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*Brian Wilcox. welcome sky. Flickr
Today, I offer an overview of the development, or evolution, of being, from body to Spirit. I present only one aspect of this, the potential of evolution of a human being within the life cycle, not across aeons, and the transcendence-by-inclusion of personhood in spirit. I do not entertain the idea of reincarnation or continuance of a person in an afterlife. I sometimes, elsewhere, use the word emergence, rather than evolution, to avoid what I am writing being equated with naturalistic evolution, which is evolution by mere material operations. I cannot find a reason to trust that life has evolved without some spiritual impetus within the process, the odds are simply too immense; yet, I feel no need to posit a particular theory, such as creation by design, of how the emergence occurred and is happening still. I follow this first part with an experience of spirit connection at a distance.
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One can no more prove a spiritual experience, of any kind
to someone who has not experienced it
as prove a rose scent is a rose scent
to one who never inhales the rose scent
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I have written more extensively on 'Lotus of the Heart' of one means to view the unity of being. I will restate that here, as context for this presentation. This is one among other helpful ways to view this unity of being.
1) Body - the physical aspect of appearance; flesh. When we say, "My body ...," this implies we are not the body; yet, we are not separate from the body, either.
2) Mind - mainly located in the brain; of the body; a function of the body. So, some have termed body and mind as body-mind.
3) Soul - also, spirit, not capitalized. More subtle than body and mind. There is only one soul; we do not have a soul, the soul has the body and mind. Materialist deny the soul, while some spiritualist say the body is a mental illusion, so a form of idealism. Both are extremes.
4) Spirit - Spirit, capitalized. This is the Ultimate, called by many names. Spirit and spirit are one, not necessarily the same. Many in nonduality (lit. not-two) do not believe in Spirit as other than who we are in our deepest essence, so "I and Spirit are one, the same." So, monism. Qualified nonduality (lit., one of two, or, likewise, two of one) would agree with the following, "I and Spirit are one, yet not the same." This means, to me, we are part of Spirit, while Spirit refers to the Totality we are part of. Only Spirit reveals Spirit, Spirit prepares the one to receive and know the revelation of Itself. Spirit is not a he or she or it or anything. Even to say Spirit can lead or mislead.
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