10/5/2010 @ 6:30

10/5/2010

Denver City, Texas, United States
Denver City, TX

Step Fourteen & Fifteen - The Soul and The Spirit This month our topic will be 'The Spirit'. Check the "Files" link for a download-able meeting topic outline. Hopefully this will help you know what to expect, and how to prepare if you should so choose. Again, I won't be reading it directly, instead I will simply talk from the heart and give a more direct context as to how to apply these things to ones day-to-day life, where it counts. Primary Topic Points for this Months Meeting: >> Step Fourteen - The Soul >> Step Fifteen - The Spirit I will open the discussion with some of my insights into both the Spirit as a continuous connection between the Authentic Identity and our perceived self and environment and the Soul as the lingering memory of the illusory self. I will also add some of my own insights into the importance of this concept and it's relation to the nature of what we perceive as the vessel of our awareness in this realm of third-dimensional time-space reality and what we actually are in Perfect Oneness in the Eternal Always. The Soul Having now obtained a glimpse of the adaptation of the physical organism to the action of the mind we must next realize that the mind itself is an organism, which is in like manner adapted to the action of a still higher power, only here the adaptation is one of mental faculty. The faculties most immediately concerned are the intuition and the imagination, but it is at first difficult to see how the intuition, which is entirely spontaneous, can be brought under the control of the will. Of course, the spontaneousness of the intuition cannot in any way be interfered with, for if it ceased to act spontaneously it would cease to be the intuition. Its province is, as it were, to capture ideas from the infinite and present them to the mind to be dealt with at its discretion. In our mental constitution the intuition is the point of origination and, therefore, for it to cease to act spontaneously would be for it to cease to act at all. But the experience of a long succession of observations shows that the intuition can be trained so as to acquire increased sensitiveness in some particular direction, and the choice of the general direction is determined by the will of the individual. It will be found that the intuition works most readily in respect to those subjects which most habitually occupy our thought; and according to the physiological correspondences which we have been considering this might be accounted for on the physical plane by the formation of brain-channels specially adapted for the induction in the molecular system of vibrations corresponding to the particular class of ideas in question. But of course we must remember that the ideas themselves are not caused by the molecular changes, but on the contrary are the cause of them. It is in this translation of thought action into physical action that we are brought face to face with the eternal mystery of the descent of spirit into matter. Though we may trace matter through successive degrees of refinement till it becomes what, in comparison with those denser modes that are most familiar, we might call a spiritual substance, yet at the end of it still is not the intelligent thinking principle itself. The criterion is in the word "vibrations." However delicately etheric the substance, its movement commences by the vibration of its particles or constituencies, and a vibration is a wave having a certain length, amplitude, and periodicity, that is to say, something which can exist only in terms of space and time; and as soon as we are dealing with anything capable of the conception of measurement we may be quite certain that we are not dealing with Spirit but only with one of its vehicles. Therefore although we may push our analysis of matter further and ever further back - and on this line there is a great deal of knowledge to be gained - we shall find that the point at which spiritual power or thought-force is translated into etheric or atomic vibration will always elude us. The importance of recognizing our power of thus giving direction to the intuition cannot be exaggerated, for if the mind is attuned to sympathy with the highest phases of spirit this power opens the door to limitless possibilities of knowledge. Very closely allied to the intuition is the faculty of imagination. This does not mean mere fancies, which we dismiss without further consideration, but our power of forming mental images upon which we dwell. These, as I have said in earlier meetings, form a nucleus, which, on its own plane, calls into action the universal Law of Attraction, thus giving rise to the principle of Growth. The Spirit What must the supreme idea of "Spirit" be in-and-of-itself? It is the tiny thread of Truth that connects what we really are in the absolute to what we are imagining we are in the conditioned. Therefore we know that its purpose is to maintain a constant connection between the One True or Authentic Identity with the seeming many separate identities manifested by the ego identity. The Spirit of Truth can have no other intention toward the illusory idea of many identities than "that the seeming many can know themselves as the ONE" To suppose the opposite would be a contradiction in terms. This is as yet only imperfectly apparent by reason of our imperfect apprehension of the position, and our consequent want of conscious unity with the ONE Eternal Life. Now by what name can we call such an inherent desire to add to the fullness of any individual life-that is, to make it stronger, brighter, and happier? If this is not Love, then I do not know what else it is. Love is the prime moving power of the Spirit. What Form, then, should Love give to the vehicles of its expression? By the hypothesis of the case it could not find self-expression in forms that were hateful or repugnant to it - therefore the only logical correlative of Love is Beauty. Beauty is not yet universally manifested for the same reason that Life is not, namely, lack of recognition of its Principle; but, that the principle of beauty is inherent in the imagined mind is demonstrated by all that is perceived as beautiful in the world in which we live. By training our thought to habitually dwell upon this dual-unity of the Originating Forces of Love and Beauty the intuition is rendered more and more sensitive to ideas emanating from this Supreme Source, the Perfect Oneness that supercedes all duality, and the imagining faculty is trained in the formation of images corresponding to such ideas. In a word we shall discover that our individuality is meaningless, and that we are becoming more truly ourselves than we ever were before. But at some point we will, each of us, release the counsel of the mind and body, and rely wholly upon the counsel of the Spirit. After this I will again open the floor for comments and input from each member on this subject. Any insights and additions will be welcomed. We are not restricted to this topic alone, any insights and ideas on any subject are welcome. We all employ physical expressions and mental processes, but most importantly, we are Spiritual beings; the other two are but simply tools of our expression. Each one of us is a unique reflection of the ONE Idea that is Man. We are, each of us, absolutely perfect right here and right now. Looking forward to seeing everybody on Oct 5th. -- Victor