Me and My Spirit

That's how I used to see this concept:  I was I, and my spirit was somehow separate from me.  The thinking me, after all, couldn't be the spiritual me.  I was a person who was stuck to the ground by gravity, who was a part of the world that finds itself on this planet, but my spirit was something else, something ethereal, immortal, unlimited and free.

Boy, does that seem strange now.  Now I realize that I am that spirit, that I've hitched a ride in a particular body for a certain amount of time.  I'm not "separate" from my spirit at all--rather, I am the spirit, and I am not simply this body that's here on earth for a short while.

I had a very hard time understanding this idea.  My logical and rational mind, after all, likes to feel that it's in charge, and that it does a pretty good job of making sense of the world and my place in it.  The truth is, though, that it really doesn't.  It's kind of like I put my mind in charge of my life only to find out that it's not competent enough to be in charge.  The mind seems to be quite well suited to be a very good servant, but very poorly suited to be our master.

I do recognize the strengths of the mind.  I'm very grateful for scientists and engineers whose minds help us to develop vaccines and bridges and microwave ovens and airplanes.  My mind helps me to distinguish between lies and the truth, and it helps me to recognize dangers and pitfalls that lie ahead of me in any endeavor I may make.  My mind is a wonderful thing, and I appreciate it a great deal.  Without it, my time in this body would be unbearable, to say the least.

The mind, though, is very limited.  Our eyes are fantastic pieces of work, but they can only see 0.0035 percent of the light spectrum.  Our ears are the same, hearing only a portion of the present sounds in our world.  Likewise, the brain can process many, many things--but it is limited in what it can do.

Our brains, for example, can read about love, study love, interpret love, and process conditions of love, but we don't love from our brains.  We love from our hearts and our spirits, and life is better that way.  Love isn't a negotiation--if it were, it would be in the realm of our brains.  Compassion doesn't come from analyzing data and reaching conclusions--rather, it, too, is a part of who we are, a product of our spirits.  People have tried to think through love and compassion and come up with definitions and explanations of them, but those definitions and explanations always fall short of the true nature of the concepts.  Our minds simply aren't expansive enough to deal with such amazing ideas.

And that's fine with me.  The important part to me is that I've finally realized that there is a difference between who I am and who I've always thought I am.  There is great value in allowing myself to shine as a spirit, as opposed to keeping my spirit subjugated to my reason.

When I allow my spirit to shine, I'm much more patient, for as a spirit I understand the fleetingness of life on this planet and the expansiveness of eternity.

When I allow my spirit to shine, I'm able to deal with life from a position of love and compassion and hope and trust, for as a spirit I don't need to come up with logical reasons to show and feel these things.

I'm able to relax more, for as a spirit I am not in a hurry, and I know that things will come to pass in their own time, as the flower blooms in its own time, not on any schedule.

I can deal with loss more easily, for as a spirit I understand that the words "This, too, shall pass" apply to virtually everything.  When things do pass, I may grieve, but I also understand that I'm to celebrate having experience it while it was here rather than to focus on the fact that it's no longer here.

I can be a beacon to others who see my peace of mind and peace of heart and would like to experience, but who haven't yet been taught the dangers of materialism and addiction to work and money.

I can function in the world without necessarily being part of the world--the negative parts, at least.  I can go to work without feeling fear of being caught up in the so-called rat race, and without dreading so many of the truly trivial elements that so often dominate the workplace.  I can earn my living without contributing to the greed and avarice and heartlessness and meanness of the world.

I can love unconditionally, knowing that others will benefit from that love, even if only slightly, depending upon how ready they are to accept love from others.

I can be more understanding of my fellow human beings, for as a spirit I know and understand the struggles that they're going through trying to get in touch with their own spirits, their own selves, even as they're pulled more and more deeply into the material, superficial world that's been created around us.

There are, of course, many other benefits of allowing ourselves to just be, on the level of our spirit.  I fully suspect that the longer I truly allow spirit to shine through, I'll come to know many benefits that I never even suspected existed.  It's not easy to go through life on a spiritual level--after all, we've been conditioned to see the world as a result of our intellects, and that conditioning is very difficult to put back in its place.  But it's worth the effort.  As I get closer and closer to truly allowing myself to shine constantly as a spirit (and I think I've only come one or two very short steps so far), my life gets simpler and easier.  I understand many things much better, and as that happens, my tension levels shrink significantly.

If we try to get through life using our intellect and reason as our sole guides to life, we're bound to live limited and rather tedious lives.  When we allow ourselves to shine as the spirits that we are, though, life becomes something more, something very special, just as our experiences, too, become much more special and much more loving.