In the Cave till our Grave

Many of us stay in the cave till our graves because we are so restricted and protected by our belief systems that all our lives, we choose to live and die in the cave. Just like a frog in the well, we are not willing to explore the reality of who we truly are, what we are, where we have come from, and where we will go.

We are so programmed as children and young adults that whatever we have learned in the first two to three decades of our life becomes the constitution, the rules, and the laws of our life. Our philosophy refuses to go beyond that. We live and die with the roots we have been given. And because of these roots, we are unable to change the shoots and the fruits. Thus, we live our entire lives as the same tree.

But once in a while, some of us may walk out of the cave to see the beautiful sunshine outside, to look up at the sky and see the clouds, birds, moon and stars, realizing that the life in the cave was restricted.

In the same way, we believe that we are this body. We live and die in those little families that are known to us, without realizing our true Father, our Creator. Who is our Creator? Where did we come from? Essentially, who are we?

When we contemplate deeply, we realize that we are not this mortal body, but the divine spirit, which is nothing but the power of God, the almighty Creator – omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient – who we cannot define or comprehend. Much later, when we have the courage to think further, then only we realize that we are not just the spirit, but also the power of God – beyond being the spirit alone.

God has manifested into everything in this world. Without God, there is nothing! This entire world is a manifestation and not a creation of God. Therefore, we are God, disguised, manifested as this human body.

It is on deep contemplation that this realization is arrived at – as to who we are and who God is. Once we realize these answers, we can live a life of bliss or Aananda, knowing the truth that God is everywhere, even in our hearts!

AiR

That sounds like just another belief system that keeps you in the cave. (Maybe it’s a different, more comfortable cave … but it’s still a cave.)

If the entire world is a manifestation of God, so is my body.
Plato sucks! His is the original theory of the schism of spirit and body–a false dichotomy, pitting one aspect of the human psyche against another.
“Plato is a bore.”–Nietzsche. If only he was only that! Unfortunately, he has translated into a Christian notion of body hatred, which has tortured Christians for thousands of years. Christianity is rife with instances of wannabee saints who tortured their bodies in hopes of spiritual enlightenment. Teresa of Avila is such an example. So, the question is why would God give me a body then demand that I deny it?

His was a distinction between ideal concept vs physically material (aka “divine vs Mortal”).

The concept of “spirit” got misused and conflated with the idea of “concept”. The “angels” are not spirits, but concepts.

I don’t know if Plato ever had a word for spirit, which might have been why the confusion took place.

Plato’s view was that the soul (spirit) was imprisoned in the body, to be released after death. I don’t have problems with this if what is meant by soul is some manifestation of the trinite human psyche (mind, body, spirit). I’m simply averse to any notion that aspects of the human trinity are at odds with other aspects of the same.

Ierrellus … another great example of the question of ‘learning’ that Moreno mentioned in another post. I enthusiastically agree with your comment about the wannabee saints … why couldn’t they learn that what they were doing was so stupid … a mystery to me.

What type of ‘self-torture’ have you read about concerning Teresa of Avila? She is another Saint who has been instrumental on my spiritual journey … here’s the story about how I met her.

[i]"On the same trip involving Nevers, Michelle and I visited Assisi. The visit was quite pleasant … nothing ‘spiritual’ … at least nothing that was in my conscious mind. While in Assisi I got a ‘heads up’ on the fact that Interpol was looking for me and I purchased a book about the life of St Francis and 2 volume series about St Teresa of Avila thinking it was a book about the Ste Therese Michelle talked about.
The countryside was immensely picturesque, rolling hills etc. Assisi was the first authentic ‘walled city’ that I had only read about previous to my visit. Seems this real life observation of a city surrounded by walls would come back to mind many, many times when reflecting on human nature and the evolution of mankind. The walled city is the child or grandchild of what we know today as the nation state … e.g. Canada. Wonder what the next major shuffle of social structures and societies will bring?

In February 1995 I am living at the Maples Inn in Guelph, the only place in Guelph where you could rent a self contained apartment for a day, a week, a month etc. I was still very much in limbo … no job … no hobby … no purpose etc. I read St Teresa of Avilla’s book and remember particularly the section titled ‘Interior Castles’ … deeply moved or touched by St Teresa’s writings about her mystical experiences. Learned later that many scholars consider her writings on mysticism some of the best available; yet she was an uneducated Spanish peasant."
[/i]

Wikipedia claims St. Teresa engaged in “mortifications of the flesh”.

That is an example of what I meant. The “soul” is NOT the “spirit”. Those are two different things that are very often conflated throughout centuries of texts because the ideas were never clearly defined to all parties (not to mention those merely hijacking the words for effect and influence).

The “soul” is the fundamental concept or essence of a person, and thus eternal. Plato would have spoken of a person’s soul. A “spirit” is a physical essence and energy that only exists as long as there is a host/“body” of some kind and thus it typically temporal. A spirit is more of an ancient Oriental thought, now associated with “energy”.

Angels and souls are very similar, eternal concepts. Spirit is just another word for “behavior”; maybe good, maybe bad, usually changing.

Seven words that are attributed to Teresa of Avila earned her so much esteem … in my eyes.

Only seven words … “Don’t send me any more stupid priests!”

For me … akin to words attributed to Krishnamurti on his death bed … “No one understands me!” … this from someone who lived more than 90 years … traveled around the world and held discourse with the crème de la crème … at least in some circles.

For me … this gives credibility to his well known quote “Truth is a pathless land” . I interpret this as … Truth will find us at the appointed time and in it’s own way.

Huxley (“The Perennial Philosophy” p 100)wonders whether the “excruciating forms of self torture” Teresa subjected herself to “really helped her to come to unitive knowledge of God, or whether they were prized and persisted in because of the psychic powers they helped to develop. . .” According to Huxley,Teresa practiced self mortification to the day of her death. So the question remains–does punishment of the body lead to enhancement of the soul? Many saints and mystics seem to have thought so. Paul claims to have become a eunuch for God. Origen castrated himself.

I sense much fear in you Ierrelus.

And how does that sense contribute to the discussion, which is not about me? BTW my name is Ierrellus. Can we now get back to the conversation?

It has everything to do with the discussion. You get very huffy when someone threatens the connection between your spirit and body.

That’s a great little phrase there. Did you come up with that, yourself?

But what if, as rare as it might be, someone happened to have been “programmed” accurately and raised in the only tree worth living in?

Worth has nothing of value in the true sence. Different mansions are required to realize this, or Marcus Aurelius’ quip, that unrealized wisdom is not wisdom.

No, not huffy. Exasperated maybe. Without a body I would have no spirit. Beating the body in order to obtain some sense of spiritual enlightenment is like beating a dumb animal. Besides, this sort of thinking is at least schizoid. It does not reflect the known trinity of the human psyche–mind, body, spirit. No one of these aspects can be seen as superior to the others without causing problems in both action and thought. AiR is fond of denigrating body at the expense of the soul. I see the history of such as a plague on religious understanding.

Without neurons, I’d have no mind. I realize that we aspire to soar among the stars and often consider our physical condition to be the weight that drags us down to the Earth. But credit should be given to the physical conditions that allow us to aspire in the first place. Bodies are not impediments to spiritual understanding; they are the base from which such understandings can be possible. Spiritual enlightenment at the expense of body is fluff and gossamer.
Why does AiR not respond to his threads? He/she tends to post a controversial statement, then disappears.

Try to stay on topic please.

Got no evidence of that. For all you know, you leave your body and the stars and planets become your mind.

Now do you really think that inanimate objects can perform the same function as the human brain
No because a biological mind without any functioning neurons is as improbable as astral projection