As human beings, we all have a mind and a body. Furthermore, we all are familiar with how these two biological functions operate—so familiar, in fact, that most of us simply take for granted the roles that mind and body play in our life, ceasing to delineate or observe what is going on with those functions at any given moment. About the only exception to this rule is when our body is feeling pain or out-of-sorts. Then we are not only aware of it; we often obsess about it.
This was how our relationship to our mind and body was prior to embarking upon the spiritual journey. We knew that we had a mind and a body but we probably did not pay much attention to them (except when our body acted up). What we did not understand is the amount of unconscious and habitual behavior we had invested in mind and body. Though we might not have been aware of this dynamic, it was, in all likelihood, literally a non-stop phenomenon. In other words, though we may have taken mind and body for granted, they did not take us for granted. Rather they worked overtime as vehicles of expression for our state of consciousness.
This is one of the main eye-opening attributes of committed spiritual practice. With that practice comes awareness of our own psyche or inner world, and with that awareness comes a delineation of the different functions of our psyche, including mind and body. And what we see is that mind and body are not only prominent players in our inner world; they are nothing less than glory-hogs. In other words, though in reality (that is, according to our created makeup) they are not the most prominent aspects of our psyche they have somehow come to assume those roles. They have come to dominate our inner world to the degree that we have come to identify ourselves with them.
This is what we find when we first embark upon the spiritual journey. We see mind and body everywhere, while the presence of the spiritual aspects of our psyche—spiritual consciousness and soul—is barely perceivable. They are there, but it is as if they are hiding in the shadows. Meanwhile, mind and body are having a heyday in our psyche. In truth, they are usurping the roles that were intended for spiritual consciousness and soul. And this one perversion of the divine created order for our psyche literally wreaks havoc with our state of well-being. It robs us of all semblance of inner peace and harmony, which then flows outward in the form of bad choices, behaviors, and conditions.
This is one of the first things we see when we undertake a serious spiritual practice. We see that something in our inner world is out-of-whack—that we have been moving in a perverse order. We have been allowing mind and body to operate unobserved and assume roles that did not belong to them. We have been identifying ourselves with these two biological functions and totally ignoring our attributes of spiritual consciousness and soul. These latter attributes were created to be ascendant in our psyche, not relegated to the shadows. They were intended to be the masters of the human psyche, not to languish in subjugation. We also see that all this had been going on for our entire lifetime, since the day we were born.
Why does any of this matter? Why is it important? Because the universe we inhabit is upheld by law and order, and violations or perversions of the divinely established legal order always bring problems and suffering. So if our inner world is legally out-of-whack, how can we expect our life experience to be happy and fulfilled?
So this is something that very badly needs correction, if we seek to become whole and harmonious. Therefore though we may have originally undertaken our spiritual practice for an altogether different reason, eventually we come to understand that this matter of wrongful identification is of paramount priority. And that is why meditation is such a valuable tool. For through meditation we not only perceive the malfunction of our psyche we are also, little by little, empowered to make the necessary corrections.
Meditation brings our attributes of spiritual consciousness and soul out of the shadows and emboldens them to take their rightful place as the created rulers of our psyche. For whenever we practice presence within our own inner world, this is actually spiritual consciousness rising up and becoming ascendant. Whenever we become aware, it is spiritual consciousness that is the instrument of that awareness. And the more often we do this, the stronger our spiritual consciousness becomes. Eventually, it becomes so strong and authoritative that it is empowered to make the corrections in the wrongful order of our mind-body dominated psyche. It is able to command mind and body to let go of their unlawful positions and take on the roles they were originally created for. And when this is accomplished, soul is also elevated to her rightful position, thereby rounding out the complete reordering and reintegration of our psyche.
What follows this reintegration of our psyche is the correction of our wrongful identification with mind and body. For we right away see that not only was our spiritual consciousness intended to be ascendant in our psyche; it is actually who we really are. In other words, we are not our mind and body and never were meant to identify ourselves with them. Rather we are spiritual consciousness and soul. We are the eternal qualities of our psyche, rather than the biological, temporal qualities. This is very important. Why? Because how we identify ourselves determines what we become. If we identify ourselves with biological temporal functions we will become biological and temporal ourselves. And that is how we became mortal creatures—a curse upon our species that no one in their right mind can deny.
So there are few tasks in the spiritual life that carry as much weight as this. It really is a key to our inward liberation. And the power to accomplish it is within our own created makeup. But our corrective association with mind and body does not stop there. The main work is to dethrone them from their assumptive roles. But if we really hope to be made whole there is even more we can do.
Once spiritual consciousness and soul have become ascendant and strong they will from that time forward rule over our psyche. And so a new kingdom is erected within us. Spiritual consciousness and soul are the new rulers, but many stop short at this point of carrying out an even fuller mandate of healing and blessedness. They recognize spiritual consciousness and soul in their new roles and rejoice, but they neglect to explore and initiate all that these powerful undying human attributes can do. In other words, spiritual consciousness and soul could do so much more for us spiritually, if we would let them. As it is, they become more like ceremonial rulers—rich in glory and goodness, but short on authority, power, and proactive initiative.
Yes, spiritual consciousness and soul are indeed benevolent rulers. It does not take us long to see this and to see the contrast between their rule and that of the mind-body alliance. In fact, mind, in particular, tended to be downright tyrannical and cruel in its ruling role. And spiritual consciousness and soul are anything but tyrannical. They are benign and forgiving, patient and loving, gentle and unassuming. But they are also powerful and authoritative.
Mind was programmed primarily by the spirit of this world of Adam. As such, it had its own agenda, methodologies, and timetables. And it sought to implement these programmed directives by imposing them upon all the other attributes of our psychic persona. This was especially true of its friend and cohort, body. Why? Because the human body is basically a passive and dependent biological form. It has no desire or agenda of its own. Rather it was created to work with mind and to do mind’s bidding. The problem was that mind, in its tyrannical delusions often imposed unrealistic and harsh conditions upon body. And this was where disease came into the picture. Body went along, but it suffered the consequences of mind’s misdirected cruelty. Therefore it became diseased, breaking down under the strain.
What this means is that when spiritual consciousness and soul take over they often inherit an unhappy mind and a broken-down body. Mind is unhappy because it truly believed that it was the rightful ruler of man’s psyche. And body is broken down on account of having been mind’s fall guy for so long. This is problematic because though mind and body have been rightfully dethroned, they have not been banished from the realm of the psyche. They are still there and must continue to be there throughout one’s human lifespan. But if they are unaccepting of the new arrangement, our psyche will feel the effects of their negativity and be unable to thrive, as it should.
This then is the state of the psychic kingdom that spiritual consciousness and soul have inherited. And it is simply not befitting of them to allow such inharmonious energies to persist in their kingdom. Thus being merely figureheads as rulers is not really an option for them. Eventually they have to deal with the mind-body problem and restore not only order to their psyche but also acceptance and peace. And the way that they do this is by exercising their God-given authority and power to further command mind-body to toe the line so that peace and harmony are restored. This is within their power to do, but they tend to be exceptionally patient and long suffering, when it comes to bringing this ultimate psychic functioning to pass.
This is because mind can be very obstinate and body needs time to heal—time away from mind!
In truth, mind too is a passive and empty biological function, but its programmed conditioning has filled it with self-serving ill intent, which, in turn, has translated into a very negative and debilitating outworking. Therefore nearly every aspect of its agenda that it imposed upon body and the rest of the psyche carried a poisonous effect. And this negative mental programming goes very deep. Why? Because mind not only has a superficial conscious function; it also has a hidden submerged subconscious realm. This submerged realm of mind was also thoroughly conditioned, and because it is a hidden and hard-to-get-to realm, mind’s intransigence usually shows itself to be extremely tenacious.
So when it comes to bringing mind into conformity with the new kingdom order, spiritual consciousness and soul definitely have their hands full. But this is not to say that it cannot be done. Once spiritual consciousness begins moving in its created authority it has the ability to steadily root out mind’s wayward programming—even going deep into those subconscious tunnels to do so. And because of mind’s long- standing mean condition, this process can get ugly. But it can be done. This is what it means to be restored to our “right mind.”
As far as body is concerned, spiritual consciousness is even more compassionate and patient. For, it sees that body was mostly a victim of mind’s debilitating agenda. It can command body therefore, but it cannot necessarily heal body through a mere command. What it can do is to break the habitual pattern of mind’s domination over body and thereby free body from mind’s tyrannical influence. It does this through conscious awareness—awareness that must be concentrative and persistent in the present moment. In other words, body can be healed simply by giving it time away from mind and allowing it to experience the universal perfection inherent in the present moment. Body may have become thoroughly diseased while under the influence of mind, but take mind out of the picture and body’s disease naturally begins to break apart. In fact, there is no disease that is so great that it can persist in the perfection of the present moment. Only mind’s influence makes body believe that it is diseased and dying. So this is the approach that spiritual consciousness usually settles upon in regards to body’s healing. It consciously relegates body to a restful posture, wherein the present moment can become the dominant influence. And little by little as body spends time in this fashion, its so-called diseased condition begins to break up and fall away.
Comments