Good Day and I hope you are living your Dreams today!
You’ve heard me talk about it and write about it, and during this season where there is a lot of talk about the “Spirit” of the Holidays, I wanted to share with you some distinctions about Spirit.
Both body and Spirit emerge from the essential qualities of Great Spirit~Spirit Beyond spirit, Spirit with no name, no color, no shape, no form ~ Unconditional Love.
Great Spirit, as the principle of THE ABSOLUTE, only has two essential qualities; that which is ABSOLUTELY EMPTY, and that which is ABSOLUTELY FULL. These qualities are represented in my mandala as follows:
- The emptiness of the page represents the EMPTYness, which allows ALL possibilities
- The diagram represents the FULLness; the something in and of the NO-THING
Existence is the marriage of body and Spirit: All that exists, exists in space, without which there could be no room for self-expression; if a cup wasn’t empty (space), it would have no functionality as a cup. Yet, if the cup didn’t exist as something (body), it could not contain anything, nor exist as a cup. Therefore, we could say that body gives utility, and space gives functionality. Neither of which could exist without Spirit.
Spirit is the name given to describe transformation~ When the empty becomes more full, or when the full becomes emptier, energy is transformed. This transformation of states is responsible for the principles of both movement and time, neither of which can exist without the other.
Rudolph Steiner explains that energy as electricity (Spirit) is created when there is a gap between idea and perception. For example, if I were to teach you about Einstein’s concept of E=MC2, there would very likely be a gap between your own perception of this idea and what the idea represents to me as a teacher. As I begin teaching you, I may explain that “E” stands for energy. Right then and there, your mind would project its perception of energy into your ego-consciousness, which would require movement powered by your own Spirit. As I continue, you may find that I describe energy in ways novel to you. This would widen the gap between your perception of energy and the now expanding idea of energy; this would have the same effect as increasing the polarity differential in an electronic circuit. The desire to know creates a drawing force or positive charge, while the idea itself creates a negative charge. Because your perception changes as I teach, you are drawing that idea into a larger sphere of your own understanding. You will surely have experienced the fact that to the degree you truly understand any concept, less and less energy is needed to maintain and utilize the concept or any new idea.
It is our bodies that slow Spirit down, allowing us to trap the light of the Universe within our watery cells so we can perceive and experience what is in the light. If we entertain more ideas or concepts than we can both energize and embody, too much of the life-force needed to maintain the body is invested into the head-sphere (mind), which can, and does deplete the body. If too much energy is invested into the body, such as when one eats too much and doesn’t exercise or actively participate in their life, or over-exercises, then there isn’t enough metabolic energy (fire) to create the necessary warmth to allow thoughts to rise from the body-sphere into the head-sphere. This leads first to fatigue, then laziness, then to depression, then to apathy, and finally to disease.
It is my dream as a teacher, that we all find balance in the marriage of body and Spirit. It is only when we balance the empty with the full that we have harmonious exchange of Spirit.
“Well-being” is the term that describes harmonious exchange between the empty and the full of us. Achieving well-being is largely an awareness exercise. When any part of you, from colon to brain (ego-mind) becomes too full, stagnation and discomfort arise. When any part of you becomes too empty, fear and desire increase and can reach such a magnitude that addiction often emerges in attempt to fullfill one’s self.
Having a Dream and core values as I teach in PPS Lesson 1 gives us an essential means of determining exactly what it is that fulfills us, and gives us a means of knowing when we are fulfilled. Without a Dream and core values, people ceaselessly search, ingest, and embody almost anything in a desperate attempt to satiate themselves.
The only form of sustenance that truly brings balance and satiation is Love. When we love ourselves, we have an authentic sense of when our “self” is both full, and fulfilled. When we don’t know how to love ourselves, we become a bottomless cup!and when enough people on a planet become bottomless cups, we greatly run the risk of overconsumption – depleting essential resources. This can, and has reached proportions so great that we spread our disease of overconsumption, confusion and addiction to the rest of the world.
If we all begin now to satiate ourselves with our Dreams of what is possible, what nourishes Spirit, instead of what we think “god wants”, or mom and dad want, or what a sick society wants, we will be well on the way to not only perceiving and experiencing the idea of Great Spirit for what Unconditional Love really IS, but truly ACTUALIZING the marriage of body and Spirit!
Love and chi,
Paul Chek