[I wrote this essay back in July 1995 and passed it on to some of my Christian friends. This essay gave rise to a lively discussion at that time. Since then my understanding has evolved. The ability to think has evolved from some primeval impulse that has always been there.]
Spirit and Capability
The spirit is the ability to create. It is not the outcome of creation. A person thinks an idea. That idea is not the person. It is that ability to think which is the person’s beingness or spirit.
The body is an outcome of evolution. The personality is the outcome of past experiences. Like the idea they are created things but on a much more complex scale. They are the outcome of certain processes.
It is the capability that brings about these processes at the first place that constitutes the spirit. The spirit is not the processes or their outcomes. Creativity and native intelligence resides in the spirit and not in the body or personality.
Like a computer program, the body or the personality appears to display creativity and intelligence, but they are nothing more than fixed patterns. They only serve to modulate and restrict the spirit, which is animating them.
True beingness of Man is the spirit and not the body.
It is his capability to create, to observe, understand, and resolve, to feel, which defines him, and not his body or personality.
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Spirit and Programming
The brain is a part of the body. By “programming” the brain one tries to further modulate and restrict the person. A person is not this programming. This programming only alters the basic person, which is the spirit. Hypnotism has that effect of “programming” the brain. Similar “programming” occurs through blind agreements not accompanied by any real experience and understanding.
Blind faith in religious scriptures is of the same order of “programming”. It is not accompanied by personal realization. It forms the basis of religious fanaticism. Many individuals and churches have manipulated that blind faith to further their own materialistic ends. They even deny the possibility of personal realization saying that no more “revelations” are possible.
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Spirit and God
It is true that God has created Man in his own image. But that “image” in common is not the physical body or personality. It is the ability to be self-determined, the ability to be cause, the ability to create, which is in common with God. In God that ability is infinite.
The basic person is the spirit, which is natively creative, intelligent and constructive. He does not need “programming” or indoctrination to be good. Instead, he needs to be freed from the “programming” of the past that has restricted and molded him into the feeble, cowardly, and destructive expression he has become.
To think a person’s beingness is his body or personality is a materialistic viewpoint. Lets get rid of that false idea right now. Let us recognize the spirit that a person truly is.
Comments
Really clear and uplifting Vin. I am just beginning to nose around your blog and realizing how much hard work you’ve put into this. Thank you for going to the trouble and for sharing these very good essays.
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Thank you, Chris. I write mainly to clear my own head. Once it is on paper I don’t have to think about it.
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