The Sophistry (Fallacy) of Mind, Body, Spirit
I am going to present a subject that can be argued especially amongst the holistic community.
But, before I touch upon the conversation that I am going to get into, it should be noted that each of us has a somewhat different philosophical flavor to which we subscribe. I happen to subscribe mainly to the teachings of A Course in Miracles which, although consisting of the teachings of Jesus, has almost nothing to do with Christianity. I also have an interest in the philosophies of Advaita Vedanta, which like A Course In Miracles is non-dualistic, and I also enjoy some of the teachings from the Yoga Philosophy. Mainly, my guidance and my peace comes from A Course in Miracles.
So sometime back in 2019, a guy walked into my yoga studio. He asked if I taught Christian Yoga. I sensed he already knew the answer. He then asked if I was a Christian. I responded that I follow Jesus but that I am not a Christian. He was dumbfounded and confounded. Confounded means confused and befuddled. He was mostly befuddled. He never expected an answer like that and could not grasp what I was saying. On one hand, I professed to follow the guy that he obviously thought was king of the hill. On the other hand, I said that I was not a Christian, and I am not! In his mind, there was definitely a disconnect. He walked out. He could not conceive of my position. But, what did I mean by that response? I am going to keep it fairly light and short because, as I mentioned already, each of us have a different way of looking at things and none of them, by themselves, are right or wrong, except in the minds of those who choose to make it right or wrong via their own way of thinking.
Now, how can a person be a proponent of the teachings of Jesus, yet not be Christian? Before I answer that question directly, I remember back in the day, when I studied martial arts as a teenager. The martial arts masters that I learned about had altars in their martial arts studios. I was amazed when I found out that these well-known martial artists, had pictures of their martial arts teachers and a picture of Jesus on their altars. At the time, I wondered why. None of them were Christian; all of them were Buddhist. Devout Buddhists! None of them followed the teachings of Christianity, but they did recognize the mastery of Jesus. So, why did they have a picture of Him on their altar? It took me years to find out.
Jesus had no intention of starting a religion. The religion was actually started by men who were born after him, and could not fathom or comprehend most of what he was teaching. Most of what they wrote is written in a book that everyone considers spot on. Thirty years after Jesus walked this planet, another guy came around who decided to convert from killing to saving. He wrote about his interpretation of Jesus but did not even know the guy. Most of the book I referred to earlier is filled with his writings! Interestingly, a very close friend of Jesus, another guy, whose name was Thomas, wrote a book. He wrote a book of sayings spoken by Jesus. He wrote them down verbatim, but they were lost until only 70 or so years ago when, in 1945, this book, and a number of others, were found in Nag Hamadi, Egypt, around the same time as the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. As I mentioned, one of the books was written by Thomas and is known as the Gospel of Thomas. It includes the sayings spoken by Jesus. The sayings are extremely simple and wise. So, the combination of the above plus other books I have read by and about Jesus are the reasons I follow Him, but do not follow the religion named after Him. And when given any thought, Jesus, himself, was not Christian and had nothing to do with the religion that is named after him just like Buddha, a Hindu, had nothing to do with the religion named after him.
Now, although I realize that following this guy but not the religion named after Him is not popular or normal, I have something else that I want to share with you that is also not popular.
It is about the supposed mind-body-spirit connection. To understand where I am coming from, I am going to assume that you are familiar with what I have been teaching over the past year or you have been to a few of my yoga classes over the past decade. If not, you may be a bit lost. But, if you have heard me teach in any venue, you will have heard me say, at some point, that we are not the body. Let me explain.
The current thinking is that to be truly integrated as a person, we must integrate mind, body, and spirit. How many times I have said those exact words in a yoga class or in a talk. It is actually the reason I got involved in yoga in the first place. I wanted a mind-body, if not a mind-body-spirit practice, that would replace my martial arts practice which was a mind-body practice! But, in looking for something like this, we fall right into a trap. And it is the perfect trap! It is perfect because it sounds so enticing, so right on, so pure! This is exactly what the ego wants us to pursue because the effort to integrate the mind, the body, and the spirit will require a lifetime of effort. The effort is so great, and so time consuming, and at times, so much fun, that we become consumed, and lost, while journeying on this path, and therefore never once look at what we are even saying or thinking. The entire premise of the statement is fallacious. That is, to be truly integrated as a person, well, that presumes we are human beings first, and then whatever else, next, like Spirit, for instance. But, in Reality (and that is with a capital R), we are Spirit! And we are not the body!
The bottom line is this: Spirit, mind, and body cannot be integrated as they are on different planes of existence, each one of them, and the planes do not, and shall not, ever meet. Spirit transcends the mind and body entirely. I have heard people say over the years, so many times: I have to work on my spiritual life. NO, YOU DO NOT! You have to work on the thoughts you allow yourself to entertain. Your Spiritual life is perfect. We were created in the image and likeness of God. God is Spirit. Therefore, we are Spirit. Nothing, absolutely nothing, having to do with Spirit, has diminished one iota, no matter how big our ego is and therefore how contrary our thoughts are to that which is being explained in this paragraph! Our thinking, however, has gone off the deep end, so to speak, and thinking is of the mind (not the brain!). So, again, Spirit transcends the mind and body entirely. The mind transcends the body. The body has no true substance, as it is merely a thought in the mind....having never left its source, the mind - the wrong mind for that matter. (did you pick up on the pun? it was real subtle)
Another point to consider is that the body is the domain or home of the ego. The mind sides with the ego or Spirit, based on you, the Decision Maker. So, the choice is always ours! And we are spending our lives attempting to integrate the mind, the body, and the Spirit? Hello?! We need to begin to look at the works of Socrates, Plato, the Gnostics, Shakespeare, Vedanta, and A Course in Miracles.
So, if we are physically oriented, then:
- we are always working out to get the body in shape or;
- we are always starting a new diet or;
- we are always about to go on a diet or;
- we are always talking about what we can or cannot eat because of how heavy we are or;
- we are wondering what we can do in order to gain weight or;
- we are always taking drugs because the body aches, is sick, or is diseased or;
- we are always thinking about the body of someone else or;
- we had another injury of the body or;
- we are always talking about how many medications our doctor is making us take (you all know these people, they have the martyr complex) or;
- we have to go to court because a body was injured or killed in an accident. So...
- every issue in our life, for the vast majority, boils down to something having to do with the body!
Well, this is a problem because we are stuck on the body! We pray for the recovery of someone to heal. But, what are we praying for? The recovery of the body. We go to the doctor or the hospital (not the brightest idea in the world), when the body is sick. We are stuck on the body because we think the problem comes from the body, exists in the body and is resolved by addressing the body. But, first and foremost, the viewpoint or belief that is held by the person who thinks s/he is a body must be addressed. We were made in the likeness and image of God. Are there those who believe God has a physical body? God is not a physical being which means God has no body. God has no physical body. We were made in the image of God. So, that means that we have to put on our thinking caps for a bit so that we can figure out what the statement 'We are made in the image of God' really means. If we are made in the image of God does not mean that we are a body, then God must be non-physical. Taking that further, God must be Spirit. If we are the image and likeness of that, then we must be Spirit.
If we consider ourselves to be a physical specimen, then Spirit is gone from our self-concept. On the other hand, if we truly accept that we are Spirit, then the body becomes meaningless in our reality. It became meaningless for Buddha, Jesus, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta, and Dr. David Hawkins. They all knew they were not the body. As a matter of fact, Jesus called his body, the golden garment. Not his golden garment, but the golden garment that He seemingly wore while in this illusion. He did not associate any part of Him Self with that physical body. To continue, if that which I AM is the Higher Self or the Real Self or the Atman, and the I AM is united with the Creator, then I cannot be a body as I am created in the image and likeness of the Divine. I Am Spirit. So let me point out the following to you:
"On this one choice [between spirit and flesh] does our [entire] world depend, for here we establish what we are, as flesh or spirit [according to] our own belief. If we choose flesh, we never escape the body as our own reality, for we have chosen that which we want. But choose the Spirit, and all of Heaven bends to touch our eyes and bless our holy sight, that we may see the world of flesh no more except to heal and comfort and bless those that choose to believe in the body as the essence of that which they are." ~ ACIM
The healing that I am referring to is not of the body since the body does not exist. The healing must occur in the mind where all illusions occur. Heal the mind, heal the illusory body. Jesus never healed a body. He healed the mind seemingly connected to the body.
Now, the function of our minds is to undo guilt, our unconscious guilt, through forgiveness. The mind is either influenced by Spirit or by ego. We have talked about this before. Who is your teacher? If we choose the ego as our teacher, then the ego influences us and we will strongly and convincingly believe ourselves to be the body. If we choose Spirit as our Teacher, then Spirit influences us and we will eventually know Truth. You see, there is a huge difference between beliefs and knowledge, between believing and knowing. All beliefs are of the ego. Oooh, that touches a nerve, eh? Think of it this way: if you have a belief, you are not certain. If you have Knowledge, you are. For instance, I know where I live; I do not believe I live where I live! I do not have to have a belief in it because I know! Period. Knowledge exists in Heaven; beliefs do not exist in Heaven. Again, all beliefs are of the ego; all Knowledge is of the Divine.
So, after all this is presented to you, I am going to say something that may sound strange. I am not asking you to deny the body. That would be foolish because most of us believe we are the body or at the very least, have a body. And no one is adept at changing beliefs just like that! Rather, I am suggesting that we undo the false perception of the purpose of the body. I could say it this way: undo the false perception of the purpose given to it by the ego, because remember, the body is the domain of the ego. Instead, substitute the purpose given by Spirit: forgiveness rather than attack; forgiveness rather than being offended; forgiveness rather than any other option; choose Spirit rather than the ego or the body; Knowledge rather than perception or belief; Truth rather than illusion.
The veil of ignorance is drawn across both good and bad, right and wrong. In other words, the veil of ignorance is drawn across everyone. How do we remove the veil? How is this done? It is not done. At all!! What could there be within this universe that must still be done? There is nothing new under the sun! Nothing!
Peace comes thru undoing! Undoing thoughts of conflict, anger, jealousy, hatred, depression, competitiveness, and so on. So, what is left is That Which We Are -- Love. This requires almost no effort because we do not have to do anything! Through undoing what never was, vision lifts the veil that keeps hidden the memory of our Higher Self, or Spirit. Removing the veil reveals our True Self, our Spiritual Self; it does not reveal the body as the body is already apparent and, for most people, thought to be real! No, removing the veil reveals our Spirit.
So, integrating mind, body, and Spirit is a self defeating journey as Spirit or the Higher Self is that which we are and by undoing that which we think we are, the body, we realize our True Nature. Aligning what is known as the Right Mind with our Spirit, our Real Self, brings us closer to Home. The result can be a healthy body.