Spiritupsychophysicalness
© 1992 Ligia Dantes
“The quest for truth is a perennial psychophysical natural activity in humanity. The opportunity for the experience of truth is ever present, in the mystery (Spiritu) beyond our own conditioning, and way of functioning”.
The true nature of human beings is Spiritupsychophysicalness.
This word cannot be found in the dictionary because it is my neologism. You will notice that there are no hyphens in the word separating the aspects of spirit, psyche, and physical. The reason to originate this term is to use one word that will bring the truth of our totality at least to our conceptual understanding of ourselves, and hopefully open doors to the true experience of our wholeness.
Traditionally, we separated the three basic discernible aspects of humanness, that is, spirit, mind (or psyche) and body. We did this through our natural sensorial experience as well as through our concepts and beliefs. Thus, we came to feel and believe that we are these three distinct separate parts—spirit, body, and mind.
Perhaps this traditional, disuniting way of thinking is related to our natural way of functioning. It is suggested here that a disuniting and eventually divisive and fragmentary way of thinking may have been primarily influenced by our own senses, which give us a perception of total separateness. That is, our eyes, skin, nose, ears, and tongue give us the sensation of an outer reality separate from the inner reality of the sensation itself. We experience ourselves as separate bodies. This experience of separation has influenced the thinking process in the area of self-consciousness, giving rise to an image of ourselves "I", "me", as well as images of others—"he", "she", "they".
It is feasible that our old beliefs in the separation of body and mind come from the way we sense thinking, mind, emotions and psychological feelings, etc. For example, we feel someone's insult as a psychological attack and not as a physical attack. This is a definite separation in our interpretation (our thinking) even though we feel the emotion in our bodies. Furthermore, we may assume that the tendency to generalization of the thinking process through multiple linear associations is responsible for the beliefs in the separation of everything on the planet and in the universe, including a separate soul or spirit, and a separate God.
This natural physical sensation of separateness may tacitly, unconsciously, be a constant influence on our way of thinking, regardless of our present knowledge in physics of the interconnectedness in the universe and religious or philosophical beliefs of Oneness. In other words, we do not, in general, experience in our daily living being Totality, Oneness or in my terms, Spiritupsychophysicalness.
Looking at the general predicament of the planet, the behavior of human beings at large tells us that we as humanity are very far from behavior that manifests a true experience of Oneness, which is the experience of true brotherhood or love.
Thinking is an intrinsic function of the human organism, which has developed into different paradigms through millennia. We inherit a particular way of thinking or rather learn it, through acculturation. Thus each society or culture passes on from generation to generation beliefs developed through conditioned thinking processes, which are maintained in the memory banks of humanity.
If the thinking process is based on our perception of separateness, then it follows that the paradigms developed will be separative in fashion. Thus to the greatest majority of people in this world, spirit, mind and body still feel as three different parts of the "me", or entities living together and managed by external opposing forces of good and evil.
Let us assume that our disuniting and fragmentary way of thinking is a natural occurrence due to our own way of functioning as human organisms, and is accentuated by our conditioning. This brings some questions to mind: Is it possible to actually experience our wholeness while feeling divided by our own thinking? Is there a way of knowing beyond the thinking process? If so, is it imperative that we transcend fragmentary thinking to experience directly our Totality or Spiritupsychophysicalness? In terms of Lao Tsu:
Carrying body and soul and embracing the one
Can you avoid separation?
Looking at the term Spiritupsychophysicalness may bring the idea that we are trying to unify the three aspects—spirit, body and mind. It is this author's suggestion that this is an impossibility. Unbeknownst to us, in our deepest experience of our humanness, we have never been separate. Thus, the ancient Sage could speak directly from his/her own experience of the oneness of the Universe
Look it cannot be seen—it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard—it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held—it is intangible.
These three are indefinable;
Therefore they are joined in one.
From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark;
An unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness,
The form of the formless,
The image of the imageless.
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.
Stand before it and there is no beginning;
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the ancient Tao,
Move with the present.
Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of the TAO.
—Lao Tsu
At this point we want to differentiate between the wisdom of the sages and the prevalent disuniting, divisive and fragmentary paradigms of thinking typical of our humanity.
The ancient sages based their sayings or teachings on their intuitive power rather than on an established knowledge of the time, or the current paradigm of thinking of their societies. They were wise human beings who saw beyond the conditioned way of thinking. Perhaps they are the proof that there is awareness (intuition or insight) available to human beings that is beyond thought. Sages of ancient or modern times are peaceful human beings able to point to truth, to wholeness, while being living examples of their teachings. They are not bound to repeating written teachings or dogma while living contrary to their words.
Any human being can be intuitive, however, this wonderful quality is stifled by the need to acculturate—to be conditioned to society in order to survive. Thus, we learn to think in terms of our culture's paradigms of thought.
The most prevalent paradigm of thinking in humanity as a whole is the one that has produced the self—centered consciousness of the "me". This is an unaware, fragmentary way of thinking; this "me" being generalized to "my country", "my religion", " my property", etc. The preoccupation with the "me" and all that belongs to it, excludes consideration for others and wholeness (except in relationship to the "me"). The present state of our planet with its overpopulation, starvation, pollution, and wars attests to this.
This paradigm of thinking, revolving around individualistic concerns, prevents the freedom to experience our true holistic nature directly through insights or intuition. In other words, our current way of thinking lacks true awareness or wisdom.
To analyze or teach what the term Spiritupsychophysicalness really means would be to repeat a pattern within our present paradigm of thinking and an insult to the natural wisdom of the reader. Therefore, we have actually been looking at one of the important barriers to the direct experience of our wholeness. It will be entirely up to you to continue to explore other barriers to the experience of the truth of your true nature.
It is the intent of these writings to point to the way we function as human beings, without the use of any particular philosophy, science, psychological theory, or religious belief. They do not propound a new theory or aspire to design a new way of thinking. Rather, they are a proposal for an investigation into consciousness, the possible results of our own way of functioning, and the true nature of being human, which here is called Spiritupsychophysicalness.
Since this word is a neologism, it is not associated with any traditional way of thinking. Therefore, there is no need to compare it with anything known; nor is it necessary to believe or disbelieve this term. You are encouraged to look anew without the assistance of knowledge; to look without judging or evaluating and to look in a meditational way, thus, allowing your own wisdom to unfold the truth from a kind of silence.
It would be ludicrous to try to convince you or sell you a technique to experience that, which is in your own power to discover.
The following is my indulgent sharing of the experience of Spiritupsychophysicalness.
It is not a teaching.
Spirit is space. It is my observation that everything is manifested in space. It is obvious to me that all heavenly bodies are created in what we perceive as space. We exist on a planet, which is the creation of the energy's organizing principles in space We, human forms, are also aggregates of the same energy's organizing principles.
I have referred to space as spiritu (spirit) or the creating force of every-thing. Spirit, or Space or Organizing Energies may be experienced as God, with or without traditional dogma.
Spirit or space is the UNMANIFEST/MANIFEST and basic aspect of our totality; thus, the beginning of the word Spiritupsychophysicalness carries this experience of Space or God or Spirit as an intrinsic manifestation in matter/energy.
The middle part of the word Spiritupsychophysicalness carries the experience of the nature of our existence, the aggregate of energy into atoms, molecules and manifested into body/mind where everything is experienced and expressed.
The most important clue is the suffix "ness", which according to the dictionary means state or quality, instance of being.
One could say that the organizing principles of space into life forms are manifested in our planet from the single-cell organisms to complex animals, plants and humankind.
The impermanence of these aggregates of energy, point to the fact that life is a state of being within a planet constantly changing, in a universe created by space—Spirit—God.
The impermanence of our body/minds, or psychophysicalness, is therefore a particular state of being of energy which we know as existence.
I chose the suffix "ness" in the term Spiritupsychophysicalness to represent state of beingness, thus completing the whole meaning of the experience in word form.
In the true experience of Spiritupsychophysicalness there is no separation between spiritual, physical, and mental, nor is there an alteration in sense perception of separateness, for we continue to function as psychophysical beings just the same.
Thus, paradoxically, In Oneness there is separation.
ALL is SPACE, ALL is SPIRIT, ALL is MATTER, ALL is MENTAL, ALL is ENERGY, or you might rather say ALL is GOD. In this experience, there is gratefulness for the awareness of the blessings of existence, without denying the lack of awareness and the suffering in humanity.
ALL is respected equally, for The Holomovement1 of Universe is ALL there is. Therefore, no feelings of inward divisions—no "me", no divisions between humans, plants, animals, earth, seas or celestial bodies, regardless of sense perceptions of separation.
The true experience of Spiritupsychophysicalness is a transcendence of conditioned thinking. It can bring a very different experience to our daily living, to our relationships and to the consciousness of the planet at large.
We are states of being, we are existence in its totality. This, my friends, we can experience deeply and directly through our own wisdom in this living moment of eternity.
1from David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1980