I have appreciated greatly the ‘One Garden: the inter-spiritual way’ group’s dialogue and inspiration generated around insights, the aha moments, satori etc. One of our ‘One Garden’ members actually did her doctorate on the nature of ‘Aha! experiences.
I am wondering if you remember where you were, not when President Kennedy was assassinated or the Twin Towers were attacked but when you had a particular ‘aha’ moment.
Was it when you stood in the prow of a speeding boat like Kate Winslet in Titanic? Or whilst lying in bed? Or in front of a beautiful vista?
ONE OF MY ‘AHA’ MOMENTS – AT TALKIN TARN IN CUMBRIA:
For my ‘aha moment recalled’ I re-visited a subject necessary when I wrote my thesis namely ‘What is soul?’ If you want to see how challenging this apparently simple question is visit the WikiPedia page on ‘Soul’! – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul
I found I got most help from Baha’i teachings. I would like to correlate what I got from Baha’i with other major traditions – so if you want to do some research in one or several of the other traditions please send me the results of your investigation!
The passage that gave me the most help doesn’t amount to scripture but if it is an accurate report it provides a great insight. So great was the impact when I discovered this passage about 20 years ago that not only did I yell something like ‘Eureka’ I can remember the exact spot of the exact place when I first read the passage – it was Talkin Tarn Country Park in Cumbria. I was sitting on a bench in front of trees facing the tarn.
THE PASSAGE THAT GAVE ME AN ‘AHA’ MOMENT ABOUT THE SINGLENESS OF SOUL, MIND & SPIRIT
‘…..it (Human Reality) is the same reality which is given different names, according to the different conditions wherein it becomes manifest.
Because of its attachment to matter and the phenomenal world, when it governs the physical functions of the body, it is called the human soul.
When it manifests itself as the thinker, the comprehender, it is called the mind.
And when it soars into the atmosphere of God, and travels in the spiritual world, it becomes designated as spirit.’ – Star of the West 7.19 (March 1917):190.
So………
At one level I take the soul to be ‘human spirit individuated as a person’, as in ‘several souls were saved by the lifeboat crew’.
But from the above passage, and from indications on the WikiPedia page, the soul is more a particular activity of being human – as the will particularly in regard to ‘governor of the body’. The singleness of being human or ‘human reality’ manifests as three roles or activities of which one is our will;
1) The soul as will governs our body and our interactions with the physical world. The same human reality that manifests itself as soul, also manifests as
2) mind when engaged in thinking and
3) ‘spirit’ when soaring in ‘the atmosphere of God’ and ‘travelling’ in the spiritual world.
For those who see themselves as inter-spiritual the three in this ‘three-in-one’ incorporates
1) being engaged in thought or contemplation (mind),
2) turning to God/The Whole/Mystery with mind quietened (ie spiritual connection as in prayer or meditation) and
3) willing an action e.g getting up and closing a door or deciding to give some money to a particular charity etc.
All three are modes within ‘the human spirit individuated as a person’ – in terms of levels of spirit (mineral, plant, animal, human and Holy Spirit). All three emanate from the singleness of Being, and from ‘being that individual’. But that singleness shifts into one of the three modes depending on circumstances and intention.
A similar three-in-one I suggest in my SunWALK thesis. Each of us is a discrete individualization of the human spirit – the singleness of white light. But continuously, in micro-seconds even, we switch between the three modes of Caring, Creativity and Criticality – for the same reasons – need and circumstances. These three can be seen as the 3 primary colours of being human. We develop these, or fail to develop them, in a fourth C Community (in reality communities plural). These are NOT three kinds of thinking. If a child falls in front of you you don’t paint a picture (Creative response) or intellectually examine the frequency of particular kinds of accidents in UK families (Criticality response) – you pick the child up and dust her down, console & distract her.
See HERE – https://wordpress.com/stats/insights/sunwalkmodelofholisticeducation.wordpress.com
These three; Caring, Creativity & Criticality are THREE MODES OF BEING & ACTING not three ways of thinking (sorry to shout) – thinking is the servant, and in at least Caring & Creating can be at a very low level – like the hum of the nondual as we go about our daily lives. When we take a conscious breath we are simply ‘fore-fronting’ the nondual, which when we are doing the shopping or washing-up, is the ‘hum’ in the background – like the drone in certain kinds of music. This is our staying in contact with ‘home’, God if you prefer, the nowness to which we return via each ‘conscious breath’.
DEATH MATTERS – especially dying before we die!
Incidentally according to Baha’i teachings you retain your individuality through out the worlds of God after this life. So does that mean I don’t believe in the drop into Ocean idea? No – I think we as a drop are relieved of the burden of self whenever we rest in the Whole i.e our true Ultimate Self. Breathing in “I rest in…’ – breathing out; ‘….the Whole’. There this particular tiny drop, so far as he is able, just became at-one with the Ocean. Hooray! Wow as Tim Freke-ians say! It is a real-time nowness thing not a goal at the end of a journey. (Check out Richard Rohr’s The Naked Now, as stunningly good as Tim’s ‘The Mystery Experience’). Every time we rest in a circular breath we sense that at-one-ness. Wow – and Aha! Wow – and Aha! Wow – and Aha!
The above passage attributed to Abdu’l-Baha was important to me since it it presents a ‘trinitarian driver’s-eye view’ of being human. We can simply ask which of these modes am I in most often or at a particular time. Am I getting as Tolle suggests of the human condition as a whole ‘lost in thought’ too often?
SOME LINKS:
My aha extract is far from being a comprehensive view of Baha’i teachings on the subject.
Other Baha’i sources on this subject are here;
Life Death and the Soul – http://info.bahai.org/article-1-4-0-5.html
The Soul – http://info.bahai.org/article-1-4-5-1.html
The Human Soul – Selections from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh – http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-2-25.html
Heaven and hell: a Bahá’í view of life after death – http://info.bahai.org/article-1-4-5-2.html
Abdu’l-Baha on the Journey of the Soul – http://info.bahai.org/article-1-4-6-1.html
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SUGGESTED QUESTION
1 How does the tradition that you know best explain ‘What is soul, mind and spirit?’
Changeless Faith 
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