A Freeman
Superstar
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2019
- Messages
- 6,725
In what you are referring to as an "off-topic" reply, you were given the link to an article which provides the exact analogy you have just now shared about preferring to think of "the body as a tool, as a vehicle, as a means to attain realization".Ok, you just went off the whole topic and posted a load of stuff which wasn't really relevant in response to my post. So I responded with my own perspective on the thing which you started talking about. Anyway, I'm sorry if my "personal opinions" are irrelevant in comparison to your own personal opinions, of course whatever spiritual teachers I've had simply aren't on the same level as yours...
Actually the idea I was putting across has a basis in Kabbalah and Tantrism. I'm quite familiar with the notion that the human body and planet earth is a prison, having studied quite a bit about Gnosticism, I think that in a certain sense that's a correct opinion but can lead to a kind of dualistic way of thinking where anything "of the flesh" is rejected, leading to an extremity of asceticism. I would prefer to think of the body as a tool, as a vehicle, as a means to attain realization. Of course the physical body is much more limited than the astral body and is subject to conditioning, which one could refer to as "satan" in a sense.
In Buddhist practise on the level of sutra the body is to be considered impure. This is one of the four characteristics of existence - impermanent, suffering, not-self and impure. When one gets into the whole tantric the body is considered to be a kind of support for practice, the aggregates (form i.e. the body, sensation, discrimination, concept and consciousness) are considered to be forms of the deities.
So yeah, that's pretty much the roots of my "personal opinion" on the subject.
Are you the car or the driver?
https://hannahmichaels.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/are-you-the-car-or-the-driver/
The straight and middle Way is the BALANCE, which Buddha (the Enlightened One) found after he went to the extremity of asceticism.
You're unnecessarily complicating something that is very, very simple. Your mind is the real you: the spiritual-Being/Soul. The Soul should ALWAYS be in control of the flesh/human, using it to do GOOD (God's Will) in this world.
It should be self-evident, in a world where instant gratification, homosexuality, p***philia, and sexual exhibitionism are rampant, that everything is upside down, with 7,000,000,000+ humans totally out of control, while the spirit-Beings inside of them are sound asleep at the wheel.
Our Creator (God/Allah, the "I AM"), Who is The King Ruler of the Universe, works through the Soul/Spirit-Being and only then IF He has a free-will invitation to do so. God is GOOD.
Lucifer/Satan/Iblis/the devil/red dragon/serpent/destroyer works through the body, tempting it to feel pleasure, or inflict pain, or to selfishly go after whatever it wants without any consideration for anyone or anything else. Total selfishness and materialism, which eventually brings total destruction. The devil is EVIL.
Every day, all day long, our minds are flooded with human thoughts and emotions, which are ALL satanic in origin, and have absolutely nothing to do with who we are or what we should be doing. Most are drawn into that whirlpool of emotions, and are then led around by them, conned into thinking that is who they really are. It's like watching a movie in your own mind, and thinking that what is happening in the movie is real.
The only way to break free of that is to learn to clear the mind of all of that nonsense (take out the trash). Only when we are calm and at peace can we KNOW what God's Will is for us IN THE MOMENT (Ps. 46:10). There simply is no other way to gain control of our own minds and learn to use them, to differentiate between the good and evil in every thought, word and action.
THAT is what it means to be spiritually-minded. To KNOW that you are NOT the human you are temporarily incarnating.