«Once you were a rock - as consciousness you thought of the long thoughts» (@mostadjon)
Most deeply all humans can regard them self as coming from star dust. As a human you are a result of an infinitely long journey through the universe, where you step by step gathered the opportunity to appear in the body you chose when you decided to reincarnate on Earth, as an individualized soul. Do you know yourself in this perspective?
Welcome to my blog.
For those of you who do not know me, I will briefly say that every Friday at 7 PM CET (Central European Time), I post a reflection on a mythical, phenomenological or spiritual theme, which can help lift the interest in who and what man is. After many years of working with people, doing academic and spiritual studies, I now focus on writing my ideas down and sharing them with others who are concerned with the same topics. I write independently of religious and academic beliefs, and consider myself primarily as a narrator. You can follow my blogs by subscribing for free, or by clicking on my website www.jonmostad.com. You can also follow me on Instagram on the profile @mostadjon where I post daily quotes and captions to the theme of the week.
Ok? Let's look at the theme of the week.
Knowing your self
Do you know yourself? Some may think the question is strange. I am myself and therefore I should know myself? If you ask me this contradiction then I nod admirably. Most people will think like this. Anyway, I ask the question "do you know yourself?". From ancient times to today, the question is, or perhaps I would rather say the challenge to each of us is, to know oneself. Few people do so. Most of us do not know themselves, they believe they do. The fact that people are separated from themselves is the cause of much pain and despair.
In this week's text I will reflect on this particular art «to know yourself».
Body, Mind and Soul
Modern Man does not seem so keen to understand that "I" is both body, mind and soul. This is not so strange since modern Man has, in most ways, become a product of a mechanical and materialistic view of knowledge. The modern Man does not see himself through the stories of the myths', the experiences of phenomena or the images of the spiritual explanations. Modern Man seems to believe in himself in a biologically and socially limited time, where this life is a onetime happening. Then many opportunities and access to larger worlds disappear.
Body
The human body is adapted to stay on a planet with a heavy atmosphere and kept by a crushing gravity . Several spiritual teachers say the Earth is among the most challenging places in the Universe, where a soul can reincarnate. Therefore, a life on Earth also gives a great karmic gain. The body is the soul's vehicle on Earth. You can almost look at the body as a diving suit. When a diver dives into the sea to perform a job, the diver wear a suit that makes the stay in the sea depth justifiable and possible. So it is also for the finely tuned soul. Reincarnation on Earth, acquires a physical experience and for this it needs a body. The soul will not be able to move on Earth without a body. The body stores memories in its connective tissue, is built from a complex system of nerves and is driven by an autonomous internal secretory process, the bacterial culture of the stomach is an intelligence in itself. Do you know your body?
Mind
The human mind is a big topic to understand, maybe we can't understand it at all? The spiritual explanations of the East and scientific explanations of the West are very different. I have great pleasure and benefit from reading both approaches. The East's thoughts on the mind require a lot from me and I miss a deep insight into and familiarity with their great ideas as they appear in the Vedas (Hinduism), Buddhism and Taoism. By reading Svami Sivananda's book "The Doctrine of the Nature of Mind and Control of It", I get access to a world of understanding that requires a lot from me.
In a blog like this I am not close to giving a description that gives this knowledge justice. Likewise, it is with the West's scientific approach. I have to rely on my own ability to simplify and intuitively understand.
"The Mind is What the Brain Does" is the headline of an article in National Geographic (with Wikipedia as the source). Unfortunately, the article is not available but the headline is. I fell for this talking headline and immediately thought - yes! This fits well with my intuitive understanding of what the mind is. "Mind" is what the brain "does" when it processes combinations of perceptions (processing of sensory impressions), emotional impulses, memory, will and imagination. The brain's intellect expresses itself in the mind.
But, unfortunately, it's not that simple. On the Quartz website (platform for journalists producing news aimed at business), I find an article by journalist Olivia Goldhill. She refers to "Scientists say your mind isn't confined to your brain, or even your body." She refers to Professor of Psychiatry Dan Siegel at the UCLA School of Medicine. Here, the mind is explained as "the emergent self-organizing process, both embodied and relational, that regulates energy and information flow within and among us". The remarkable feature of this definition is that the mind is explained as something more than what is happening in the human brain - the mind belongs to the very interaction with the environment. The mind creates itself in its dealings with the surrounding environment. Do you know your mind?
Soul
The individualized human soul is not an easy-to-understand topic or easy to explain. From antiquity to today, our beliefs about the soul have evolved. For example, the Greek philosopher Homer believed that the soul is the breath of life and that it is the one who separates a living and a dead person. Recent philosophy explains soul as the principle of consciousness. Therefore, only conscious beings can have soul and the soul is in a form of a contradiction to the body. Philosophical thoughts also distinguish between soul and spirit, where the spirit belongs to the highest intellectual functions. Here I think Theosophy gives me insight that I can relate to. The creative power we cannot understand and which people worldwide give the name of God in the form of various religious explanations, decided to create itself in a physical image and the result is the Universe. The creative source’s idea, will and motion are expressed in a physical universe as a spiritual dimension. The individualized human soul is an extract of this spiritual dimension. Explained with Theosophy's images, the soul descends from the Spirit and stays in a physical body, with a specific spiritual purpose. In an inexplicable way (this os not the whole truth), the individual soul leaves the body when death comes, and return to after-life. From this position next incarnation is regarded. Do you know your soul?
The battle for reality
Three spheres - Body, Mind and Soul - will find each other and together create a reality. The body is the vehicle, the mind is the GPS and the soul is the one with the key to the whole journey. The body is designed to move in a physical atmosphere. It responds to signals from the instincts, senses, and experiences. The mind responds to emotions, mental processes and the consciousness that flows through the brain like waves from an intelligent universe. The soul is acting on behalf of the Spirit and the mission of the soul is to realize its spiritual project; your life’s purpose.
Three spheres each with their needs, their self-serving purposes and a physical reality that creates great countermeasures.
You are three but at the same time you are one. You face some fundamental challenges. You need to unite your body's physical and emotional needs with the categories of thought, imagination and will, tuned to a higher spiritual purpose. It's in such a picture I ask if you know yourself?
Knowing your self
No value was ranked higher for the enlightened ancient Man than knowing herself/himself. Ancient initiation pathways consisted of processes in which the individual, through exercises and trials, nurtured her/his inner self-understanding and united body, mind and soul, with the highest purpose of life - the realization of the very purpose of life.
In the West's material and mechanical understanding of the world, where myths and science are divided, the way to an integrated understanding of "I" as an association of body, mind and soul can be long. Knowledge of the myths, the path you have to go and the choices you have to make are hidden and forgotten. It is in such a situation of cognition, I have constructed a path that is possible to follow. In my texts you find wizards - one of them is «Dawn» - use the search field.
Knowing oneself is part of the path to enlightenment. Most people take for granted that the world they sense is the real world. This is an illusion. Therefore, few know themselves. However, there is a path and it is waiting for you. Anyone who seeks it will find it.
Jon