also enable you to understand and deal with other human beings in a more kindly and beneficial manner.

It will enable you to act and to help without blaming them for shortcomings, since these shortcomings may actually have been chosen by them for reasons of compensation. I do not want this session to run too long, however the reverence for life is so important that I wanted to underline it, and also to emphasize that it includes all life and man himself.