An eastern teacher taught one day, "Death is an illusion." The next day, he taught, "Death is real." His students tried to pin him down: "Today you tell us Death is real, yesterday you told us it is illusion. So which one is it?" He said, "Death is a real illusion."
That teacher understood about the difference and the entwinement of Body and Spirit.
As human beings, we experience the awareness of death as a real thing, suffer death of loved ones as real loss, real and final seperation--though as spirit we may know just as plainly that there is no final loss, and that death is not an end but a passage.
I experienced the difference between Body and Spirit consciousness when I was listening to something about past-lives, and though in certain circumstances I had no trouble accepting the notion as totally rational and reasonable and real, this time it seemed absurd. I considered why that might be: How could I so easily believe it one day, and so simply disbelieve it the next? I ran the concept by myself again, and found it still absurd. Then I made a conscious shift from 'I am body' to 'I am spirit' and all of a sudden the reality of past-lives was simply obvious.
It isn't hard to make that shift, only accept the premise that we are comprised of both, and can own either point of view.
Everything in western culture makes it easy to identify Self with the physical. Yet, it is not so hard to identify Self as Spirit, because we experience Self apart from Body every time we sleep and dream, or wander in our thoughts away from whatever thing our body is doing.
Once it makes sense to us that we are not just one or the other, that shift is a matter of choice.
Great blogging. I consider myself to be a pretty open person, but lately I seem to be stuck in 'body mode'. Any advice?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nonimous-- Welcome to my bit of the Universe!
DeleteMost of us, most of the time, are in 'body mode'because that's where we are culturally and socially conditioned to be: from birth on, our attention is focused on what we eat, how we dress, how we care for our bodies. We don't consider our dreams as anything but an effect of sleeping and an interesting psychological phenomena. We, descended from the Age of Reason, which resists all things magical or mystical, are taught from the outset that only physical things are significant. The rest is all in our heads.
This is a big obstacle to making that shift of consciousness to "I am Spirit."
Consider all that keeps you perceiving from the perspective of the physical reality. Then consider--What if this is not all there is? What if there are other actual realities? Consider things that are real... but not physical. Like emotions. Like dreams. Like thoughts.
Does this help?
A bit, yes. Much, I have already come to suspect for myself, but I think your answer might help others understand as well.
DeleteIf your life right now is caught up in solving 'body problems,' like money or health issues, for instance, that will also keep your attention focused right in the problems.
DeleteWhen you make that distinction between what you have and what you are... and make the body and all its stuff, stuff you have instead of the sum of what you are, it can make those body problems a lot more manageable too.