P.29

The Shifting Dynamic of Your Two Spirits

There are two forms, expressions or forces of Spirit.

One is about connection, unity and the whole, the second is about individuality and difference and parts. The two types of spirit are opposite but at the same time form a whole themselves and a whole process of behavior.

1] The Spirit of the Whole, this Spirit we are most familiar with. In this frame of mind we are connected to things greater than ourselves – to the cosmos, to Mother Nature and planet Earth, to the origin of all things, to other Human beings, to the beginning of our race, to our greater selves, to types of mental states.

It is best to see this Spirit as a Process. We feel some deficit of connection we then strive to overcome the deficit and fill ourselves with a connection to a whole, a participation within a whole. We then become satisfied and joyful, we feel grounded or serene, we enter a state of transcendent emotions and feelings.

This whole takes these basic forms:

-connection to the cosmos and our very origin

-connection to Nature

-connection with Humanity and the Community

-connection with the very dawn of the Human race and the ancient tribal village

-connection with higher mental states of the Subsume where all is fused as one whole

Soul is a very important concept in this system, for the soul is a mobile idea, the soul travels from one place to another. The Human soul travels from one state that lacks connection to another state that has connection, the soul is actually the vehicle of the connection. This is why “soul” arises so that we travel and touch something. Different people have different specific views of a soul, but they generally would agree that a soul is an essential core of you that must be in an interaction with the world.

Thus, we think in terms of our soul going back to Nature or the Cosmos when we die. Or we think of our individual souls uniting with those of our ancestors in the recent past or the distant past, and the impact of our souls on people living today and those yet to come. Soul becomes both an individual and collective concept, and we travel with our soul through others. And they travel through us.

There is also a mental place or psychological state that we must connect with, this is the Subsume Mind. In this general state we are in a mindset of fusion and synthesis. We think and feel in terms of wholes. This mind opposes the part of the logical mind that disconnects and cuts up phenomena into parts and pieces and basic “elements”.

There are many particular states of the Subsume Mind having to do with creative-artistic states, memory, Human brotherhood and more.

So this kind of Spirit concerning a whole has many particular expressions. In one case we make a connection when we die, in others we do so while living.

We have returns when we die, and connections while alive.

Further, this Spirit brings us the Golden Rule, Social work and social activism, global cooperation, multiculturalism and many more things. This Spirit can give us a whole new view of time, history, communication and more.

2] The second form of Spirit is that of Individuality. This Spirit expresses individuality, difference and the parts not the whole.

When we have had spiritual satisfaction, sufficient connection with a whole, then we must move out into another form of Spirit. Because we feel deficient in individuality and difference we seek another satisfaction, but this is not one of connection or whole, this goal has to do with differentiation, the creation of difference, needing difference, feeling different, being different, acting different.

This form of spirit stresses differentiation. Like the Spirit of the Whole, the Spirit of Individuality is a process too.

It takes many forms. First is your individuality. You are manifested as an individual

with free will and unique perception. You are the only true agent in the Human world for only individuals act, groups and organizations do not act.

There is great joy in this individuality. Identity is another expression of this Spirit. Creativity is yet another great expression for it is the concrete result of true individuality and unique identity, a distinct creative products. From this kind of Spirit comes Diversity and Multi-culturalism for these are individuality applied to social groups.

This type of Spirit is manifested in techniques and skills such as Directness, being an Empiric.

This Spirit of difference brings great satisfaction and success for us. And though individuality is our primary manifestation and state of existence in this cosmos, we at some point must leave this state too.

3] The very process of differentiation leads to a longing for its opposite, for connection, unity and the whole. It is ironic but true. So we embark on the adventure of the opposite spirit again. This is the long term personal process of a Human being. There is no escape for us. It is built into our nature. And our nature is built into the very cosmos, that is, the cosmos has made us in its image.

These two processes are part of its very core. The two most basic forces in the cosmos of differentiation and wholes are within us. This should not surprise you. Thus, we have two Spirits that are contradictory and flow one after the other.

4] Where does all of this circling and looping take us?

First, it gives us satisfaction, it serves fundamental needs. Second, it takes us higher and higher, for the circle does not really meet, it is more a spiral to higher levels of understanding of each type of Spirit. We learn more about our individuality, creativity, personal ethics and so on. And we learn more about the social whole, and we do more to support it, build it. We help other people and teach them, we connect with them and share a collective soul. We take better care of Nature. And we understand better our place in the vast cosmos. We come to understand birth, life and death more. We come to understand our relationship with our ancestors more and that with living people and those in the future yet to come.

In each loop we gain more knowledge and skill. The deficits that we feel may mainly be Relative because we are proceeding to higher levels of connection and a whole, or higher levels of individuality. Nonetheless they will drive us on with need and desire to transcend our present states.

Each loop is by issue. We have so many issues of spirituality that we cannot shift to a new mode all at once, that would not be practical or normal. This sets up some complication for us, but that is the way of things. We live in a Diverse which by definition is complicated, we do not live in a cosmos of simplistic causes and forces.

5] One last point of interest, most of us will have a bias on the individual and creative, that is, upon the Spirit of Differentiation most of the time. But there are some for one reason or another who will be mainly focused on the Spirit of the Whole. They are not normal but they are not abnormal either, they are just different.

These individuals will operate more in the mode of a whole, commonality and connection. And because of that they will generally excel at this compared to the rest of us. Examples would be social activists, monks or nuns, soldiers and so on. These are people pledged to serve something greater than themselves as a fulltime vocation, and not to pursue normal individual goals.

So these people will in matters of the Spirit of the Whole become our teachers, mentors, models and leaders. It should be pointed out that we all benefit from those who have this unusual bias because they develop levels of understanding and skills that we generally cannot, because of the very time and energy devoted to their focus.

Naturally, they need to access the Spirit of Differentiation, but they will do so less than us and in their own ways. The Diverse throws many twists and surprises at us, here is another.

Cage Innoye

Axxiad News