THE BODY IS IN THE SOUL

THE BODY IS IN THE SOUL

We must learn to trust the indirect side of our selves. Your soul is the oblique side of your mind and body. Western thought has tol us that the soul is in the body. The soul was thought to be confined to some special, small and refined region within the body. It was often imaged as white in colours. When a person died, the soul departed and the empty body collapsed. This version of the soul seems false. In fact, the more ancient way of looking at this question considers the relationship of soul to body in a converse way. The body is in the soul. Your soul reaches out further than your body and it simultaneously suffuses your body and your mind. Your soul has more refined antennae than your mind or ego. Trusting this more penumbral dimension brings us to new places in the human adventure. But we have to let go in order to be; we have to stop forcing our selves, or we will never enter our own belonging. There is something ancient at work in us creating novelty. In fact, there is very little needed in order to develop a real sense of your own spiritual individuality. One of the things that is absolutely essential is silence, the other is solitude.

Solitude is one of the most precious things in the human spirit. It is different from loneliness. When you are lonely, you become acutely conscious of your own separation. Solitude can be a homecoming to your own deepest belonging. One of the lovely things about us as individuals is the incommensurable in us. In each person there is a point of absolute nonconnection with everything else and with everyone. This is fascinating and frightening. It means that we cannon continue to seek outside ourselves for the things we need from within. The blessings for which we hunger are not to be found in other places or people. These gifts can only be given to you by your self. They are at home at the hearth of your soul.