Part of our existence is to learn to grow. As I understand it, the spiritual teachings show us the same thing for: mind, body and spirit.
After lot of thought, I recognize these are three separate entities.
I can’t tell you how many times have I said: Ah, that stupid arm is acting up again or that stupid back is acting up again. I was judging and critical with my body as a separate entity, rather than loving and caring.
How much do we do that among ourselves and to ourselves?
I used to compare the body to a car. If you want your car to last, you don’t drive it hundreds of miles a day. You’ll take care of it and baby it. That was how I treated my body, gently without wanting to exert it very much. That was tough, but I used the excuse that I was caring for it and preserving it. What I ignored was that I was turning a living being into an inanimate object, without being conscious of it.
The body is more like a plant. When you see that the wind has damaged a tree, you don’t curse the tree. You also don’t curse the wind. You recognize and love the tree for the beauty that it is and for the strength that you know it’s going to gain from that. You know the tree strengthens in the wind. That which doesn’t break us strengthens us. That is true.
In order to grow, you have to break it down. That’s what we do with our muscles. We lengthen them by stretching them. We expand them by pushing them to and beyond their limits. That’s how we grow physically.
The mind is another being. I heard this somewhere: A man does not have an idea. An idea has a man.
How many times do men and women get consumed by ideas, such as the idea that the world is evil or that the world is unjust or the idea that no one will love them. These are some of my ideas. Those ideas have had me in the past.
The body and the mind are separate. For the mind, we grow and expand our mind by learning. A mind expanded does not contract. It must be open. Wisdom comes from not just from learning a subject but from the recognition of how little we know about everything. That’s the true wisdom that comes from the education of the spirit.
Then the spirit is where the true joy is. We educate the spirit by learning where we came from, learning about others and about ourselves, finding what truly gives us purpose, finding what causes we truly believe in, finding the faith and the perfections or imperfections of our existence and recognizing the beauty in all things.
Sometimes that’s a challenge. There are those in our lives who challenge us yet strengthen our ability to love, challenge us to expand the part that’s willing to show compassion, the part that’s willing to try and understand and to lovingly help each other along through this beautiful and scary adventure. We call this the existence of life.
In the end, I make a conscious effort every day to work on those three beings because they are within my control.
I can’t work on you. I can only work on me. Every day I give some attention to each of those beings. I show some love, and I challenge each of them with loving compassion and inspire myself to grow each day in my mind, body and spirit.
I urge you to do the same. The more we improve ourselves, we make the existence of those around us much more pleasant.
Live without fear. Search for the truth.
Namaste and God Bless.