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Teachings Tape #13
Audio
WHAT IS A SPIRITUAL BODY [brackets for clarification] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [It is about here that Dr. Bob started using quotes and underlining to help define certain attributes. If something is underlined, it is real, such as I, or Awareness, or X. If something is in quotes, it's questionable. I have been indiscriminate with using quotes because often a set of words needs to be separate from the sentence in order for you to see it as a noun or as a subject. I hope that you'll be able to understand the meaning of the words despite the form of communication we must use. We now begin Tape 13 which is discussing a spiritual body--something I always wondered about because it isn't physical. We can't touch it or see it; but it's very definitely real and can be understood to some degree and worked with.] In this discussion we will discuss what is a spiritual body. In our last week's discussion we talked about and referred to a spiritual body. The spiritual body is the frame of reference through which one experiences. The awareness has a frame of reference. Sometimes this could be called memory or it could be called experiencing. The spiritual body is probably more sound if it is based on experiencing. If it is unsound, it is based on "concepts". What one sees as true, as we have said, is now going to be referred to as "what is." First sheet of paper with lines not intersecting. So let's take the first sheet of paper and we will draw a horizontal line that says "what is" or "what is true" as I (with a line drawn under it) see it. What I see as being true = what is. Now let's draw a vertical line on the same sheet of paper, but not intersecting (with the horizontal line], which says "what I see as valuable, good, worthwhile". If these two lines do not intersect, there is no action because X brings about all action. If one's frame of reference, one's spiritual body, is concerned with "what ought to be", these two lines do not intersect in many many areas. In certain areas, obviously, one sees what is: the temperature of the room is cold, it would be good or valuable for it to be warm; so one then turns up the thermostat. So the two lines intersected. What is and what is valuable, good, worthwhile has now intersected and at the point of intersection is the word action. Second sheet of paper with lines intersecting. So suppose on a second sheet of paper we put two lines intersecting in the form of a cross: what is true, and what I see as worthwhile, valuable, or as we would ordinarily say, "good". These two lines intersect and where they intersect, action by X takes place. [The horizontal line would represent what is, awareness feels the room is too chilly. The vertical line represents the valuing or what can I do about it. That is reported to X by feeling and X brings about the action. One then experiences the change in temperature and the body feeling more comfortable.] A spiritual body which is one's frame of reference (wears clothes)--[The frame of reference contains thoughts, ideas, ideals, and beliefs which have been conditioned through one's life]. If the spiritual body is only concerned with what is, then it is considered to be clothed in leather or in animal skins or in some other coarse material. Third sheet - Drawing egg-shaped figure with only what is. So suppose we draw an oblong-type figure something like an egg shape, and we put over it what is and around the outside of it, we put some kind of clothing--some wavy lines will represent it's clothing. It's clothed in the actual literal fact of what is, but it does not have a department in it that has valuing. This is only the factual--the intellectual level of seeing what is. It sees some things as "true", and it sees some things as "false". If someone comes up and tells you there's a lion outside your door, you would probably say it is false. If someone told you there was a dog outside the door, you might accept that as true. But in either case, there is only what is. Fourth sheet - Drawing Egg Shape with only valuing In another similiar shaped figure, we will put "what ought to be" or values. In this one comes all of the "what ought to be's". Now the other egg-shaped figure involves only what is true. The egg-shaped figures are separate. Nothing really begins to take place because X does not operate on it. The awareness is clothed in facts, but the other egg-shaped circle is clothed in ideas, ideals or concepts of "what ought to be". Much what is [in the awareness or frame of reference] is clothed in many ideas that "so and so exists" without really being aware of it. [In other words] without having experienced it and without having really experimented with it, we accept many concepts as being fact. [I've also noticed that I try to make up the mind when I haven't collected enough facts about the situation. I have also discovered that there is oftentimes misinformation from various sources.] Fifth sheet - Drawing and egg-shaped figure with the lines crossing To build a healthy spiritual body, we will take the cross we made where it has action, the two lines intersected, and we will draw an egg-shaped form around it. This is to be a new spiritual body. Some of the things within this have already been experimented with and then experienced. As we said, we see the room is chilly to the body. We see what is [the fact, the room is chilly] and we see that we can turn up the heat [what we can do about it]. So this is accepted. [Action comes from X--we experience walking to the thermostat, changing the setting and experiencing a more comfortable temperature in the room for the body.] In all the ordinary, everyday affairs of the work-a-day world, the business world, the earning of a living, there are many what is and many things seem good. So we can function fairly well in these areas. It is in the areas of interpersonal relationships that this begins to breakdown. This is where one has all one's difficulties (in the world of intra/interpersonal relationships.) Let's begin to put into this drawing, with the cross inside of it, the things that we see as both what is and as good, valuable, worthwhile. We'll just use the term good. See what is and see what's good about it. This is all the things that one has learned and has become an aspect of the "personality" which has to do with earning a living, keeping the house, keeping things clean, keeping things decorated, keeping the lawn mowed, and keeping the surroundings neat and clean. We will find that all of these are worthwhile. It knows how to drive a car carefully. It know how to type, we'll say. It knows how to play a musical instrument. All of these things that the "personality" has learned which will be worthwhile; so obviously, they wil be added into the new spiritual body. If we wanted to, we could see these two elements that were not together--the two egg-shaped parts that had no cross in them--one of what is (as we see it and which is fine, and that's the only way we can see it), and then the other one as what we see as good which is mostly concerned with ideals of "what ought to be" in interpersonal relationships. So we have possibly one "fragmented spiritual body"; and one that is workable in the everyday world; but not in the spiritual world of the inter/intrapersonal relationships which are the things that go on within one. When the spiritual body is in these two separate elements, it is referred to (in the material that is written on the teachings--on the long long years of study) as a blind person. In other words, it doesn't see clearly. It may see what is: it may feel what is: it may sense what is, but it cannot see that it is "good" regardless of what happens--it cannot see that it has value. So it is considered to be blind. It obviously produces "inadequate function", which thereby reports "inadequate things" to X or nothing at all, so it is considered to be "crippled". It is paralyzed. It can't function. It can see what is but never gets up to do anything about it because it doesn't see the value of it. It only sits and "complains" because things are not what they "ought to be". This works in interpersonal relationships; and, in many people, it works in their everyday workday world. They'll talk about wanting to do something, but they never get around to it. They are going to do it tomorrow or some other time, but tomorrow it doesn't look any more worthwhile than it did today--and so still nothing is done. It is referred to as being naked. It doesn't have sufficient ideas with which to work. It has no real concepts. It only has rags and tatters of various and sundry secondhand, passed-down ideas as to what is and what is of value, and it doesn't have anything of its own. It has not experimented. It has not discovered for I what really is workable, what is valuable. It has not seen what is good, so it is considered to be naked. If it is beginning to really want to have something to work with, it is considered to be hungry; and, of course, the idea is to feed the hungry. Now, this is what we are working at, is it not? To feed a hungry spiritual body so that it may have strength and that it may grow. We are trying to clothe it, are we not? And we are not clothing it in secondhand things, something the speaker says. We are clothing it with experimentation, something that we can see for I. I have looked, I have experimented with it, and I see for self. We are healing a crippled spiritual body. How are we healing it? By giving it truth and light. We are restoring the blind because one is beginning to possibly work at seeing what is and what is the value of what is. Then one is no longer blind. One is no longer crippled, paralyzed or naked. It is beginning to have ideas to experiment with, which makes wonderful clothing. It is beginning to get understanding so then it has shoes (shoes meaning in the various symbology, that which one understands). You know, the feet seem to be the foundation of the earth (the earth being the human body). So there is beginning to be an establishment of a firm foundation, clothing and something to experiment and work with. Every time one experiments, one has made oneself an article of clothing. We read of one article of clothing that was woven in one piece without seams. In other words, it wasn't patched together with bits and pieces. It was all from experimentation and discovery for self. There are many who are satisfied with their split-apart physical body. They are satisfied with it because they have managed to paint themselves a very lovely picture that really doesn't exist--an imaginary one. So they gaze upon this imaginary picture and say, "That is I," when nothing in reality is anywhere near that imagination. It is as though a very unbalanced featured person found a beautiful portrait and hung it up and said, "That is I," and that would not quite be. So one with vanity is quite pleased with the present state. Obviously, one will not look to develop a spiritual body. One doesn't even experience the physical body they are so carried away observing the physical body and all the imaginary picture that is painted up of the "self". So vanity interferes in one building a spiritual body because before one sets out to heal the blindness, heal the crippled, distorted or paralyzed spiritual body--to get clothing for a naked body, to get shoes for the barefoot condition, or to feed the hunger, one must realize that these conditions do exist. Vanity always says these conditions do not exist. "I already am in pretty good shape. "I'm a pretty wonderful person." "I know what's good and I know what's bad." "I know what's right and I know what's wrong." "And I know what ought to be" and "I can see "what really is' and I know "what ought to be" done, if everybody would just straighten out and see things my way, then everything would be wonderful in this world." That is vanity. Vanity is the great obstruction to one's building a spiritual body because one is entranced or enthralled with the imaginary spiritual body, the imaginary qualities, the imaginary truth that one is aware of. One imagines that "truth" is any number of things whether it is even an ideology that one has "gathered up" and "identified with" and says that ideology is the truth, the whole truth and that's it, and I would prefer the ideology rather than to look at I and see what kind of state one really is in. Now, for a number of weeks we have been observing the "self". We have seen it is divided. We have seen it is paralyzed. We have seen that it's ideas are from here and there--bits and pieces. We see that the "self" is really clothed in rags, clothing meaning the ideas with which it works--many of them [the ideals and beliefs] are in complete opposition, many of which are trying to put a new patch in an old garment. It has every conceivable thing. It is in a state of poverty. It is in a state of dis-ease, meaning not at ease. It is in a state of conflict. But in spite of all this, one can build such protection of that "false picture" that one is in a constant state of defense, defending this "old spiritual body" [false picture] that is crippled, blind, clothed in tatters, and barefoot (it has no understanding). And, in this, one is not hungry, and if one is not hungry, one cannot be filled. All the food in the world could be available but if one says, "I won't eat that because I'm already well fed," and one could be fed on pseudo food. One may be feeding self with coca cola, candy bars, potato chips, or some other junk food (and there is plenty of junk around). [meaning in the spiritual world we have taken on false ideas from childhood when we made an authority which is all we could have done as a child. It also means all the misinformation from those around one.] One may say, "I already know what is truth. I know what ought to be." Then one is vain--one is in a state of vanity and one begins to defend that by trying to prove that their ideas are correct. They will quote books, and they will quote authorities, but they cannot quote actual experiences. They may quote some emotional upheaval they have had at sometime or other, but they have interpreted it always to put themselves in a very good light. They really didn't understand the picture. There is an old story about a man who wanted to see the Christ. He hoped to be able to see the Christ in his present state of conditioned being, so the "self" wanted to see the Christ. After long and diligent effort, he finally had a vision, a vision of Christ completely surrounded by flames. Of course, his frame of reference was seeing the Christ in hell because his frame of reference said hell was a place of flames, and he saw the Christ in it in his vision. Of course, he was quite disturbed by this vision. He went from supposed authority to supposed authority to question as to what his vision meant; and, of course, all were at a loss, telling him that it must have been a false vision. But to him it was the most real experience of his life because when one has some sort of an emotional vision, one has nothing else to distract from it. If one is in a room and looks at a table, there are many other things in the peripheral vision, but in a "vision" or a "state of one form or another" (which is fairly easy to get oneself into) there is only one thing in sight; and, therefore, it feels to be the most real of all things because there is no distraction. This man continued his search. Finally he was sitting in a park very dejected and very miserable. This vision was ever fresh in his mind of the Christ surrounded by flames. He was evidently in hell! What could this possibly mean? Was it possible that the Christ had been a false teacher? Was it possible that the whole thing was an illusion and that Christ was as his crucifiers said he was, a man possessed with a demon and an injury to the whole people? Were all teachings of the Christ in vain? He was sitting and really doubting. He was struggling and beginning to somewhat doubt his vision. He was really hungry. Whenever a person is truly hungry to be aware, not to have their preconceived opinions verified, but to be truly hungry, to truly want to know, something always appears to clarify. A man walked up who seemed to be no more than another person who sits on park benches. The man told him of his agony and of what he had seen. The man who had come and sat down said, "Look, the vision is not the thing." "A vision may be a teaching, but it is not the thing." "You did not see Christ". "You did not see the flames. " "You saw a vision and all visions must have a meaning." "The meaning is--that those flames are what you'll have to go through to burn up your many misconceptions, to be cleansed before you can even approach where the Christ is." You see, we most all think that we can approach the Christ Consciousness in the state we are in just by improving the "self". We don't realize that we are blind spiritually, that the spiritual body is blind, crippled, paralyzed, naked, clothed in ragged tatters, and that it is barefoot--so we are never really hungry. When one is truly hungry, one can begin to find. Help comes from many areas. Teaching appears everywhere. So the Teaching is always available. Food is available when one is truly hungry--spiritually--and then the spiritual body can begin to grow. But vanity says my spiritual body is in very great shape, and pride defends it, It thinks, "If we could just have more of the things of mammon [things of the man-made world], everything would be wonderful." This is to have a sick spiritual body. So the command is: heal the sick. open the eyes of the blind. raise up the crippled, clothe the naked, and feed the hungry. And when there is a hungry one, the food is available. There is someone to open the eyes. Now, when that command is, it is first that that man's job is to do that [observe without condemning or justifying] for his own spiritual body. One always starts where one is. There is the story that a man had a beam in his eye, a big block of wood, and he was trying to tell another man about the little speck in his eye, and to tell the other man that he should get it out. You see, the first one we heal of blindness, the first one we feed, the first one we clothe, the first one we raise up from paralysis or from being crippled, is the spiritual body within "self". This spiritual body has been distorted by conditioning. It has been mistreated. It has been paralyzed. It has been rendered in conflict, a palsied or a spastic. It tries to go "one way"--and another one says "no". So we are clothed in bits and tatters, and we have not experimented. So starting now we will begin to experiment. We have somewhat of a picture of the spiritual body. The one with a cross in it and the egg around it is the one that the Great Teacher said, "Take up your cross and follow me." The cross meaning what I see as true; and what I see as value of that which I see is true. As one follows the teaching, one will see many values that one did not see before. The cross becomes more real, more symmetrical, more perfect, and more completed. You see, that most of the time what one sees as true is a horizontal bar and what one sees as good, valuable or worthwhile is the vertical bar, but they do not cross. So one does not have a cross then. Everyone must have a cross or there is no central theme of the body. A cross is the symbol of the human body and the human being on the inside, the symbol of the spiritual body and everything else must be attached to that spiritual body (the cross). The vertical arm, that which is good, valuable, worthwhile, what I see as a treasure and that which crosses it as what I see as true. One of the things one starts with is to review all the teachings and see how much of it one sees as true as describing what is. One will see that much of what it describes is really what is, if we have done the work. If we have done the work, we will also see that it is extremely worthwhile, valuable and is really the good (the teaching that throws light on all things--that removes the darkness, because there is a light now shining in that area which was dark). It throws light on the spiritual body that was blind. We will continue to observe these things all this week. We will see how many things we see as just being what is or fact; and then we will see how many other ways we do not see that it is good. We don't see the good in that which we see as being fact or as true. Only when we have united the fact and the good of that fact is there action and that is what is called TRUTH. [Some personal observations] [In talking with other students, I have discovered that they also misconstrued the meaning of seeing the "good" in what is. We thought we should see a fact and decide it was good. That didn't work very well for any of us. We experimented and found that not to be true. I often find I cannot understand the ideas immediately. They require working with before I can begin to understand them. This seeing the value in what is has taken a long time to begin to understand. With the long years of observing, I have come to discover that many situations that seemed "bad" were actually an opportunity and challenge for me to discover that I DO have a spiritual partner--X--and that I can communicate with it and that it takes care of the how. I can also see that I would have very little understanding for life, people and the man-made world I live in if I had not had those "bad" experiences. It gives me the privilege of being able to handle daily challenges in a way that is more to my advantage rather than reacting--which has often lead to regrettable remarks and behavior. Often when I see something as "bad", it means I need to discover that the "what ought to be's" never become fact. I can only change how I see it, or perhaps decide on a different action with regard to the fact. With regard to some situations I see as "bad", I remember that I was not put in charge of running this earth world. It is X's party. I am a privileged invited guest, and an awareness function that has all it can do to keep up with what's going on within, with my daily activities and with the present moment.]


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