How We are Built continued.
In which we define Spirit and Soul, and consider their relationship with the Body and the Mind.
We have a Psyche/Mind
of a particular structure
We talk about being made
up of the trio of Body, Mind and Spirit, but some people use the terms Body,
Mind and Soul.
Spirit and Soul are
treated as almost synonymous in our society. Are they the same or 2 different
things? If we have no definitions of these or don’t even consider them as
different, we don’t know what is being talked about in any previous or current
teachings and are unable to communicate clearly with others and build on our
experiences. Without definitions, everyone ends up reinventing the wheel over
and over; not to mention total confusion in trying to work out what anyone
wants to say.
What is Soul and what
is Spirit? And does it matter?
Well, in the absence of
any agreement whatsoever in trying to define these terms, I will try my own,
and the best way I can think of is through internal description, as in, how it
feels.
I would define Spirit as
the part of us that can ‘jump’; and Soul as the part of us that feels like a
‘lump’. The Spirit part of us has the imaginative, abstract qualities and the
Soul has the emotional qualities.
If we define Spirit as unlimited
in Space and Soul as unlimited in Time, then when Time and Space
come together we manifest as a single human being within a single time-frame,
as in, now. But within this single human being are the 2 parts of Spirit and
Soul, and for most of us they are split. Not to mention, what about the Body and
the Mind? Does that mean that there are 4 ‘departments’ or sections?
I’ll deal with Spirit and
Soul first.
What are the differences
between Spirit and Soul?
Spirit
Is the part of us that can
‘jump’. It has unlimited space to move and roam.
It lives in the mind and
appears to us to be synonymous with it.
It is our imagination. It
can ‘see’ the bigger picture, abstraction (or chunking up) and meaning, as in,
the ‘why’. It does have access to all the knowledge/concepts held in space,
although that knowledge can be theory rather than actuality and is not
necessarily congruent with reality on Earth.
Its characteristics are….
- Singular.
Free; singular and
unattached; It doesn’t need anyone else. Detached; minimal to no emotions.
Can’t attach, and not much ability to feel or sense others. Doesn’t understand emotions, basically.
- Feels trapped in the
body.
It feels trapped by the
body and thinks it doesn’t need it. It doesn’t understand the body’s abilities,
especially that of sensing the external world. Prone to treat the body as if it
were a car/machine/robot/mechanical device for carting it around and doing what
it wants. Spirit generally ignores what the body senses because it doesn’t
‘make sense’ to spirit’s accepted concepts or ways of ‘knowing’.
- It can access all
‘knowing/knowledge’ ‘out there’.
It thinks it has all the
answers; for itself and everyone else. (If we think we have all the A’s, how do
we ask any Q’s?.) Doesn’t listen to others. Doesn’t understand the difference
between theory and practice. Has the Theory – hence channeling it always
‘sounds’ good. [That person may not have been able to live it tho’.]
- Impatient; used to
‘no time at all’.
Wants everything now,
because it can conceive/imagine things in an instant.
- No memory because no experience of time.
Soul
- The part of us that
feels like a ‘lump’.
It resides in the body and
feels completely synonymous with it. (The western world has a long history of
referring to bodies as ‘souls’.)
It is our memories and
emotions.
It has unlimited time.
The memory of an event with a strong emotional response sends us back in time,
but bits of memory can get stuck and break away, as in, our memory can
become fractured and that particular memory will repeat over and over in time
like a stuck vinyl record forever. It doesn’t move and it doesn’t change.
The soul is earth-bound
because it is unlimited in time, and time is only experienced on earth; hence
‘lump’.
- It carries our
history.
We need memories for our
resources, our ability to develop/build on our skills, relate to others (try
talking to someone who has lost their short-term memory), and
remembering/storing information for when it’s relevant next time, and to review
our past and/or how we have got to where we are.
- The soul has
attachments - to things and places
as well as people, especially in the external world, and they are not always
appropriate.
Attachments are made
because of our emotions.
Our emotions are the
source of our greatest sadness and our greatest joy, and of course, love, and
really, our search for love and for life are our alpha and omega, and come from
the soul.
Our emotions are our
rudders. They are how we work out what’s important to us, and what we value,
and point us in the direction of wanting more of what we like, and set us heading
in that direction.
Memories and Emotions
and the Soul.
The problem of the soul.
The soul is inextricably
entwined within the body. The soul has ‘attachments’ to others and things and
places. It’s the body that feels the emotions, and our emotions are our
rudders. They are how, or really why, we make the choices that we make, and our
choices are affected by our memories.
The problem here is that
these emotions can be from past lives as well as this life. We are not ‘tabula
rasa’. So, not only do we ignore emotions from this life as irrelevant, the
concept of having emotions and issues from past lives is just even more to be
ignored, and yet to do so leaves us without any ‘handle’ on what is actually
happening with us at a very deep level in the unconscious.
A very mild example would
be someone who is afraid of water and can’t learn to swim, with no logical
reason why; they just are. Yet even a minimal realization for them that they
may have drowned in a previous life can be sufficient to change their decisions
in this life and view swimming in a different manner. And really, that’s all
that is required; a change of mind and a fear has gone. Simple, but we don’t
believe it, so it doesn’t exist, and yet, that person knows that something in
their life is different. They are no longer blocked from the pleasure and
social context of swimming.
A not so mild example
would be that of a destitute father going out to find food for his starving
family during winter and getting caught in a snowstorm and dying of cold. He
has not been able to return, and some of his family may die of cold and/or
starvation. The father may decide he is no good as a father; the mother may
decide that others can not be relied upon, and the children may decide that
parents don’t look after you, or fathers abandon you or that life’s too hard,
and so on and so on. These are the decisions that get carried with us into the
next life, (because there is a big emotional ‘bang’ attached to these
decisions; the family died thinking these things) and however useless they may
be, they hang around like bad smells and affect our next lives because Life
reflects our unconscious back to us, and these decisions stay sitting in there
until we decide something else.
We have already had a
range of lives and experiences that have led us to make such decisions about
the things that have happened to us. They are part of the Soul which holds our
memories (because of Time). This is not absolutely all our memories; what is retained
are the ones with strong emotional charge attached to them, whether positive or
negative. (However, we don’t usually complain about the positive ones.)
The union of the Soul with
the Spirit within the Body (ie, we’re alive) brings these memories into the
Unconscious part of the Mind, and it is the Body that generates and feels the
emotions.
But, some of these
memories have such a strong negative emotional charge that they split off from
the main ‘body’ of the Soul and get stuck in the time that they occurred, and
in this time they just play over and over (which is what ‘stuck in time’
means), and start feeling like one’s worst nightmares; in fact, like hell, so
we bury/repress them as much as we possibly can. We get stuck in fear.
If we have any of these ‘lost’
bits, they will ‘pinch’ energy from now, because they are awful and we want
them to stay repressed, and it takes energy to repress them. If there are more
than a few, (and many people have them), then there can be many bits up and
down the time-line through our previous lives, and the owner may feel fragile
or very easily shattered, and won’t know what’s going on. That person just
feels ‘out of control’ and generally fairly anxious about being in situations
where it may happen again. But really, if you feel shattered easily, you may
well have ‘bits of you’ somewhere else in time.
In fact, these bits can be
remembered and retrieved back into the present, at which time the owner may
feel as though they have found or retrieved some part/member of themselves and
feel internally stronger or more resilient. Hence re-membered.
However, this process of
re-membering actually requires the overview or the ‘bigger picture’ that the
Spirit is able to bring in. The Soul tends to get stuck in the detail of what
happened, and needs the Spirit to provide the bigger picture of the why
it happened to find its meaning for us.
Thus, we need Spirit and
Soul working together to resolve the problems of these -’ve emotions, and thus
able to bring the contents of the unconscious into the conscious. In so doing,
we feel stronger or more integrated for it.
Well, what about the
Body?
·
The body is an animal. (We just don’t like remembering this bit.)
·
It is our
vehicle in this Life. But, it is not just a machine/robot to cart the Spirit
around and do what it says.
·
It houses the
Mind, along with the Spirit and the Soul.
·
It is made of
earth/dust and will return to this. We like to forget this bit too. We have to
maintain it if we want to stay alive. This involves effort.
·
It is our manifesting
device; we can’t do things or make things or much else without it. It’s
the part that ‘has and can mould the clay’ if we want to make things,
·
It is our energy
exploring device; it’s how we get to experience things.
·
It is our energy
sensing device, (all senses; not just VAKOG plus all the
energy vibrations available to us; not just measurable ones either). We must
understand that we are an animal and part of Nature and have access to the same
range of subtle energies that surround all life. We cannot
perceive/register/sense or ‘pick up’ these ‘vibes’ of Life without a body.
People have enormous variation in their sensitivity to these energies, which is
something we discount, generally because we are unable to measure these things.
(The sooner we get rid of ‘if it’s not empirical, it doesn’t exist’, the
better.) Don’t forget we can pick up others’ emotions as well; they are ‘vibes’
too.
·
It is our energy
transmitting device; our own energy basically, as in, our own unique
vibration. This energy that we are transmitting is the energy of our Unconscious;
our Inner Self. We tend to think it’s our outer self or persona or image
that we’re transmitting, and that we can use our will to force this, but it
takes energy to maintain this image if it is not aligned with the unconscious,
which is usually the case.
·
It is how we
make our communication and connection to others including being
the way/means by which God/Nature/Life can communicate with us.
The
Body is the ‘practice’; the actuality,
and the Mind holds the memories of the differences (our collisions) between
theory and practice.
In our current society we
are more familiar with Spirit. We really devalue the body and the emotions, and
in so doing we have lost the Soul. There is an awful lot of New Age stuff about
our being a ‘spiritual person having an earthly experience’ as if Earth were
not our true home, although this may be in response to a general tendency to
simply use the body without ever thinking about the reason for having life.
However, it seems to me that we are really failing to encompass the importance
of the body and its energies and the importance of addressing our physical
health, the lack of which can affect both the emotions and our mental health.
Our physical health is totally wrapped up in the health of the Earth. (A nice
sweeping statement!)
And the Mind?
Exists only while we have
a body; ‘ipso fatso’ (as in ‘Perishers’). (We don’t like that one
either.)
Has a lot of ‘stuff’ in it
when you think about it. (‘Stuff’ being a technical term, of course.)
·
Data from this
present life experience and all you have accumulated so far.
·
Data from all
those ‘vibes’ we ‘swim in’.
·
Data from the
Autonomic Nervous System running the body.
·
Data from the
Spirit.
·
History from the
Soul.
·
Our connection
to Life and God.
And some of it is
conscious and some of it is unconscious.
And some of the
consequences of this ‘arrangement’?
Now, we can look at some
of the consequence of these different departments as they come together.
Recognizing Concepts
that come from the Spirit.
Anyone we know??
Freedom, singular ie
detached, and few emotions.
Hence no attachments, to
people or things and no love either; and no idea of their value or importance -
attachments are seen as a weakness along with the body.
It may be able to feel
‘heavenly’ through stilling the mind, but it is unable to act upon
giving love as effort or serve.
Emotions ‘mess up’
rational decision-making and logical thought. Rational is good. (Begs the
question of what is good?)
Doesn’t really like
having a body.
Because it’s an animal and
requires effort to maintain, and it’s slow and an encumbrance to freedom, and
for men it is a betrayer and will not stay under control; (hence
many religions’ efforts to punish the body to keep it down for the
lord’s sake, or punish those who might make it go up!). In fact, as far
as Spirit is concerned the body with its Soul is a real pill, and the sooner it
can get rid of it or work out how to use it to the max for its own
satisfaction, the better.
There is no need to look
after the body because it is ephemeral to this life and in the end it doesn’t
matter, because ‘Heaven’s where it’s at’.
Has all the Answers
already.
Why need anything else?
And don’t need anyone else anyway; especially anyone else’s Answers. It knows
it all already and doesn’t need feedback or actuality to counter that. This
translates as thinking that what someone says is what they do.
Well, not! This one is such a trap! Our ‘talking’ society increasingly ignores
the difference, and relies upon self-estimation as the measure.
Impatient.
Used to no time. It’s used
to imagining it and thinking it’s true, and no need to check anyway because
it’s on to the next thing. No idea of the amount of time it takes to
grow/build/make/real-ize something in the physical; or of working steadily and
patiently to get to this ‘end’.
No memory.
Hence the belief that, if
we ‘put it all behind us’ it’s gone. ( However much we may like to think
this is so, this concept is entirely and utterly incorrect.)
Spirit has little to no
concept of Nurturing, Protecting, Love or Serving.
It is always
trying to dream up ways to escape, and justify it as well.
And, its creations tend to
have no soul and are lifeless; offering utility and ‘bling’ rather than beauty or
charm.
But we do need Spirit
to..
·
Lift us up to get the bigger picture and the context
·
Provide
inspiration and imagine possibilities
·
Provide the
meaning
·
Provide the
metaphors that form bridges in meaning across PEMS (the 4 dimensions of Physical,
Emotional, Mental and Spiritual).
·
Stop us from
getting stuck in detail.
But Spirit is here to
learn…
·
The value and importance of love and to discriminate what to be
attached to.
·
The value of
effort and serve for love in creativity and relationship.
·
The value of the
body and its senses in its connection to Life and Nature and our Inner Self.
·
The value of
collaboration with the other for better ‘answers’.
·
The value of
patience and time especially in relation to our children and/or our
manifestation and/or creativity.
·
The importance
of our experiences and our memory as communication devices with our Inner
Selves.
Our body with its Soul
wants to be…
Safe - this seems to be no.1 (just). Wants it PMES. ie in
all departments
Fed and Watered - no.2. What we ingest needs to be clean - how
important and how ignored!.
Clean. Comfortable and the correct temperature for it.
Healthy and Well and able
to move with ease and vitality.
Touched and stroked.
Fully able to play and
explore according to its needs.
And, of course…
Loved. Nurtured,
Protected and Served.
It also…
Likes to spend time and
sense in to Nature, go with the flow. Patience.
It kind of has a mind of
its own, which is usually unconscious.
It is the part that can
nurture new growth as long as it understands how to nurture itself.
When we watch a well-fed,
secure animal enjoying the sun and just Being, we can identify with that. That
is Soul. (And how much do we get to these, and who does so?)
Creations made with Soul
have a life of their own.
On the other hand, Soul
does need to let go of those attachments, especially things in the external.
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