Posted by Tiggy on March 26, 2000 at 18:42:58:
In Reply to: Occasionally, when I feel it's important. nt posted by Tiggy on March 26, 2000 at 18:32:23:
: : : Explain it better than anyone else has? That's a bit of a tall order, but I'll do my
: : : best.
: : : The Spiritual reality which exists in the universe is not the same as soul or mind,
: : : but it is part of us. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we are part
: : : of it.
: : : We have bodies and personalities, and behind both of those lies spirit. This spirit
: : : is eternal and exists everywhere in all people. It also exists in other living
: : : creatures and in matter even at a cellular level, but in these it exists in an
: : : unconscious way. They are created things which act unconsciously. Man
: : : however has the capacity to be conscious of this spiritual part of him/herself and
: : : generally has been until the modern age where we have little recourse to ideas of
: : : the transcendent or the sacred.
: : : Religions of course are evolutionary, yet they all and always stress this
: : : transcendent aspect of man, and provide ways in which s/he can come to know
: : : that part of themselves, the still centre, which is spirit. All religions identify and
: : : attest to the existence in man of such a spirit which is also identified with God or
: : : the Divine Essence. It is stressed in religious philosopy that this spirit is Real, ie.
: : : that it has Being and autonomous existence, in a way that man living solely by his
: : : own personality cannot have being. This is not to say that our personalities are
: : : bad things, they can aid us in coming to the spirit, but we need to be centred in
: : : the spirit in order for our personalities to be harmonious and for us to be happy
: : : and have 'the peace that passes understanding'. Cut off from spirit, our
: : : personalities are full of strife and discontent, but centred in spirit, they become
: : : redeemed or transformed and become as they should be, part of an undivided
: : : whole. They are reunited with the source of their existence and made real.
: : : Religious thinkers have found and suggested a variety of ways that we can work
: : : towards this uniting with spirit, but have also stressed that it is the work of grace,
: : : ie. that spirit is all the time trying to fill us with its presence, but that we can
: : : co-operate more or less with that as we feel inclined. No religion has clarified the
: : : ways to unite with spirit more than Hinduism which has posited an number of
: : : different ways or forms of yoga. These are, the way of meditation, the way of
: : : action, and the way of love. Hindu writers have also made very clear the
: : : identification of our individual spirit (Atman) and the transcendent, omnipresent
: : : spirit, (Brahman). You may be wondering if this Spirit is personal or impersonal,
: : : but the spirit transcends such categories. It contains all things and all things come
: : : from it, so that of course the personal as we understand it is contained in it, yet it
: : : also totally transcends the personal as we understand it. In the same way it is
: : : Good and Loving, yet transcends goodness and love as we are able to
: : : understand it. We can never fully comprehend that Spirit, yet we can know it,
: : : not by seeing it as an object would be seen and known about, but by realising it
: : : in ourselves - a knowing through experience. We all recognise spirit in things that
: : : are beautiful and good and true and have the capacity to respond to those things
: : : and focus on them and this can help us to get a sense of that spirit which in itself
: : : is much harder to convey than to experience.