The Dichotomous Nature of Our Physical Body and Our Spiritual Presence

CAST

spider...........................................world

 

caterpillar....................................me, i

 

butterfly........................................you

 

Love..............................................You, I, Me

 

( ).............................................poet

 

SETTING

 

I
 

PROLOGUE

"why can't i be what i want to be?"
   the caterpillar said to the spider.

"what do you want to be?"
  the spider answered.
    (spiders are always so practical!)

"i dream of being a butterfly,"
   the caterpillar returned.

"impossible!"
   the spider laughed.

CATERPILLAR SOLILOQUY

why can't i ever be what i want to be?
   the world is not fair;
   there is always two sides to every issue in the world,
   and besides that,
   the issue is never clear.
      it is a foggy world we live in.

i hate fogginess
   never understanding!
      why can't i understand?
         my want seems to never be strong enough!
            but i'll try anyway . . . . . . .

II

  CONVERSATION

 

"are you there?"

   i asked the spider.

"where is there?"
   the spider retorted.

SPIDER SOLOLIQUY

perhaps there is no there

   unless you happen to be there,

   and are you even then?

i'm not where i'm thinking most of the time.

   i really don't know where i am.

      i don't even know where i am

         is!

when i am in the i am,

   then i am;

      otherwise,

         i am not, 

            am i?

the i am in my life

   is not always there

      or here;

         then where is it?

            why don't i know?

               is it ever nowhere?

                  does something always

                  have to be somewhere?

somewhere is real
   isn't it?
      if someone is somewhere
      and i'm not there,
      is that someone really there?
         and am i really not there
         to that someone?

what if i am dreaming of somewhere?
   am i here?
   or there?

what if we both are not there?
   then does that place exist?

and how about the dream?
   does a dream ever become real?
      a dream goes from place to place;
      life goes from place to place;
      i go from place to place;
      you go from place to place;
         then is it all a dream?

when i dream
   i think that the dream is real
   and that life is not real;
      when i am not dreaming
      i think that that is real
      and the dream is not real.
         real is a part of me,
            but i'm not sure where it is.

III
 

CONSERVATION

"I Love You,"
   said the butterfly to the spider.

"you're not capable of Love,"
   screamed the spider.

"i know,"
   i replied,
      "but I am."
         (butterflies tend to be smug)

BUTTERFLY SOLOLIQUY

Love is always present,

   and real;

      we just can't touch it.

         we can only dream as a caterpillar,

            and even sometimes as a butterfly.

Love always understands,

   and understanding requires knowing.

      that's why there is little understanding

      and Loving

      in the world.

Love has three sides,

   yours,

      mine,

         and ours;

            and all are the same.

i work to understand mine

   sometimes,

      but yours is almost never understood,

         and therefore,

            ours does not materialize.

when we say

   "i love you,"

      what do we mean?

         many things,

            but never

            "i Love you."

               this is a non sequitur!

i can't even understand the i,

   let alone the you

   and the love . . . .?

i can't Love you

   because you are you,

      and i am i.

what is my relationship to you,

   if it is not Love?

      i do know that you are there,

         aren't you?

            you exist,

               i know,

               and i also think

               that you know

               that i exist

               and am here.

when i feel i Love you,

   you don't know

   unless i say or show you,

      and even then

      do you?

         i'm sorry about that;

            i'd like for you to know

            without me letting you know.

               then we may know

               the real meaning of Love.

i can Love myself,

   because i am myself.

      that's why Jesus said

      that i had to Love myself before I could Love You.

You are Me,

   in that i realize You

   only within me;

      therefore,

         Love me

         through You,

            not through you.

               (that makes me feel so lonely tonight)

God,

   why can't i have just one little glimpse

   of me through someone else;

      then i may understand,

         somewhat.

            (don't misunderstand,

               you are in the same boat;

                  don't feel like you are different;

                     you are not!)

i am an entity unto my self,

   and my self

   only.

      how sad.

i sometimes think i would like to be a Butterfly;

   i would be the same but different,

      i probably wouldn't understand the Butterfly;

         but then such a dream would be the real,

            and the real could not be understood either.

(did i just write this?

   or was then ever real?

      if it was,

         then why can't i have it again,

            or tomorrow today?)

 

IV

POET SOLILOQUY

when i do something that nobody else knows,

   why do i do it,

      and do i?

         it's very confusing.

they tell me there is such a thing as pluto.

   but is there

   if i don't really know?

      and how could i?

         could i be imagining

         thinks into existence?

            are the caterpillar and the butterfly

            really the same?

               could the butterfly be the

               imagination of the caterpillar?

perhaps the mass of our imagining becomes reality for us all.

   if reality is only in our individual realities,

      and we are taught reality by someone else,

         then reality

            to me

            is what others before me

            have taught was reality.

               we may be creating reality,

                  and reality is part of someone else

                     in me.

i have been wondering if that is why science,

   and religion before,

      has made so many things real for us.

we believe what a scientist or a preacher says,

   and if we all believe,

      it is real.

         then someone comes along

         and teaches that it is not real,

            and something else is,

               and we believe a new real.

reality is then merely what i think is real.

if you convince me that my reality

   is not real,

      then my reality changes

      to what you think

      is reality.

         but is your reality real?

            and can you ever really transfer your reality

            to mine?

isn't it nice,

   butterflies have wings

   and they lay eggs once in a while.

      i become you,

         and some understanding is thus forced on us . . . . .

            if we remember.
 

  Many persons have endeavored to explain things non-physical, things not of this world. Some even claim to know some things about this non-physical world. However, I believe that by definition we can say that we know nothing, but because we think it is vital for our physical survival we presume much. The use of the term SPIRIT is somewhat universal for this other worldly realm, and the Bible refers to it in many different ways. Bullinger in an excellent study, Word Studies on the Holy Spirit (1979; Kregel/Grand Rapids) has identified 14 uses for the Greek term pneuma in the Bible. In this study, I am using only two definitions/characterizations of the term SPIRIT—spirit and Spirit or spiritual and Spiritual. Initial capitalization of the S indicates the other world, the Godly pneuma, sometimes delineated as Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. The word spirit, without the capitalization represents the concept of the spiritual [s] part of the physical body. We have a physical body and a spiritual presence. Below I have tried to show this graphically using the illustration presented earlier.

In previous writings I have discussed this symbolic graphic in detail, and here I will continue the metaphorical meandering represented by this visual.

Jesus’ Use of Pronouns

I was once in a Bible study with several college professors, some being Bible teachers at a Christian college. One asked a question that, at the time, sounded peculiar. The way I remember it, it went something like this—“Have you ever wondered why Jesus referred to himself as I am?” Of course, I thought . .. because he was! That went to, was what? Simple questions, but in my mind these questions morphed into “What did Jesus mean when he referred to himself with the simple pronoun, I?” That simple statement began a study that resulted in many wonderful inquestioning nights. It concentrated into trying to understand who Jesus was and thence who I was in light of the Spiritual image of God.

From the beginning I saw that there was something about how Jesus spoke about himself, and therefore I centered my study on the pronouns of Jesus—I, me, and my. It may seem rather juvenile to be doing research on biblical pronouns, and their meaning might be clear in your thinking. However, for me there is a mystical message behind the words that is far from clear. I know Bible words are important, but I believe it is the meaning behind the words that has real significance to the inquestioning mind, not the actual words. Even so, we have the words; without the words, the personal message is probably lost. Therefore, I have this irresistible urge to understand the message behind the words of Jesus.

Let’s start: Run a Bible search of “I am.” The first thing that jumps out at me is that there are many meanings of I am in the Bible each with its own surreptitious message, sometimes making it difficult to understand. What did Jesus mean when He used the terms I and me? Let’s dissect some of these pronouns in verses from John to example our search. As you read, think bold, underline as spiritual/Spiritual and bold alone as physical, understanding that these are my own interpretations.

John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

We can see that the first I has to refer to something other than the physical Jesus. Even the most literal Bible student would not think of Jesus as being bread; nor would he be thought of as bread of life, whatever that might be physically. Jesus is using metaphoric words referring to his spirit self. (I call this the real person.) Neither of the me’s can refer to physical because, of course, a human being will get hungry and thirsty, and Jesus was referring to the same me with both words. Therefore, I interpret this verse as saying that our spirit should go to the Spirit to find Spiritual (Godly) responses.

John 7:8
You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come."

Here the I and me refers to the physical Jesus. It refers to something the physical Jesus is doing in his physical life.

John 7:28
Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, "Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me."

Interpretation is always conjecture, tenuous, and personal, and here the text becomes more complex. When Jesus used the term you, he seemed to always be referring to the physical, and when he refers to God, he often uses he and him, always Spiritual. It is when he refers to himself that he vacillates between physical and spiritual/Spiritual. The first me and the first I are obviously physical. The second I might refer to either physical or spiritual. Of course, both the he’s and him’s are Spiritual. The second me goes along with the first he so it must be spiritual too. It is clear that Jesus understood the dichotomy between physical and spiritual/Spiritual. Reading this scripture without these delineations is almost impossible to understand.

John 7:34
You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come."

Jesus considered his real self to be spiritual. So this could be interpreted as “You look for the physical me, but you being physical cannot find the spiritual me. Where I as a spirit am, you are not there yet.” Interpreting this theologically might mean that they hadn’t received (started inquestioning) the Holy Spirit yet, and that Jesus felt that his real self was already in the spirit.

John 8:23
But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

Here Jesus is delineating the dichotomous worlds directly, physical and spiritual, and stating that we are a part of the physical—human life. Interpreted this would translate as the following: You people are living in this physical world.  I'm living in my spiritual/Spiritual world.  Therefore, you are of this physical and I am not in this physical world.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

In this familiar verse the message is clearly Spiritual. The real Jesus, Spiritual, is the way; the only real truth is the Spiritual Jesus; and the Spiritual life is real life.

Finally, the masterly introductory message to John shows that the Spiritual Jesus has always been.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Matthew and the Kingdom of Heaven

Extending our interpretation beyond the pronouns but still using the spirit/Spiritual and physical delineations helps greatly in understanding scriptures.
As partial corroboration of this tenet is Matthew’s rather insistent reminder throughout his writing that we can have a little bit of the Spirit (Kingdom of Heaven) while still here on earth. Read the Parable of the Sower as an example. Here are a few lines from the parable with some of the words interpreted. Remember the code as you read by thinking bold, underline as spiritual and bold alone as physical.

"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

Mankind does have the power to understand (I prefer the word perceive with the perception emerging through inquestioning) at least something about the Spirit. I interpret this to mean that anyone has the power to do this. Furthermore, I consider the spirit/Spiritual life to be real life. All the physical living we have to endure is only pretense, a life sentence of pretense if you will. And, it is only through this life, being our self, that we can perceive the spirit/Spirit, the real life, the way we will perceive eternity.

Paul’s Explanation of Life in the Spirit

I have attempted an elucidation of Romans using my own interpretation of life in the spirit. Most all of the book of Romans is Paul’s way of explanation of the physical and spiritual life. Here is a part of my interpretation of Chapter 8.

8:1 Therefore, God holds nothing against those of us who are saved in Christ Jesus because it is through Christ that the true life in my Spirit has set me free from this world of sin and spiritual death. The religious law and teachings are meant for our sinful nature, our physical, emotional, and mental makeup, but God sent Jesus in the form of a human to be our offering for our sin. In this way we can have the power to live through our God-filled Spirit rather than allowing our sinful nature to rule our lives. 

8:5 Those who live according to his or her sinful nature permit their thinking to be ruled by their actions and emotions, but those who live in accordance with his or her new Spirit have their thinking ruled from their Spirit. Thinking controlled by the body leads to death, but thinking controlled by the Spirit leads to real life and peace. Sinful-thinking persons do things against God, never allowing Him to be involved in their thinking. There is no way for a sinful nature to please God. 

8:9 Those of you who have submitted to God filling your spirit with His goodness belong to Christ. It is as if your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit has become one with the Soul of God and is now his perfect Spirit in you. The God who made your spirit a God-filled Spirit is the same God who raised Jesus from His physical death and is living in you. This same God will help your mortal body to live through your new Spirit. 

8:12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have a great debt, not to our sinful bodies because that leads to death, but to the Spirit which brings to us real life. Those who accept this debt are considered to be sons and daughters of God. 

8:15 Your new Spirit helps you not to fear because it is like you are a child of the Spirit which is God. It is like having an affectionate, caring Father that we can go to at any time and say, "I love you, Father." The Soul of God completely takes over our spirit and makes us a part of Him as a son or daughter is to their father or mother. Furthermore, just as children inherit from their parents, we spiritually inherit from our God as Christ inherited. We share the communion or living with God, but we also share in the suffering of Jesus as a part of the world. 

8:18 The little suffering that we do while living in this world is as nothing compared to the wonderful things that we will someday inherit. We wait with some impatience to be set free from the sin of this creation and all the problems that are a part of this physical world in order to be brought into the wonderful inherited freedom set up for the children of God. 

8:23 All of God's human children wait with great hope for the formal adoption as heavenly sons and daughters. It is through this hope that we are saved, but hope for something that we already have is not hope at all; it is when we hope for something of which we do not have that we must patiently wait. 

8:26 As we hope and wait patiently, our Spirit works with the weakness of our body. Since we are weak we pray, but we don't even know what words to say when we pray; however, we are blessed because our God-filled Spirit guides our minds with words that we never knew we could think. God, who searches our thoughts and feelings, knows what is in His own mind and then works through our spirit interceding for those persons who are faithful. All this is done according to God's will (the determination of God as to what our future should be). 

8:28 We know that whatever happens to us God is working through His goodness for persons who love Him and are allowing Him to work according to His plan of salvation.

      8:29 The plan works like this: 

(1) For all of us whom He knew should be saved, He gives the power to have the Spirit of God invade each of his or her spirits; just as His Son became this Spirit on His resurrection (Spirit taken back to God), it, therefore, has a prominent place in our beings. 

(2) Those whom He gives the power to have the Spirit invade his or her spirit, He allows them to work for Him. 

(3) Those whom He allows to work for Him, He declares them to be in right relations with Him. 

(4) Those in right relations with Him He allows them to share in the wonder of His divine existence. 

8:31 The result summed up is this: If God is on our side, it makes no difference who or what is against us. Since God even gave His own Son to the world (this physical life,) He will surely give us all spiritual things.  Don't worry about persons of this world condemning you.  God, in the Spirit, does not condemn. Snce He loved us so much that He would have His Son suffer in this world right along with us, it only follows that He will give us all of our Spiritual desires (everything we need to complete His will in our lives).

For further study using my biblical interpretations, please see here.

Conclusions

There are two worlds for which we must account if we are to be Godly and satisfy our spirit—the physical and the spiritual/Spiritual. God, through the words of the scripture writers in the message of Jesus, makes it clear that we are physical beings not Spiritual; however, God as a Spirit invades our spirit helping us survive in this world.

Inquestioning Free Will in Physical and Spiritual Actions

The Parable of the Tenants

A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, "They will respect my son."

But the tenants said to one another, "This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours." So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven't you read this scripture: "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes?" --Mark 12 (NIV)


God has set up two systems of laws for His children: laws that work from our physical through our emotions to the mind and laws that work from the Spirit through our spirit to our mind. In both sets of laws we have free will. Let’s use the inquestioning method to look at free will.

It is fairly easy to see that we have free will, and it is just as easy to see that there are boundaries around that free will. We have the free will using our bodies to walk to a hundred foot cliff, and then make the free-will decision to jump off. The boundary is that we will die if we jump. God set up our entire physical being using atoms, molecules, and DNA to perfect our free will through His creation. Through these manipulations He gives us His predetermined, preordained, predestined free will with boundaries. There are two ways that God has set this up, physical and spiritual.

Physical (Body) The first is natural, physical laws or rules. We fall to our death if we jump off a hundred foot cliff. Why is that? On the surface it sounds like a ridiculous rule for God to have set up. A person’s atoms/molecules/DNA are so scrambled that the person physically dies. Does that sound logical or rational? Why not make a rule so that the jumper flaps his/her arms and slowly glides to the ground hurting nothing, and the person lives on? What if we made an arbitrary rule like this for our children—“OK now kids, every time you step on a blade of grass, I’m going to pull out 50 hairs on your head!” We don’t make such rules, but maybe we do other things just as seemingly arbitrary. I remember a rule in our house that our children had to be quiet in church or they could get a whack or two (slap on the bottom) when we got home. Now, that’s a good, Christian rule isn’t it? Maybe so, but didn’t we just take a page out of God’s rule book and use it in our family life in the same way? Yes, it follows--we do it all the time as we set up our societal rules because we think it is the right way to help us all live a better life. That is the only “answer” to our inquestioning—God set up physical laws to help us live better lives; so, we set up similar rules for our children and our legislatures and judges set up rules and regulations to help us live better lives. We have no idea why our ridiculous little rules work any more than God’s apparently ridiculous rule about gravity. However, God did it and we follow. Knowing why is reserved for God; that is the “answer” to our inquestion.

We learn about these physical laws through the physical part of our being (body, emotions, and mind). God set up His physical, natural laws (boundaries) like that. We are predestined to suffer certain predetermined consequences if we free-will ourselves to do certain things. However, it seems uncharacteristic that God has given us other laws that preclude His laws of consequence. For instance, when we jump off of our cliff into mid air, if we have a parachute, the law of gravity is overcome, and we don’t die. Furthermore, we never think that breaking this natural law is wrong or cheating the rule of gravity. We just accept God’s forgiveness for breaking one of His laws and go on with life. We might call this God’s compassion.

Spiritual In the same ways God has set up spiritual laws. Spiritual laws are no better fathomed than the physical ones. Here, free will is just as prevalent as in physical actions. If we use one of these laws as an example, Thou shalt not kill!, we can inquestion it to learn our personal judgments. Do we divine through the Spirit/spirit that there anything wrong with physically killing someone? Probably we say yes. But, if we set up an imaginary continuum, a conundrum ensues. We have no problem killing a bacterium. And most of us would kill a mosquito with no twinge of conscience. How about a tree? How about a spider? Or a rat? How about a rabid dog? Or a run-amuck elephant? How about an enemy in the field of battle? Or a sniper shooting our children in the school yard? Most would say yes; there is no problem killing them. However, we don’t kill our neighbor because he doesn’t cut his lawn the way we would like. We don’t even kill gossipers who hurt us by lying about us. We conscience (using the spirit and mind to make a free-will decision) that one is “right” and the other is “wrong”. In the same way, we have escape clauses to this preordination—if someone is trying to kill us, we can kill them before they kill us even though we conscience that it is wrong. God made the law, but we have a “parachute” to break the law. We sometimes give the Ten Commandments the credit for our knowing the wrongness of killing. However, we would have long ago completely forgotten this commandment, along with the other nine, if there wasn’t some predestined, inborn tendency penchant toward not killing. And when we break these penchants, God naturally forgives us for these “wrongdoings.” We usually call this God’s mercy for us.

Intent and Perception

Cowboys and Indians
This cold, dreary, winter morning was just like any other morning on the Kansas plains. God had the sun coming up in the east at precisely the right place and time, there was oxygen enough for every breathing creature, the little brook had more than enough water to quench the thirst of hundreds of dehydrated bodies, and souls still sinned and searched for answers.

This particular morning saw a band of soldiers using their supply of God-given oxygen and water quickly surrounding a small band of Indians sleeping in their tepees.

A deep, bass voice suddenly sadly declared, “I intend to kill two Indians for them killing my wife, two Indians for them killing my only daughter, and two Indians for them killing my only son.”

Another wizened soldier said, “How do you know it was Indians who killed your family?”

And the quick retort, “I learned at my pappy’s knee that all Indians were bad; this only proves it!”

“What if you are wrong?” And he was cut off short as the command to attack was made. The resulting volley of shots resounded off the surrounding hills.

Indians came out of their tepees with sleep in their eyes drawing back in horror as a mob of horsemen recklessly rode into their compound shooting everyone on sight, even those breathing the same oxygen. One particular muscular Indian turned hastily picking up his rifle noting that his family was cowering across the fire in the back of his tepee. Thinking, he had to protect his family, he fired at the first man he saw. His aim was true and the soldier fell to the earth hard. The Indian family man ran up to the fallen man intending to scalp him. The man pulled a pistol from his tunic and fired at the Indian hitting him square in the chest. He fell across the soldier family man landing face to face.

“You killed my family,” the soldier said.

“I did not,” the Indian said.

“All Indians are bad,” said the soldier family man, and died.

All white men are bad,” said the Indian family man, and died.

Neither sinned nor used oxygen again . . . .

I feel I must write something at this point concerning my intention in this writing. I have received several comments, some positive and some negative, some praising but most producing inquestioning. Some negative comments had criticism of my intent. The perception was that I was trying to “bias their thinking,” that what I was writing was “not about their God,” and that I "had no business using God's word to further my own thinking." Nothing could be further from my intention. I have written what I believe, not what I think I want the reader to believe. Of course, anyone writing something wants the reader to get something out of it, and often it is, “Believe this! I’m right!” Not I. Perhaps as you read, you can get my intent by thinking, “He believes that? That can’t be right! Can it?” That can be the beginning of tapping the inquestioning spiritual well.

Personally, I have chosen the Christian Plan of Salvation in which to maneuver my intellectual/spiritual journey. Others choose other Plans. I am well aware of the Christian prejudice toward there-is-only-one-Plan-and-that-Plan-is-what-I-perceive-as-right! syndrome; however, it is obvious that God created many plans. This is shown through the many religions and even the varieties of belief within religions—Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Christian, Muslims, Navahos, Aztecs, Tasadays, Country Music Christianity, Snake-handlers Christianity, etc. We should not be surprised that there are spiritual similarities (even though some deny them) between these varieties; they were all set up by the same God, and we all worship the same Spirit. God always has a plan in everything He does. Within these religious plans are “species” of religions as God continually used the same patterns in creating His world. For me, that Salvation Plan even extends to the individual level—we each have our own Plan, no matter what variety we choose to reside in, created personally by God. That is what He meant by having Paul write in his Philippian letter “. . . continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

We just must remember that God created the world for His pleasure, not for ours. (Actually, I doubt if God has pleasure, but we understand pleasure and get pleasure from our religion, so I use that term.) He uses social order, e.g., religions in what we are discussing, to help bring about whatever is best for His Plan for existence. He then uses the individuals within the social order to complete His earthly plan. We dishonor our selves when we thoughtlessly think of the earth as our Earth. God created the world for His pleasure, not ours. We use it, we enjoy or endure it for a season, and then we die and sinning is over.

ON THE SPIRIT/MENTAL INTERACTION—Spiritual Genetics[1]

I have been impressed with the research associated with Goleman’s[2] emotional intelligence studies and particularly the pilfering of mental IQ into emotional IQ. It might make an interesting study to look at spiritual IQ also, but I would not want to be too zealous in jumping on the bandwagon. However, the correlation begs inquestioning, and I will use the phrase Spiritual Genetics, although the phrase has been used for many different aspects of God’s association with mankind. It also has association with a subject of which I am much more acquainted. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

Genetics has generally been considered as an isolated term defining a study of the biology of heredity and variation in organisms. While studying spiritual things, I have noticed a resemblance of physical genetics to what may be called spiritual genetics. We don’t have to understand the biological process here, but it will probably help to summarize some aspects of genetics as it will help us in our study of spiritual genetics.

Biological genetics involves billions of cells in our body each one having millions of DNA bases (our genotype). (I find it remarkable that God chose to have only four kinds of DNA bases to produce all life on earth.) These millions of bases produce thousands of genes producing long strands making up chromosomes (the human genotype has 23 pairs). Genes through a transcriptive process produce messenger RNA which combines amino acid building blocks producing proteins. We then see the results of our DNA in the skin, muscles, organs, and bones of our body (our phenotype).

Our spirit does not have genes as we know them. However, we all have certain talents and abilities that are expressed through our individualistic biological genes. The question might be asked, “What makes the biological genes make you who you are?” I am different from you in my capabilities, and you are different from every other person (or every other living thing for that matter). The phenotypic behavior of spiritual genes is seen in these talents, aptitudes, and abilities. Theoretically, there has to be spiritual genes since we see the phenotype of them in our talents. I propose that it is spiritual genes that are imposed into our spirit by the Spirit that makes me the conscious me, and you the conscious you. Let’s see what Jesus has to say about this topic through His parable of the talents.

(The Kingdom of Heaven) will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.”
His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”
The man with the two talents also came. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.”
His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”
Then the man who had received the one talent came. “Master,” he said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”
His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 25:14-30

Paul had his own inimitable way of saying a similar thing:

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 1 Corinthians 12:7-13

Paul seems to limit his gifts to a few categories that must have been important in Bible times; however, today we might make additional categories or even as I propose, all the talents we humans have. If these talents don’t come from God who made all things, where do self-specific talents come from?

Our spirit doesn’t have genes compared to our physical genes. God’s genes (we might think of it as God's imposition of His will) enters our life and the talents associated with an individual’s life through his/her spirit. The interaction between the Spirit and our physical life might be shown through a symbolic representation like this: [S]-->[s]-->[ms]-->[em]-->[pe]-->[p]. Life (God’s will, talents) is imprinted by the Spirit into our spirit when we are born; we then use it in our mental on through our emotional to the physical. Once the talent reaches our mental (ms), it is then controlled by our mental free will with the temptations and aggravations of this world tempering all talents to one degree or another. Therefore, we can treat these gifts in any way we want, even ignore them. They are no longer perfect as they came from God; we “regulate” them. Generally, we have no control over biological genes. (I know that there are occasions of environmental influence.) However, these talents and abilities produced through spiritual genes are manipulated by our biological genes and our God-given free will. That is why a person can have great music ability and never touch a piano or sing a song to an audience. The talent lies dormant or is expressed in oblique ways. I once heard of a mentally deficient man who could watch a train of railcars pass by and add every number on each car and give you the sum after they had passed. Where did this come from? It certainly wasn’t learned. How much more good can be done by you and me who have our biological mental capacities along with God-given talents!

The interaction between man and God is itself a gift. Some use it constantly; others pay no attention to it, unless we can call using the life-given talents just to live as giving attention to God. I choose to constantly inquestion, to show myself approved through God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly wisdoming the Word of Truth.

[1] See http://www.keyway.ca/htm2004/20040806.htm for another description of spiritual genetics. The phrase is hardly original with me. This discussion is purely my own use of the phrase. My apologies to reincarnationists who might prefer that this phrase be left to them.
[2] Goleman, Daniel. 1995. Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.

On Forgiveness

Forgiveness, for all of its seeming importance to our Christian life, is not well understood, nor is it practiced much.  A major problem is that most have not figured out a definition and therefore have no idea how to implement this wonderful talent that we all have in our lives.  This is the forgiveness ability that we all have: Constantly working to remove unforgiveness-learned behaviors lead to heaven on earth (joy).  Since these unforgiving behaviors have been learned, they can be “unlearned.”

 

Forgive is not merely a word, it is a concept with perception overtones.  We generally consider it a verb just like any other verb that denotes action; verbs require action to complete the definition.  So, we try and try to make ourselves forgive with little accomplishment.  I consider it much more; rather than being a physical action, it is an inquestion that can only be dealt with in a spiritual manner.

 

A further complicating factor in exercising our ability to forgive is unconscious psychological pride.  It works this way: If I forgive someone for doing something wrong, other people look at me from behind their own unconscious psychological pride as having done something stupid.  Our unconscious psyche dislikes looking stupid, so we either don’t follow through with forgiveness or we forgive but make the world think we didn’t forgive.  Actually, when a person thinks rationally[1] about forgiveness, unforgiveness begins to dissolve almost immediately, but most of us cannot be rational about forgiveness.  Unforgiveness is such a burden to carry around.  In most cases it doesn’t make any difference in the large scheme of things (spiritual things) (and usually in the small scheme of things such as an activating event that “caused” the forgiveness problem) whether we forgive or not, so why go on using all that energy unforgiving a person?  It is a decision that we have to make—to forgive or unforgive; it is not imposed externally on to us. 

 

Following I have given the steps that I believe can lead to rational thinking in handling forgiveness.  (The acronyms, A, B, C, etc. are to help in remembering.)  Presented first is a summary of the progression and then the step sequence.

 

A physical AFFLICTING EVENT activates a cognitive, learned BELIEF BEHAVIOR which signals the body to initiate certain CONSEQUENCE ACTIONS.[2]  The mental then cycles from afflicting event to consequence actions, over and over. Our mind is constantly checking for another afflicting event.  If it perceives the same or a different afflicting event, it always responds with the “appropriate” belief behavior.  If a person wants to change this affliction cycle, he/she must honestly DEBATE (inquestion) the issue within one’s self.  Honest, rational, personal/spiritual inquestioning then leads to an EFFECTIVE CHANGE.  This change is a spitiy down decision and results in FORGIVENESS.  Forgiveness is a reflection of GOD as Spirit working through a person’s mental makeup to his/her body.  If a person works through enough of these imprisoning cycles, he/she can attain freedom leading to HEAVEN (Kingdom Of God) on earth.

 

A-Afflicting Event  As we grow up, we have many events that occur in our physical lives.  Most of these events are quickly forgotten, but sometimes the actions surrounding the event are so emotionally traumatic that they are seared into our memory.  They will never be forgotten.  Often, the associated trauma is caused by a person or society who says that such an event should cause emotional trauma, but however it is input, it is very real.  Let’s use a simple non-threatening example—a family is walking in a field behind their house and the child sees a beautiful spider and starts to reach for it.  Mother, using her own neurotically learned “truth” about spiders screams to the child to leave it alone and run.  A simple example perhaps, but life is full of extremely un-simple examples—divorce, auto accident, fire, death, etc.  Virtually always, a person is involved as part of the activating event.  This person’s involvement can be peripheral, but mostly it involves specific painful involvement. 

 

B-Belief Behavior  When the event first occurs, our body goes through a series of emotional/mental gyrations that results in a mental pathway that stays with us as a belief behavior until we change.  Most of these belief behaviors are never changed.  Our society, particularly our Christian beliefs, demands that we blame someone for everything.  When we can’t find a person to blame, we blame God.  Further, blame demands unforgiveness!  Rather than accepting that we do these mental gyrations ourselves, we say that some one caused us to have these behaviors.

 

C-Consequence Actions  Generally, the consequence action is depression, fear, or anger.  Most persons think that they should be (or even must be) depressed or fearful or angry when afflicting events occur.  I call this a neurotic action.  The actions are remarkably controlled, occurring virtually the same every time.  Even the length of time we are supposed to be neurotic is a part of the consequence actions.  One action seems to enforce the next one until the neurotic action becomes an integral part of our PEMS.  We often even seem to forget the original afflicting event ever occurred allowing unforgiveness to become the overriding emphasis and force.  A major consequence of such a cycle is an unforgiving attitude toward the involved person.  In our society, this unforgiveness is said to be natural, understandable; we are supposed to feel this way.  

 

Traditional psychological therapy often stops right here.  Rather than seeing a way to reform our neurosis, they work on going back to the original event and reliving it, “working” through it, rationally accepting it.  This is not to infer that such therapy is useless; in fact, it often results in an understanding that gives the person a method for short-circuiting the cycle.   However, it does nothing to present handles for the person toward resolving all such issues, especially unforgiveness.

 

D-Debate  I contend that we have a body and a spirit.  The spirit is perfect, always giving us positive spiritual (in)sight; it cannot give worldly “advice” as it is not a part of this world.  God (Spirit) works with individuals through our spirit.  True forgiveness emanates from our spirit.  Debating the situation means inquestioning “in the spirit” until we achieve satisfaction.  Each of us will do this differently, but it will always involve the Spirit through our spirit/mental.  Some might call this prayer (I do), but we can’t mix up inquestioning prayer with the verbal prayer we often hear in religious circles.  They are used for two different results.  Debate inquestioning prayer is much more powerful and life changing.  It can only be done individually with individual results.  God works through each of us individually. 

 

Effective Change  We can expect a change in our thinking behavior when forgiveness occurs.  An effective change means that there is no fear, depression, or anger associated with what previously was an afflicting event.

 

F-Forgiveness  Forgiveness involves the mental/spiritual (ms) part of self where a person’s mind and spirit mixes.  Forgiveness for me is mutating a worldly belief neurosis (illogical thinking) through spiritual means.  The pain of the afflicting event is a part of our emotional/mental makeup and is caused by the worldly-induced belief that “I am supposed to unforgive!”  Forgiveness is the spiritual acceptance that “I am to forgive my debtors as God has forgiven me of my debts.”  Change worldly irrational judgment into spiritually-lead rationality judgment.  Change self-loathing to God’s spiritual love.  Almost all unforgiveness is connected to self-loathing, to remembering the mental gyrations and concomitant emotional feelings of some past bygone time with the guilt of unforgiveness. 

Nobody ever forgives, in my sense of what forgiveness is, outside of spiritual input.  A person just has to accept the constantly-available offering of the spirit. There is a close relationship between our accepting God’s forgiveness and our ability to forgive.  Acceptance is the key.  God accepts us = we accept others and our self.  God made us just as we are; He accepted us as we were when we were conceived; He still accepts us just as we are today.  Spirit is the real of life, the source of all good, through which we recognize beauty and truth, God in man; forgiveness, thus, is a congenital of the Spirit/spirit. 

 

G-God (Spirit)  God works through individuals individually.  Such working is generally “sought” by the individual through inquestioning.  God has reminded us in His model prayer that God forgives as we forgive others.  This is not to impose guilt, but to impose the importance of seeking the use of the ability to forgive.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could make the natural behavioral response to afflicting events inquestioning toward seeking forgiveness?   I guess we would then not be human.

 

H-Heaven (Kingdom of God)   I believe that we can have a little of heaven right here on earth.  It is where we are when we are inquestioning; it is where we are when we pray in the spirit; it is where we are when we “use” our conscience to do the “right” things; it is where we are when we forgive.  There are other things involved, but a major part of spiritual satisfaction is involved with forgiveness, and spiritual satisfaction is a part of the Kingdom of God. 

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[1] My use of the word rational might be a bit foreign. I define it as “a way of thinking as it really is.”

[2] You might notice that this is a modified expansion of Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Therapy.