Quicksilver

Define Spirit

(Metaphysical/neo-spiritual Theory Alert, so you can decide if you want to dive in.)

I think of Spirit as the facilitator of cosmic gestalt, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Spirit is not an additional or an extraneous part or one big part to carry the other parts. It is the energy that makes possible the existence of parts and other energies. It doesn't really defy logic so much as simply existing outside logic but within, around, and throughout everything.

We seem bound by our mortal selves in wanting to explain such a thing. So, we try to devise logical, mathematical, physical and verbal equivalencies. But I think Spirit has no such equivalency. We can try to grasp the concept, but like Infinity and Eternity, we are not truly equipped on this plane, in these bodies, to fully understand. Isn't that what faith is for? I accept The Mystery.

I see evidence of Spirit everywhere and within me, so I know it must exist, even if I cannot prove it in concrete terms. Just as I feel the effects of wind, I know it exists. Just as I feel the effects of gravity, I know it exists. I cannot gift wrap Spirit and hand it to you. I can't force you to believe or follow. It's something you must come to believe from your own heart, from listening to your own inner voices. I can try to share what I have felt, but you must feel it and know it from within yourself. Feeling is, I believe, the operative imperative.

Don't we accept the existence of gravity, even though we can't see it or get our hands on it? How about magnetism? Electricity? Yes, we can define how it operates, but we cannot 'grasp' the actual forces in their entirety. I think we'll never find a way to shrink Spirit into the same quantifying or qualifying systems as we use to, say, count apples. We can find analogies and share anecdotes, which allow us to work with the energy of Spirit. We work with it even before we believe in it. But to work consciously with it, to expand one's own soul horizons, requires faith.

Transcendence is in knowing there is more to Life than what we see, feel, hear, touch and taste. We move beyond the 'animal' or physical part of ourselves that lives only from the experience of our five senses and survival instincts. We recognize that we are conscious, thinking, feeling, beings. It's the ability to accept that there is more than we can imagine. It's the acceptance that there are no limits. Transcendence is recognition, acknowledgement, acceptance of Spirit... no matter what you choose to call it.

Just my open onion. And I think I might be preachin' to the choir again.

06.25.2001

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