When you think of who you are, what comes to mind? Your name? your occupation? your family connections? family relationships? your body? Think about it and you realize that you are more than these and more than what you see in the mirror. When you say this is "my" body, who is the "my"who is making this claim?
There is "the living you" and the "non living" you not merely in the biological sense but in a deeper, spiritual context. The ability to think forms the basis of your feelings, emotions and awareness. These are the functions of "the living" you, the you who also has the ability to judge right from wrong, truth from falsehood, reality from illusion, create desires and retain memory. If you relate the qualities of the "living you" to material objects around you see the vast difference - they can perform none of these functions. But is your body different to these material objects? None of your physical organs, such as hands or feet, eyes or ears or even head have the faculties of thought. There is something apart from these organs that does these things.
Let us take an example. Whatever action I perform , although I may use various instruments, I am totally separate from them. For instance when I use a knife with my hands to chop a vegetable, throughout the exercise the knife makes no decisions. If I lose concentration and cut a finger with the knife, neither the finger or the knife become emotionally disturbed - they are purely instruments. It is easy for us to see the knife as an instrument, but we are so attached to our hands, that it is very difficult to dissociate from them and realize that they too are only instruments and really nothing more than this, I have had a pair of hands for as long as I have had this body , and I know they are the only pair I will get. So not only personal attachment to my hands, but to the whole of my physical body, is something so deep, so intense, that I have totally forgotten my real identity.
I am "the living", I am not the physical. I know that I am not because I can experience things beyond physical limitation. My body cannot go back to childhood, but I can. My mind can race forward to the days of my possible old age . Past or future both are equally easy for me to travel in. I can travel through the three aspects of time and travel across any distance in a split-second as my thoughts carry me across the oceans and continents. So my body is physical, I am not physical.
I am metaphysical, unhindered by the physical limitations of body, time or distance.
Also I am definitely invisible. A mirror shows my my bodily features, the color of my eyes but these exterior things tell me little about my real self. I, the being within this physical frame, am invisible. So I know that I am metaphysical and invisible - but what else is there about me - and, Am I eternal?
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Who am I? A three word question that leads to a multitude of names, terms, characteristics, definitions and ideas that do little to pin-point the answer. How can physical definitions identify that which cannot be seen? The idea of "me" and "not me" forever makes it impossible to get to the truth.
ReplyDeleteWe know that spirit lives without the body, but in the spiritual state we are taught there is no sense of "self". We have gone back to being one with God, or All That Is and Ever Will Be. We are a part of all of creation again... so where is "self" in spirit?
I think we are guilty of making the same mistake with our "spiritual self" as we do with our "physical self". We give our "spiritual self" the image of our physical self when we try to think of our spirit, yet all the things that have made me "me" are now gone. So what is my spirit and could I ever know it without the flesh?
It is a fundamental belief that the personality characterisitics, spiritual awareness and even the physical, mechanical body itself is a "reflection" of the spirit. The amount of spiritual/religious knowledge a person has in physical life, the diseases we suffer, the color of our eyes and the texture of our hair, are determined by the nature of our spirit and the work/progress our spirit has made from multitudes of incarnations. And if our physical self reflects our spiritual self, why are we taught to separate the two?
You stated in your essay that your mind can go back to childhood but your body cannot; but isn't this a very common principle taught by most ascended masters. The ability to overcome aging, death and disease. To keep the physical body in a "perfected state of being", neither old or young? Most ascended masters can literally travel by thought, why not us?
I think the more we try to seperate the two, the longer we prevent ourselves from attaining true enlightenment. We cannot serve two masters; only one. When we definie our spirit by denying our physical self; we are attacking the very fabric of our spirituality. We are spirit made flesh. The face in the mirror, the body we bathe, feed and dress, reflects a multitude of spiritual journeys, decisions and lessons learnt. That's why it's "my" body. What makes me "me" has been made by my spiritual journey/history and is seen in or through the flesh of my spirit.
I think instead of trying to seperate the two, one must make the spirit flesh. I think that is one of the major keys to self-enlightement. Recognizing that the invisible, eternal part of you can push through and awaken the physical, mechanical body to that perfected state. That is when we will be able to say "I am God in flesh".
Look forward to your thoughts on my perception, and continuing the dialogue. Excellent topic to discuss.