SPIRIT

We have all had moments in which we have desired to be BETTER.  Not richer, thinner, more popular, but BETTER.  A deep inner urge to rise above our natural self and become our TRUE SELF.  This is much more than a daydream, it is our SPIRIT prompting us, calling out to us to WAKE UP and do what we came here to do by being who we truly are.

In the Divine-Align-Shine diagram, Sprit is the core of it all.  Spirit is what connects all the other aspects of our lives.  Spirit is what existed before our physical body and will exist after our physical body returns to the elements from which it sprang.  But we are not just spirit, we are also mind and body.  It is the integration of Spirit, Mind and Body that makes us Human Beings.  Throughout this site, I will often refer to our "True Self".  So I will attempt to define now in words what that means to me so that we can have an understanding of what I mean by "True Self". 

TRUE SELF

A fully integrated, free-acting, awake and aware spiritual, mental and physical being that knows it is here by choice in time, body and place to be a joyful and deliberate partner in eternal creation and spiritual growth.

That's a mouthful I know. Each part of that description could easily be the subject of a book, and even then it would not be a complete or even adequate description of our True Self.

In truth our True Self cannot be confined to words. However, this is a website whose main tools are words- so I will have to be satisfied with the inherent limitations of words and hope that the deeper meaning underlying the words can somehow be felt and experienced by you the reader in a wonderful wordless way that helps you know for yourself the truth that is wrapped inside these words.

The purpose of this site is to explore in more detail the many facets of our True Selves- all so that we can become more of our True Selves and less of our conditioned or "believed" selves- more of who we really are and less of who we have come to think we are.

Here are a few elements of what I have come to understand for myself as our true nature: 

- At the level of spirit, we are immortal beings- pure spiritual intelligences that exist beyond time. Never born and therefore not capable of dying or ceasing to exist. We sometimes think of ourselves as mortal and believe that someday we will die. The truth is that we are already immortal beings that exist eternally (beyond time), but we are currently in mortal physical bodies that will someday "die." So it is only the temporary mortal body that dies, not us.

- Our immortal spiritual selves are connected to and part of God and All That Is. We are connected to each other and to all creation. We already possess great wisdom and knowledge of eternal principles. We are both the created and the creator- the manifest flower and the life force that brings the flower into existence. We are both separate and individual and connected and unified. This paradox is only a paradox to the linearly constrained mind, and can only be understood through direct experience which is a big part of why we chose to come here, now.

- We came to this phase of existence by choice. Having existed in Spirit we reached a level of progression that could not be surpassed without willingly joining ourselves- our immortal spiritual selves to a physical/mortal body with all its amazing strengths and weaknesses.

- Our physical bodies have built in to them an intelligence far beyond our mental abilities to comprehend. The intelligence that creates a new human body from the combination of male and female DNA, that grows into trillions of differentiated but integrated cells all working together to create this physical life we experience through our 5 senses, is something far beyond our powers of comprehension. That same intelligence grows and maintains the body without any conscious effort on our parts. It is a sort of auto-pilot that just goes about doing what it was programmed to do- maintaining and extending life while responding to continually changing circumstances.

- The immortal wisdom of our Spirits combined with the amazing physical wisdom of our bodies is what makes us Human- literally part heaven, part earth; part immortal, part mortal; part formless, part form; part changeless, part ever changing.

- All this power of Spirit and Body exists within us, but is not contained within us. It is the power of God, of all Creation that permeates all Life. We ourselves are like the fruit of the vine that cannot live long without maintaining our connection to the Whole.

- The mortal nature of our bodies and the gullible nature of our minds- believing all sorts of things that just aren't true, create a sort of "web" or "matrix" of perception that is limiting. Over time we come to see ourselves as much less than who we truly are, and believing that-- we live well below our potential.

-Poets and prophets alike have expressed as well as can be expressed in words this condition. You yourself have most likely experienced a feeling of living well below your potential and have also experienced brief glimpses of your true nature that left you hungering for more.

Make It Real

To help you understand the concept of Spirit- do this little exercise:

Go outside and find any plant.  Cut off a branch or section.  Set it aside and look at it in a few hours, then in a few days.  Notice how quickly it withers and dries up.  Once removed from it's source of Life- it is just innert matter that quickly decomposes and with a little bit of time returns to undifferentiated matter that is ready to be re-assimilated into new life and re-manifested into new form. 

We are the same as this plant.  Our bodies and minds are annimated and brought to life by the Life force of our Spirit.  Spirit is the realm of primary causation- everything else it annimates lives in the world of secondary causation.  Our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our wills, our imaginations- are all tools of Spirit.  If they are ever disconnected from Spirit like the branch from the tree, they have no life in themselves.   Death is really just Spirit removing itself from it's current "tabranacle of clay" or physical shell. 

As we go about trying to grow ourselves personally- we need to ask ourselves if we are working on the level of Primary Causation (Spirit- which includes our Will and our Attention) or Secondary (Body/Mind/Emotion).  As we work on things like self-esteem, self-leadership, health & fitness, money & work, mind & beliefs, intuition, emotions, fear & shadow, relationships, and contribution, remember that at the center, the core of all of these things is Spirit.

John Groberg writes on a wide variety of topics related to personal and spiritual growth.  His slogan is Grow. By Choice™.  His articles draw out principles of personal and spiritual growth common to the world’s ancient wisdom and spiritual texts as well as many of the great philosophers, poets, and writers of ancient and modern times.   These principles are then put to the test in his own life with an emphasis on simple, sustainable practices we can apply in our daily lives to more effectively deal with the stresses and struggles of modern life and to more fully realize the benefits of deliberate growth.   John developed a model called the Divine-Align-Shine model as a way of visually organizing the principles, practices and the overall process of personal and spiritual growth.   His writings are cataloged and organized on his website, www.johngroberg.com where contact information is available.