Each of us is a trinity of spirit and soul inhabiting an incredible seven-dimensional bodymind. If we believe the bible, we are created in God’s image. Our spirit and soul are eternal. Through them we can listen, see or know, depending on whether we are auditory, visual or kinesthetic. Everything we call our personality is our bodymind, and it gives our spirit and soul access to seven incredible dimensions—physical, etheric, mental, emotional, attitudinal and the two higher dimensions that deal with our values, principles and beliefs.
As eternal beings, our main job throughout all the painful and loving experiences of our life is teaching our bodymind that it is safe and loved. If we honestly reflect back on our life, every dysfunctional thing we ever did was because we did not feel safe, loved or both.
The entire universe exists so beings can evolve and achieve their deepest desires. All beings, all the flora and fauna, the mineral kingdom, all of it consciously welcoming as much stewardship and love from us as we are willing to extend.
There are two worlds, one real and one illusory. Throughout history, shamans have considered the world outside of us, no matter how real it may appear to be, the world of illusion. Focusing on the world outside ourselves, things we cannot change, makes us feel impotent.
Our inner world—the world our heart lovingly creates, our work, home, friendships, beliefs, hobbies—that is the real world. Now quantum physicists confirm that the world outside us is 99.999% energy, which is mostly consciousness, while only being .001% matter, basically a hologram. The real mystery is how each of our unique worlds exist within the greater dream of Creator.
The Foundation of our Character
Our happiness, well-being and peace of mind require that we keep these three points in balance:
For this whole lifetime, the foundation of our character is like a three-way balance board that we stand upon. We forge our character in the alchemy of life as we do whatever it takes to keep all three points of the triangle in balance throughout all life’s joys and sorrows, wins and losses, triumphs and failures, throughout the full spectrum of this magnificent and challenging life we get to have.
The three points of our triangle support each other, giving our life strength, stability and protection in three separate dimensions, three planes of motion, three aspects of reality—each point strengthening and stabilizing the other two points.
Cherishing others (and ourselves) requires that we do trainloads of forgiveness. It takes courage to love, to be truthful and to be decisive. This path is not for the faint of heart. But it leads to peace of mind. We become the promise of ourselves.
If we do not cherish the life we are creating, if we do not stand up for and commit to our truth, if we do not commit to what we know to be true, then each point of our triangle undermines the other two. Life does not turn out well for us whenever this triangle gets out of balance in any direction.
Free will
We have free will at every choice point. Everything we encounter has its origin in the choices we previously made. Those choices could have come from focusing on all the things we don’t like, which chooses that. Focusing on what we don’t like always creates what we don't like in our personal world.
Or, we can focus our precious attention on what we cherish, courageously choosing to focus on and do what we love. Every moment that we are focusing on what we love, we are creating more to love. Whichever way we choose makes all the difference.
If we truly love something, we need to stand up for it. Be decisive about it. Commit to it. Then our triangle is complete. So is our life. We feel complete. Peace of mind blossoms like a beautiful flower under the unconditional love, warmth and guidance of our heart.
Standing up for all three points of our triangle becomes the crucible of fire that transforms us from mere potential into fully-actualized beings. This is the essence of ancient alchemy. We turn our character from pig iron to fine steel, and ultimately to gold.
The Complimentary Nature of spirit and Bodymind
Our spirit, soul and heart-directed bodymind have very similar goals. But neither can achieve their most profound desires without cooperation with the other. Our spirit wants to fulfill the deepest desires of our heart—not necessarily those of our brain. In order to live fully, our brain must be directed by our heart. Not the other way around. Committing to the seven habits gives our brain a clear job description and a sense of higher purpose. Only then do we become the promise of our self.
Every moment that our heart is in charge—all our organs contribute their talents and wisdom in real time—it continually creates our unique world in the most efficient and loving manner.
In the eternity of the present moment—our heart-led mind incorporates the incredible talents and powers of all our organ systems plus guidance from our spirit and soul into a unified bodymind that is as capable of greatness as any of the heroes we admire.
Horse and Rider
Our bodymind can be likened to a wonderfully challenging horse we get to ride for this lifetime. Our spirit is the rider. Neither is as powerful by their self as both are when joyously working together. Our heart innately desires what our spirit desires.
The body we live in influences how our spirit perceives everything in this life. It is similar to the way an equestrian’s awareness of a ride is influenced by the qualities and unique personality of the horse he or she rides.
An artistic body may compare to the thoughtfulness of a Morgan horse; an athletic body to an Arabian that is easily irritated, can be hard-headed and arrogant, but can run a hundred miles in a day. Our body may be athletic or artistic, high strung or mellow, sickly or healthy. But whatever our body is, it is the finest gift we will ever receive.
The horse’s eagerness and the committing of its intelligence to having a great ride profoundly affects the rider’s experience of the ride. Attitude is everything. The horse must desire direction from the rider if the adventure is to be fun and fulfilling for both of them. If the horse is eager and the rider appreciative, magic happens.
As a spiritual being, your attitude is the spiritual speed you are evolving down the highway of life. Life becomes magic when you generate at least an attitude of gratitude toward all the lessons you are facing. After all, your spirit and soul brought you those lessons. When you make a habit of saying a resounding YES to your lessons, you discover that all your life’s lessons were taking you in the most direct line toward achieving your heart's desires.
If we asked everyone on Earth to list what they want, and scooped off the top five things (more regional/personal things), we all want the same things: financial well-being, freedom to pursue our dreams, liberty, success, peace of mind, happiness and for our children to be more successful and happier than we were. These are the desires of both our spirit and our heart.
When we are in harmony with the simple functioning of our organs, our personal power nearly doubles every year. Life becomes so much more exciting. Every year becomes richer and more rewarding. When we are living in “beginners’ mind,” we see everything with the awe and wonder of a child seeing or doing something for the very first time.
Does eagerly giving up control to your spirit scare you? I have feared giving up control to my spirit ever since I first considered it as a young kid in church. I think everyone struggles with control issues to some degree.
My worst fears were that being spiritual meant I would have to give up all of the fun stuff, that I would have to be a “goody-goody.” I feared that I would have to get rid of my wildness, all my ambitions and desires, become religiously correct. As it turned out, none of those fears had a shred of substance.
Our Spirit Actually Likes All Our Quirks
Each of our so-called faults is connected to one of our genius qualities. For example, impatience connects to “passion for life.” Cautiousness connects to the genius quality of “deep contemplation” about everything in life.
Each ego personality has its own dysfunctional needs and attitudes, what it fears and frets over, the stuff it has to do because, “That’s who I am.” Your spirit accepts all that. Your bodymind has its unique genius qualities, qualities that set you apart from all others and contribute so much to the world. You are unique, one of a kind. Your spirit celebrates the uniqueness that you bring to the world.
Look at your quirks. Then imagine what genius qualities link up to them. Squash the fault, and you squash that genius quality. Your spirit does not want to get rid of your troublesome qualities. Neither should you. You just want to keep gaining better control of them, like an accomplished equestrian takes the reins of a challenging horse, calming the fears, complimenting their great qualities, making him or her feel safe and loved.
Anger can be ugly when it gets out of control, but anger channeled into decisive action is the driving force (wood energy) that makes your will so powerful, so unstoppable. Get rid of anger and there goes your motivation. Without anger, you wouldn’t be motivated to do anything. You would hardly have the motivation to get out of bed in the morning.
Your quirks and idiosyncrasies are reflections of your DNA, your character. They represent all the strengths and weaknesses from the lineage of both your parent’s lines, honed throughout the millennia of time. Honor your quirks. Appreciate them.
In every moment, with every decision we are overwriting our DNA. We can overwrite it with the same tired old brain-generated stories from our past. Or, we can rein in our lower qualities and praise our higher qualities, while steadily transforming our character. As we spend more time in mindfulness, forgiving ourselves and all others and focusing on what we love, we become the promise of ourselves. Every day we are overwriting our DNA in whole new exciting ways.
My Personal Journey
Cooperating with my spirit and soul is like partnering with a highly-evolved being that loves all my quirks and always has my very best interest at heart. The understandings I’ve gleaned from “the five elements,” coupled with giving my brain the fulltime job of practicing the seven habits has enriched my life profoundly with each passing year. I replaced my cynical views with knowing I am safe and loved. It has taken me a while.
Previously, all I could see was what was wrong with the world—the brain’s view. I diligently read newspapers and books, listened to the news and discussed conspiracy theories with my friends. All that time, it never occurred to me that focusing on external events that I disliked was manifesting the same painful energetics in my personal life.
I have come to understand that there’s no “out there” out there. Each person creates his or her own unique world. No matter how real it seems, focusing on the problems of the outer world is an illusion. The inner world that our own heart creates and rules is the real world that we, as creators, project onto the screen of life. As eternal parts of creation, we create our own unique world. Then we live in it.
Our life can be observed as a mathematical equation: The focus of our attention, multiplied by how much time we focus on it equals the unique world we create. It really doesn’t matter whether we love what we are focusing on, or hate it. The fact that we are focusing our precious attention on it draws it to us.
Now I spend progressively more of my time focusing on what I love and loving what I have. I never imagined life would get this good.
