In a further reflection of the possible relationship between matter and spirit, we might endeavor into a discussion of how spirit reflects matter. According to the classical greek philosopher Theophrastus you can see a relationship between the spiritual realm and the material realm as a line of thought, an argument. He cites Plato, and defines his relationship as a kind of layered structure. At the top we find the ideas, beneath that we find mathematics, beneath that the application of mathematics, and then matter.
I belive there is an element of truth in that, but I do not believe, as Plato and Theophrastus, that the spiritual realm is only mathematics and ideas. In fact, I am more in the line of Animaxander, the teacher of Plato, who believes that the spiritual realm is a natural force, what we call intelligence.
Now, in the time of Aristotle there was a lot of discussion of what really moved the world. Aristotle talks about the “primal mover”. A mover that, in itself is not moving. How could that make sense? Well, if you see intelligence as the primal mover, it makes sense. Intelligence itself does not move itself, but it moves things.
The primal mover is intelligence.
With this realization, we can further understand the realm of spirit. What is the actual process of light and life on earth? It is the infusion of intelligence into matter. Intelligence is what makes us divine.
When we lose our intelligence, we die. We may still grow hair or some other autonomous bodily function will continue to work, but death is the loss of intelligence. So life itself is G-d.
This makes it much easier to understand the relationship between spirit and our lives. A few of us know, that we are only here on small amount of time. After that, when we die, we are, if we are sound enough, reinserted into spirit. This is what we call afterlife.
Some, really do not understand that, some do. Some fight to make people realize their spiritual existence, some will not, with all respect.
Why is it important to realize your own spiritual existence? It is because, we are not absorbed by intelligence after we die, if we are not alike the spirit we meet. In a way this is the Christian story about saint Peter. He holds the keys to the spiritual realm. He will not let you in, if you have sinned. In a way this is a symbolic representation of the actual process of death. If we meet the spiritual realm as ethical cripples, we are not accepted by intelligence, because we somehow pollute heaven.
Now, what do we then do to be prepared for heaven? We act good, we try our best to be honest and straightforward. This is all a representation of spirit, and we try our best to do so, to be accepted into spirit.
Now, what is spirit alike? It is difficult to describe, and honestly, I am not sure. But my feeling is, that it is an absolute communion of all living. It is a realm of oneness. All is weaved into itself and interconnected. It is a feeling of absolute joy. On top of this, there is the possibility, that there is a certain personality possible in the spiritual realm. There are persons or avatars in heaven. Some are weaker, some are stronger, but all are good.
This is where angels are represented. What Rene is talking about is the discussion between angels; do we interfere, do we not interfere. I believe we should interfere, Rene is, with all respect, in a statement of disagreement.
This is a possible analysis of the connection, but it is of cause all up to a discussion on the basic principles of heaven and earth.
G-d bless love and light.
Asger. Intelligence is a brainy thing and is mortal, and the brain will be eaten by worms one Day, trust me. Intelligence is what has been put into the brain doing this lifetime, both right and wrong learning and all your bizarre Religions, philosophy and superstitions as well. Spirituality means LIFE that is immortal and eternal, God is Spirit (Life) and eternal. Your body and intelligence is but temporary. To be alive also means to be consciously aware hence God is super conscious and is the source of all life. And super/universal consciousness is the knowledge of all truths about Love. As the good book says, God is Love, Truth and Spirit (Life).
The opposite of dead is birth, not life. Life, like God has no opposite.
Dead is only a bodily thing. It doesn’t interfere with the real you. Before intelligence has a place to be, a body must be borne and developed to accommodate it. And when the life-force leaves the body, and the body dies, the brain and everything in the brain decomposes and turns into dust. It was all of no importance, a waste of time, much ado about nothing. Intelligence, because of the reptilian origin is amplified by selfish and egotistical people, just like reptiles.
Some people are better to juggle their memory cells with their learned information and then become disillusioned and think that they are smarter than other people, which from a reptiles point of view is correct, but from a caring view is a bummer. I am of cause painfully aware of the fact that most unenlightened people are totally uninformed about the difference between the mortal intelligence and eternal life that is part of Conscious awareness. Most people still think that what they look at in the mirror are themselves, well think again.
You truly have to figure what you are? Why you are here? And how you achieve your purpose in life? Until you get these answers right, you get absolutely nowhere. This is where both Religion and Philosophy failed utterly.
Love is the answer, any questions? Love is not intellectual, love is a state of conscious awareness. I hope you see the difference.
I am
Rene’ Descartes
Dear Rene. Thank you for leaving a reply, as you mentioned, a renewed focus on metaphysics is paramount to run this blog, and I do hope you see my angles on the discussion between matter and spirit.
The interesting discussion concerning the fabric of the universe and the actual manifestation of G-d is however a discussion I wish we could delve a little deeper into, using our shared brains, or whatever it is 😉
Look at it this way. When we look at life, which is sacred and spirit. What is life really? It is intelligence, intelligence is the single item that defines life in any living creature. Some living creatures are more full of intelligence, others less. Take a tree, it has intelligence; it can act in a very limited way, it has memory, it can analyze its situation. Growing this or that way, demands a certain amount of intelligence. The same goes with the worm, the whale, the ant, the octopus, the mouse. There is one single thing all life shares, and that is intelligence.
Now, where does it come from? I mean, it obviously dissapears at a certain point in the course of life. That is off cause the end of life. it it not so that it only dissapears a little, or in only some parts of the body. It disappears, as a whole, from the entire body.
So it must rest somewhere in the body. When it comes to most mammals, reptiles and the like, we have repositiore to keep the intelligence in, it is called the brain. If some parts of the brain is hurt, some parts of our system will fail. But in most living things; trees, grass, plants of different kind, there is no such fancy thing as a brain. Intelligence is basically just everywhere in the plant.
My point is, intelligence is the defining factor of life, and it is a truly mysterious thing. Where does it come from? Are we basically just, small robots that reproduce ourselves endlessly, or does it actually come from somewhere.
The theory of the classical natural philosopher/metaphysicist Anaxagoras is, that intelligence is a kind of a soup that everything just floats around in. It penetrates everything, and yet touches nothing. So it is, like other mysterious natural powers; lightning, light, gravity and so on, a natural power we cannot really understand or wrap our heads around, we can just conclude that it is there. Intelligence is real.
The warping mind point is however the theory, that intelligence is everywhere, and is induced into matter through birth, and reintroduced into the “soup” when we die.
This is valid theory, both in the natural science department, as well as the metaphysical department. Remember many theories in the natural science department, like the theories Einstein originally developed was, at the outset pretty strange.
This theory has its arguments pro et contra, but the arguments pro, are clearly the strongest.
Because, simply. If intelligence is everywhere, and unchanging in its structure in all life, it cannot be a thing that comes from within the lifeform itself, because all life changes. It has to come from outside. That outside is the soup of intelligence we are talking about. That is G-d.
The structure of that natural power is however difficult, and how it works. But you can, and probably have tried to reach it through meditation.
G-d bless 🙂
Hallo Asger, To help you understand the differance between intellect and consciousness read thefollowing. I may have penned some of it before so forgive me.
Achieving Universal Consciousness.
The Universal Conscious mind, by some called ….Achieving Enlightenment, the super-Consciousness, Universal Consciousness or the Christ Consciousness, is a very important concept to grasp. It is that awareness that exists within each and every soul. It is the pattern imprinted on the mind, waiting to be awakened by the free will, of the awareness of soul’s oneness with the creator. This awareness is ingrained, or pre-built into the mind, and when awakened by the right use of free will, the person realises his oneness with the universal mind. (The kingdom of heaven that truly are within).
This Universal Consciousness, by some, called the spirit, works something like an instinct? It is already there inside us; it just takes the right stimulus to bring it out. It is the same with the universal consciousness.
Life (spirit) is not animation (matter in motion), it is conscious awareness. Where there is Life, there is Consciousness to some degree.
The Universal, conscious mind in all of us is the portion made in the image of the creator, as recorded in Genesis. It is that portion of us that is God or godlike. The Universal Conscious mind is separate from anything earthly, and only makes its presence known or is knowable when the soul-self lifts itself and portions of the conscious mind up into the vast, expansive level that is the super-conscious.
If we want to awaken the imprinted pattern of that awareness, we just need the right stimulus. In this case, the right stimulus is the application of our free will in a specific way, by being unselfishly loving. And this is what is so hard for most people.
This is what we want from and expect of other people, but we seldom like to do it ourselves.
The Universal Consciousness is a soul pattern that exists within each soul because all souls, including the Christ soul, were created in the same mould. The Christ Consciousness, incidentally, was created as a pattern for all others. The Christ soul never forget its oneness with the creator, yet voluntarily went through cycles of incarnations and got lost in materialism. It did this to be able to consciously find its way back to a conscious relationship with the Creator. “Your body is the temple of the living God.” Your body is not God, but it is the temple of the God Consciousness expressed on Earth. The Universal Consciousness symbolises the Holiest of Holies in the Temple of Solomon. At the crucifixion the curtain was torn in twain to give all of mankind access to the Universal Consciousness called the Consciousness of God by living the way like him.
Soul is the developing portion of our whole nature. It is ever changing, growing and learning, and uses free will to explore, create, test, discover and more. Soul is the ultimate companion to the creator, a true companion, because it has the free will to choose whether to be a companion or not. The soul is also uniquely able to bridge the gulf between the spiritual realms and the physical realms, between our divine, godly self and our earthly self-consciousness. The mind of the soul is the subconscious. It may operate independently of the Universal Consciousness of the Creator. (At least, it is allowed to think it does. After all, there is no way to actually be outside of the whole.) Or, it may act in harmony and conscious at-oneness with the Universal Consciousness.
Separate Consciousness.
It may be easier for you to understand Universal Consciousness if you first understand Separate Consciousness, which is what physical consciousness also is. You will then at least have an idea what Universal Consciousness is not. And you will be able to relate more to, and understand, Separate Consciousness – because that is what you have right now.
Let’s begin with one of the fundamental effects of separate consciousness, a person’s individual, separate point of view. We’ve all heard phrases like “From where I sit ….”, or “Walk a mile in my shoes…” etc. These are common references to the significance of having separate and different points of view.
A person’s point of view can mean two things, # 1) literally the point from which a person sees things or # 2) a person’s opinion. A person’s opinion is based on a combination of #1 and the person’s programmed beliefs. Let’s first look closer at #1, the point aspect. Most individuals have a limited point of view dictated by the very fact that they are separate individuals.
They each see things from a different place, a different point; and they only see from their separate individual place. There are as many places that a person will see from as there are people. The trouble is that seeing from one place only doesn’t allow you to see the whole picture, or the big picture. This example, of course, is not one of even seeing things with universal consciousness – seeing from a universally broad point of view. However, in a small way, having a point of view that is as broad as possible allows us to better perceive reality, to see more truth.
A broad point of view can help us better understand others; better understand the world, and ultimately the entire universe. If our point of view is broad enough, we are better able to understand other points of view. We can then more easily communicate or interact with others and vice versa. The broader the reader’s point of view, the more he will perceive what is really written (within limits). But still, it will affect the subconscious, and the inner being in each reader. And it may affect the consciousness of those with fertile ground for the seeds. Yet, it goes both ways.
When we talk about the state of a person’s consciousness, we are essentially talking about the state of his awareness of the world around him. And as such, a person’s consciousness is directly related to the way he views, interprets, understands and interacts with everyone and everything around him. A person’s point of view is affected by both the state of his consciousness, and his beliefs and programming.
Beliefs and programming are usually in sync with a one’s level of consciousness. However, consciousness is dominant, and if there is a shift to a higher or lower state, the new consciousness can alter and override one’s beliefs and programming in order to match the new level of consciousness. Every human being is obviously an individual self. And most people are both conscious that they are an individual self, and believe that their individual self is separate from other people, and everything else in the universe. Thus, people generally have separate self-consciousness, and live their lives based on this consciousness. So it is self-consciousness that creates separate consciousness.
With regard to a point of view, having separate self-consciousness means having a point of view that is limited to seeing things from only one place, the place where the separate self is at. This can mean seeing things from an actual physical point of view that is limited to just the place where the person is located, or it can mean seeing things from a point of view that’s limited by the person’s beliefs and programming. In any case, when a person has separate self-consciousness the point of view is very limited and the perspective is narrow.
There are varying degrees of narrow-mindedness of course, but even the broadest point of view that comes from just one person with separate self-consciousness must be limited and incomplete, because it is a view that is still from only one place, only from that one separate self. Thus, it is a point of view that will have limited understanding. And if a person has such limited understanding, what kind of thoughts are they limited to? And if their thoughts are from such limited perception and understanding, what kind of action will they take regarding other people, and the world around them? For the answer to that, just look around at the world. The problem is that most people are too arrogant to know what they don’t know.
Separate self-consciousness, because of its limitations and narrow- mindedness, compartmentalises its perceptions of the world into pieces that are extensions of itself. Everything in your immediate world becomes an extension of you, of your separate self. For instance, there is your neighbourhood, your town, your county, your province, your country, your part of the world (and, depending on your socio-economic status, possibly your gang’s turf). Because the separate self relates to these as extensions of itself, most people support their country, for instance, just because it is their country.
Sure, they come up with reasons why their country is the best or most important. But the problem is, many people believe that their country is IT, the best, the most important, the most right, regardless of any reason to think so or not. And by so doing, they care less about other countries, and the people of those other countries. And if everyone’s country is the best, who’s right? They can’t all be right. This phenomenon is even worse when it comes to a person’s outlook on religion. Many people think theirs is the only right religion (and thus the only one that will provide salvation for anyone else) and actually hate other religions and their practitioners.
When there is more than one religion claiming to be the only right one, it creates a question of who’s right and who’s wrong, and the dilemma of choosing the right one, or facing the consequences of having chosen the wrong one (not getting into heaven, going to hell etc.). What country starts a war thinking that they’re in the wrong? All of these perceptions and beliefs originate from separate selves and the territories they consider extensions of themselves.
Almost everyone favours not just their country, but all the extensions of their separate selves – they favour their race, their ethnic group, their school, their local team, their political party etc. Although precious few people have begun to expand their self-consciousness to include bigger pictures, this still falls far short of Universal Consciousness. The efforts of such people can be a total waste of time, or even harmful, without Universal Consciousness. The human race barely cares about people let alone plants and animals. Those with separate self-consciousness will defend their views with twisted logic.
It all depends on what our separate selves consider extensions or relations of themselves, or have a selfish stake in. All these expansions of consciousness are steps toward the ultimate expansive and caring consciousness, universal consciousness. But they are still all variations of separate self-consciousness – limited by so many constraints, destructive and riddled with mistakes. Oh, how many tears have been shed in the wake of things going wrong, and the cry is echoed, “But I was only trying to help.” The fact is, all things in the universe are essentially made of the same stuff and are totally interdependent and connected.
I am Rene’
Ok, I see. Basically what I define as intelligence, you define as consciousness.
The physical Consciousness is the intellect in the brain, the sub-consciousness is other worldly and give us a peek in our dreams, the Universal consciousness is what is Godly in all of us, but not realized or even known by most people. The three levels of consciousness present in man is what the Hebrew wise men of old made in stone for posterity with the temple of Solomon (Solo-man…Man only). It had an outer court representing the physical consciousness or intellect. It had an inner court representing the sub-consciousness. And it had the holies of holy representing the Universal or Christ consciousness. At the crucifixion of Jesus the memory curtain into the holies of holy was torn in twain which symbolized that the universal consciousness is now for everybody to achieve. Before that only the high priest could enter once a year as I am sure you knew. Focussing only on intellect is the low frequency which is magnified in Babylonian rabbinical teachings. But there is of cause much more to it than that. Don’t get stuck on the low level where religions and some philosophies are stuck. For 2000 years religions have been trying to tell their story, but achieved nothing but discord amongst everybody. What part of “we don’t want their lies and hatred anymore” don’t they understand?
I am
Rene’
Dear René
Listen, what I see a paramount is not the exact naming of things. It does not matter much to m what we call it, what I see as extremely important is the understanding. I do not have the arrogance as to see my ideas as the end result of anything, my ideas are just a small stepping stone on a path initiated several thousand years ago. If I realize just a small advancement of the metaphysical theory, to me, that is worth a lifes striving.
As I see it, we have, or rather, in essence, I have dug up the basic principles of our civilization through an extensive study of classical theory. From there, there is a long and hard work to realize the interconnections and then perhaps have a whole new picture of metaphysics as it was formulated at the peek of our civilisation before the dark middle ages, where so much knowledge was lost.
This could potentially alter our understanding of reality, so that we basically realize our spiritual self.
Yes, there are different levels of spirit, but we still really need to understand what is really going on.
In the classical times, the most prestigious field was metaphysics, but today it is nature, or rather natural science.
I would like it to level out a little, so that we can discuss metaphysics again without the derogative label.
In this, one of the difficult things is off cause, as you so precisely point out; the relationship between ethics and metaphysics. I mean, what do we really distill ethically from our metaphysical discussions.
In this I am really grateful for your contribution 🙂
Yours sincerely
Asger