9 Characteristics of Dysthumia

Dysthumia is a disordered, troubled spirit. I coined the word to refer to a group of spirit-related disorders that I will share posts on in the future. 

Nine general characteristics of dysthumia include-

1. Relative, overall unhealthiness: In my view, a dysthumic person exhibits a general, overall lack of health and well-being. There may or may not be a specific physical or mental diagnosis. Dysthumia can manifest as a general lack of resilience in the face of life's challenges.

2. Avoiding or escaping from life: When we desire to avoid living life in its fullness, with all of its pleasures and pains our spirit could be disordered and weak. Those with disordered, weak spirits tend to avoid or seek to escape from life. Avoidance and escape can take many forms. Some examples include references to running away, complaining about hardships, wanting life to be easier, casting oneself as a victim, spending significant amounts of time turning inward or engaged in spiritual activities, weariness with life, escaping into social media, reading, movies, TV, and other types of entertainment, substance abuse, escaping into a relationship, and escaping into work.

3. Constrained: Those with disordered, troubled spirits tend to be in relationships, jobs, and situations that significantly restrict their personal freedom. 

4. Lacking a sense of being a unique individual and/or alienated from other living beings: When our spirit is disordered or troubled, we tend to lack a sense of who we are. We tend to be unable to be both our unique self and in healthy relationships with others.

5. Dependent on others for basic needs: Failing to provide food, shelter, clothing, transportation and other basic needs for ourselves can be an indication of dysthumia.

6. Unwilling and/or unable to rise up to take on life's challenges: This characteristic goes beyond seeking to avoid and escape from life. When our spirit is disordered and troubled we not only want to avoid and escape from our life, we also lack the will and ability to rise up and take on the challenges we face as we live our life. It's just not in us.

7. Barren, unproductive: When our spirit is disordered and troubled we tend to be ineffective and lack creativity. We are unable to produce services and goods of value to others. We do not have it in us to create art. The more disordered our spirit the more barren our life tends to be.

8. Ineffective, unsuccessful: Healthy, mature spirits are generally successful. They are able to identify and attain their goals. Disordered, troubled spirits tend to be unsuccessful. They're unable to identify and attain their goals.

9. Harmful to others: Dysthumic individuals not only tend to harm themselves. They also tend to harm others. They tend to be needy, dependent, irresponsible, unreliable, resentful, and abusive. They can also be ill-tempered and either suicidal or homicidal. 

What Makes All One

I Value Doing Over Being

In the doing vs. being debate, I pick doing.

Doing is active. Being is passive.

Doing engages in life. Being withdraws from life.

Doing is fertile and productive. Being is impotent and barren.

Doing creates. Being does nothing.

Doing contributes to others. Being withholds and receives from others.

While I choose doing over being, I do not make an absolute of doing. 

Time for being is important to me. 

Being serves my doing.

In other words, my way of being actually does something.

I believe that what I do in life matters more than being, thinking, feeling, or talking.

Contra Tolle, Part 4

Eckhart Tolle and others in a long line of so-called spiritual teachers tell us that our attempts to gain fulfillment from pleasures like material goods, community or work-related success and recognition, or even loving relationships carry with them a risk of pain and disappointment. By contrast, real fulfillment is an inner 'state of being'.

In my view, this teaching devalues our experiences of pleasure in our relationships and achievements in life. In doing so it devalues our life and therefore our spirit, that which makes us alive.

Yes, there is always a risk of failure when we attempt to achieve something important to us. When we achieve what we want, it is right for us to feel good about it. It is right to celebrate our achievement.

Likewise, when we fail to achieve what we want, it is right that we feel disappointed. We do well to learn from our failures rather than use them as excuses to turn inward and seek fulfillment in some "inner state of being."

When we are sick, depressed, or anxious it isn't the best time for us to pursue our dreams. Like Tolle, when we're miserable and lack resilience we do well to take a break, avoid the additional stress of risk, and take good care of ourselves in order to improve our health. Turning inward is a type of mental and emotional therapy, a type of anesthesia, we can use when we're miserable and unable to deal directly with our failures and disappointments in life.

However, turning inward to seek so-called "real fulfillment" in an inner state of being is not for strong, healthy, creative, productive individuals. Strong, healthy, creative, and productive individuals, individuals strong in spirit, not only cope well when they fail and experience disappointments, they learn from and draw on them to rise up and face life's new challenges. When they succeed they rightly take pleasure in and celebrate their achievements. 

Healthy spirits don't need to seek fulfillment in an inner 'state of being.' They're too bust making a meaningful difference in the world.

Contra Tolle, Part 3

Eckhart Tolle and others believe that time is an illusion and that we should learn to live in the Eternal Now.

In my view, time is essential to our human perspective and life. We experience change and the passage of time as we live. We selectively remember our past experiences. We anticipate what might happen in our future. 

Our skill, knowledge and wisdom are fruits of our past. We often distill them in stories, pictures, dances, and songs.

We dream, anticipate, plan, prepare for, and act to realize our future. There is much wisdom in doing so.

More than an element of practicality informs our remembering and anticipating. We also have very rich emotions associated with both our memories and anticipations.

Some of our emotions are pleasurable. Others are painful. Still others are mixed.

Why might someone devalue time to the level of illusion?

Why might someone say that we should let go of both our memories of the past and our anticipations of our future?

Why posit the existence of a divine-like Eternal Now?

Could living in an imagined Eternal Now be a type of mental and emotional  anesthesia for the hypersensitive? Could the Eternal Now be an escape from memories that depress and anticipations that make anxious? 

Prior to his so-called enlightenment Tolle was by his own account a miserable, depressed, and anxious man. The divine-like Eternal Now gave him relief from what he could not otherwise cope with.

However, what helps the sickly and miserable can be harmful for those who are healthy. Healthy spirits have no need to anesthetize themselves from depressing memories or anxiety-provoking anticipations. 

They learn from their past and rise to meet whatever challenges they might face in the future. They're emotionally, mentally, and physically resilient. 

They are of such character that they fully feel their emotions without being debilitated by them. They both feel and live fully in the present with their memories and anticipations. Living in an imagined Eternal Now is irrelevant to them. They need no anesthesia. 

Contra Tolle, Part 2

Another belief common to Vedanta, some traditions of Buddhism, and many New Agers, especially Eckhart Tolle, is the belief that we all are part of a Great Unity or Ultimate Source.

There are two beliefs here: belief in a Great Unity/Ultimate Source and belief that we humans are part of the Great Unity/Ultimate Source.

Belief in a Great Unity/ Ultimate Source begs several questions: 

Why believe that there is a Great Unity/Ultimate Source? 

What is the Great Unity/Ultimate Source? 

How do we know for ourselves it is there? 

Do we just have to take a leap of faith and believe it is there?

Does it require a mystical experience?

Are mystical experiences more than chemical reactions in our brains?

The belief that we humans are part of the Great Unity/Ultimate Source carries with it the belief that the Great Unity/Ultimate Source is our true self and that our sense of being separate individual egos is an illusion.

Again, such beliefs beg several questions:

Why believe we are part of some Great Unity/Ultimate Source and therefore one?

Why devalue our individuality to the level of an illusion in favor of all being one?

What purpose do such beliefs achieve?

How do we know for ourselves that these beliefs are true?

Do we just take a leap of faith and believe, have a mystical experience, something else?

In my view, belief in a Great Unity/Ultimate Source and illusory individuality devalues all human beings. It has us devalue ourselves in favor of faith in a great metaphysical being beyond us.

Such beliefs might help the sick, depressed, and anxious cope with the challenges of their life. They helped Tolle when he was so miserable. They enabled a euphoric, opiate-like state for him. 

However, such beliefs might be harmful to those of us who are relatively healthy and able to rise up to face the challenges  of our lives with nobility and a sense of humor. They could seduce us into devaluing our life, withdrawing into a mystical Now, and disengaging from living our lives to their fullest.

Contra Tolle, Part 1

A belief common to Vedanta, some Buddhist traditions, and many New Agers, in particular Eckhart Tolle, is that our 'ego self', or 'mind', is not our 'true self'.

In my view, I am not split into an ego and a true self. I do not have an ego. I am an ego. I am my true self and my true self is me. There is no other me but me.  

To devalue my ego is to devalue my true self. To devalue my true self is to devalue my life. To devalue my life is to devalue my spirit. 

To devalue my spirit is to practice an anti-spirituality rather than a spirituality.

So, in my view, the "ego vs true self" belief is a belief that when acted on is actually harmful to healthy and strong individuals. It promotes withdrawal from rather than engagement with life. 

Perhaps such a belief can at times be helpful when one is very sick, depressed, or anxious like Tolle was. Then it can provide a way of escaping one's miserable life. It's a kind of mental opiate for those unable or unwilling to live life fully.

About the Abortion Debate

Since spirit is that which makes alive, the value of life is a spirit-related issue.

Some believe life is inherently valuable. They often base their belief on a religious doctrine that life is of divine origin. In other words, their belief is based on something they heard from someone else, perhaps someone in a position of authority over them.

My faith is not based on what I heard from someone else. It's based on what I myself see and experience. 

In my view, life, regardless of its form, is valued on the basis of our relationships. For example, the lives of mosquitos and fleas are not valuable to me. They bite me. I have no use for them. When I have an opportunity to kill them I take it. 

The lives of many plants are valuable to me because they are both food and medicine for me. They help me sustain my life. They also enrich my life with beauty and wisdom. Not only have I enjoyed many flowers and trees, I have also learned important lessons from how they live. The same is true of many animals. They are valuable to me.

The lives of my family and friends are valuable to me because of my love and affection for them. I also benefit from them. I owe my life to my parents and ancestors before them. I owe my life to everything that sustains it. 

I love my wife, children, and grandchildren. Their lives matter to me. My spirit lives on in my children and grandchildren. 

I value the lives of my friends. Each one of my friends enrich my life each in their own way. Our lives are mutually beneficial.

When I am blatantly honest with myself, the life of someone with whom I have no relationship has little value to me. For example, an unborn child in the womb of a woman on the other side of the planet who I do not know is not valuable to me. 

I know this sounds cold, narrow-minded, and unenlightened to many. Maybe it is. I'm being honest here. I'm coming from my heart and experience, not a belief I borrowed from someone else. Changing my mind as I learn is an option as always hold on to.

I have no relationship with  the mother or child. Since I am completely unaware of her, it does not matter to me if the woman aborts or gives birth to her child. I will never know either way. 

Alternatively, if I was able and interested in exercising power and control over as many as possible, I might "value" every human life that I could manipulate to my purposes. I might declare the inherent value of all human life, claim divine authority for my declaration, claim moral superiority, establish laws to restrict life options for women, restrict birth control, ban abortions, and force all pregnant women to give birth. I might also do all I could to make sure the children were raised according to my values. I might require them to pray to my god, hear my sacred writings, and follow my god's rules. 

Why?

Because I believe that human life is from the one true god, my god, and therefore inherently valuable.

Some call this kind of inherent valuing of human life loving. 

I call it tyranny.

9 Characteristics of Euthumia

Euthumia is well-spiritedness. What follows are nine characteristics of a healthy human spirit.

1. Relative, overall healthiness: In my view, health is a sense of wholeness and ability. It is a process rather than a destination. Our sense of wholeness and ability is constantly challenged. It varies in integrity and strength. However, maintaining a basic degree of health is a characteristic of a healthy and mature spirit.

2. Desirous of life: When we desire to live and experience life in its fullness, with all of its pleasures and pains our spirit is healthy. Healthy, mature spirits do not seek to avoid or escape from life.

3. Free: While it is possible to maintain a relatively healthy spirit in oppressive situations, generally speaking a healthy spirit is a spirit that is free to live life as it chooses. 

4. Both unique and connected harmoniously with other living beings: When our spirit is healthy and mature we are able to be both our unique self and harmoniously connected with others. This does not mean that we love and have conflict free relationships with all other living beings. It does mean that we are both our unique self and in meaningful relationships with others. We both belong with others and maintain our own identity.

5. Self-supporting: Being able to sustain our own life and remain spirited in the midst of life's challenges is a sign of a healthy, mature spirit.

6. Willing and able to rise up to take on life's challenges: This characteristic goes beyond being desirous of life. When our spirit is healthy and mature we not only want to live rather escape from our life, we also naturally rise to take on the challenges we face as we live our life.

7. Creative, productive: When our spirit is healthy and mature we create. We produce services and goods of value to others. We create art. The stronger our spirit the more prolific we tend to be.

8. Successful: Healthy, mature spirits are generally successful. They are able to identify and attain their goals.

9. Respectful of others: Healthy, mature spirits also know that they are related to all other spirited beings and have a fundamental respect for all the living. They live their and do not interfere with others living theirs.

Right to Life? Part 2

Does an oak tree have a right to life? Does a weed? 

Does a butterfly have a right to life? Does a mosquito?

Does a healthy, newly-conceived fawn have a right to life? Does a rabid baby rat?

Why do we rarely, if ever, see deformed, injured, or diseased animals living in the wild? Why are they not nursed by their own kind rather than left to die?

Why do we euthanize (actively kill, mercifully put out of their misery) our pets that are seriously deformed, injured, or diseased and call it compassion but condemn it as suicide or murder when we do the same with ourselves or fulfill a loved one's request?

NOTE: I'm asking probing, thought-provoking questions, not advocating for a specific answer.

Is investing huge amounts of time, energy, creative thinking, money, and all manner of resources into examining, testing, and putting pharmaceutical chemicals into the seriously deformed, injured, and diseased a wise investment? If so, for whom?

Who really benefits from all of the examining, testing, and consumption of pharmaceuticals? 

The dying? 

Does prolonging the dying process come from compassion for the dying?

Who benefits from prolonging the dying process?

Is the so-called "right to life" an absolute?

Right to Life?

Since spirit is that which makes alive, abortion, the death penalty, and war are spirit-related issues in my view. They are issues about ending the spiritedness of human beings. 

Some believe in the "sanctity of life" and invoke their belief in debates about abortion, the death penalty, and war. It's odd to me that many who absolutely oppose abortion on the basis of the sanctity of life often favor the death penalty and war.

When I observe animals, including us humans, I see no "sanctity of life." I see life taken regardless of human beliefs about its sanctity. In other words, invoking a belief in the sanctity of life is powerless. It does nothing to prevent killing. Whenever someone invokes "The sanctity of life!" at the same time millions, if not billions, of plants and animals, including humans are killed. Worldwide on average one human is being murdered by another every minute. That's apart from the human killing going on in abortions, executions, and wars.

The question, in my view, is this: Does the killing affirm or deny life?  Show me how the killing affirms, supports, sustains, and furthers life. 

For example, is the plant or animal killed and eaten in order to sustain life? Does the killing protect oneself and/or others from life-threatening harm? If so, then I say kill. Such killing affirms life.

On the other hand, does the killing maintain or extend one's power and dominance over others? Is the killing a prelude to stealing and adding to one's hoard? Is the killing for sport or done out of mindless disregard for life? Does the killing waste life? Is it done out of fear or hatred of those who are different? If so, then the killing denies life.

I say when the killing we do denies life, we forfeit our right to life. Our life then has no sanctity. We deserve to die.

My Non-spiritual View of Spirit

For Ancient Greeks spirit (thumos) was not a metaphysical or religious belief based on nothing but faith. It was not in any way a higher being. Their belief in spirit was rooted in their experience. For them spirit was quasi-physical. 

In humans, spirit was located in the center of the chest and associated with the thymus gland, heart, lungs, and breath. Thumos, spirit, could be strengthen by self talk and the herb thyme. Fainting was a temporary loss of spirit. When thumos returned the one who fainted regained consciousness. Death occurred when thumos failed to return.  When it failed to  return it did not continue to exist but dissipated and returned to the wind.

In the view of Ancient Greeks, humans were not the only spirited beings. Oceans, rivers, springs, plants, animals, and the goddesses and gods had thumos. They were spirited beings. Thumos was what made every living being alive.

It is the Ancient Greek understanding of spirit that informs my work. It is the basis of the science of spirit I propose: thumology. It is the basis of the new therapeutic care of spirit that I am developing: thumotherapy. It is also the basis of what I call thumotic spirituality, a set of spirit-related theories and practices informed by both thumology and thumotherapy. 

 

I Believe in Survival Training

The fundamental desire of the spirit in every healthy living being is to live. Fundamental to living is surviving. 

Consider the trees and all other plants. They're about surviving so that they can become what they're meant to become. The same is true of animals, including us humans. We spend most of our life doing what we need to do to survive. We work to eat, drink, and protect ourselves from what might harm us so that we can become what we're meant to become.

It is easy for some of us humans to lull ourselves into a false sense of security and believe falsely that we're somehow immune to earth quakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, epidemics, power outages, drinking water contamination or shortage, chemical spills, breaks in food supplies being delivered to our local grocery, public mass shootings, robberies, and other kinds of events that could expose, injure, infect, or kill us.

We do well to acquire basic survival skills. We do well to know how to protect and provide for ourselves and to teach our children to do the same. 

Why?

Because our lives matter. 

We're spirited, alive. The fundamental desire of the spirit within us is to remain alive. We owe it to the spirit that makes us alive to do all we can to keep living. 

When we do not believe in surviving and living so that we can become what we're meant to become, something is wrong. When we live in soci-economic system that nurtures a false sense of security and weakens our survival skills, something is wrong. Something spirit-related is wrong. Our spirit is not healthy.

I believe in spirit. I believe in living. I believe in having the basic skills of survival that enable us to remain spirited and become who we are meant to become. I rejoice when I meet others who feel the same way.   

Why Do We Continue to Believe Them?

Eating, drinking, working and creating are spirit-related matters. By these activities we sustain our spiritedness, our lives. 

Who told us that we do not need to pay attention to how or where our food is grown or what is in it as long as it looks and tastes good?

Who told us that buying all our food and eating it canned, frozen, or chemically preserved the whole year-round is so much better for us than raising our own food at little cost and eating it fresh from our own gardens when it's in season?

Why did we believe them?

Who told us that we do not need to be all that concerned about what we drink as long as it looks and tastes good? See all the little bubbles and fizz? Taste how sweet it is? 

Who told us that buying all kinds of drinks in bottles and cans is so much better for us than drinking that free, tasteless, colorless, fresh spring water?

Why did we believe them?

Who told us that working for others in factories and office buildings is so much better than working on our own land and in our own shops supporting ourselves and our neighbors? 

Who told us that living relatively sedentary lives indoors entertaining ourselves with mass market consumer stuff is so much better than telling our own stories, making our own music, singing our own songs, and creating our own gifts and goods?

Why did we believe them?

What effect has believing them had on our spirits?

Why do we continue to believe them?

Autoimmune Disease of the Spirit

Some say that what we believe is what ultimately matters. Some go so far as to say that our faith or lack thereof has eternal consequences.

When I look at myself and everyone else who makes up the world, what I see is this: What we do matters. Our actions matter.

Our actions have consequences. Our actions makes a difference. They affect everyone else that makes up the world. Our actions change the world. Our actions actually create the world. Yes, we, all the living, create this world as we go.

Our spirit is what animates us. It actions us. Because we're spirited, we're alive. We move. We act. We create. We make a difference.

The difference we make either affirms or denies our own and other's spirit. Our actions create a world that either promotes or denies life.

Denying the power of our actions, denying the importance and consequences of our actions, denies the spirit in us that actions us. It denies life. 

Saying that what we believe is what ultimately matters, is a symptom of a spirit-related illness. It's an example of a human illness in which a human's spirit is turned against itself and denies rather than affirms its own life. It's a symptom of the autoimmune disease of the spirit.

No Greater Love Than This

Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

Everyday many I take for granted treat me as one of their friends. They love me with the greatest love of all. They lay down their life for me. More accurately, like Jesus, their life is taken from them. They die that I might live.

I'm talking about the sacrificed plants and animals I eat, wear, and take shelter in.

I live because of their ultimate life-giving sacrifice. Because of them my heart swells with gratitude. To them my lips speak words of heart-felt thanks and praise. I owe my life to these my taken-for-granted friends.

For Those Just Passing Through This World

To all who believe they are foreign exchange students (spiritual beings having a human experience) doing a semester in this world to learn a lesson: 

"Take nothing but pictures 

Kill nothing but time 

Leave nothing but footprints 

To show you came by" - John Kay

In other words, remember that while you are just passing through, many of live here. Earth is our true home.

Many Ways of Knowing

I know from the findings of scientific research that far more exists than I can perceive with my five physical senses. There are spectrums of light my eyes cannot see. There are high and low frequencies my ears cannot hear. There are fragrances my nose cannot smell, textures too fine for my skin to feel, and flavors too subtle for my tongue to taste. 

However, I do not need scientific findings to know that there is more "out there" than I can know with my five physical senses. My dog hears and smells things that do not exist to me. They are out of my ability to know with my physical senses. 

While it is impossible for me to know some things about the universe by my physical senses, I have other ways of knowing.

I have instincts and can, for example, "know" what to do in an emergent situation  and do it. 

I can know by intuition. For example, I can know without knowing how I know that something is going to happen before it happens. Then it happens. I can also intuit that I need to do something, do it, and discover that it was the right action to take at the time.

I can also see and hear things mentally. In other words, I can imagine what something will look like before I see it with my eyes. 

I can know things emotionally; I can feel fear that alerts me to a danger before I see or hear the threat.

I can also know things in my body; for example, I can feel another person's anxiety in my solar plexus. The muscles there tighten. 

I can also know things with relative certainty by deduction.  For example, all humans die. I am human. I will die.

I'm not always right. Sometimes I misjudge the information from my various ways of knowing just as I do with my five physical senses. But that has to do with my judgment not the information itself.

To deny my many ways of knowing is to deny the spirit in me that animates them. Rather than deny the spirit's work within me, I affirm it. I affirm it boldly.

I refuse to be like some who restrict knowing to what they can perceive with their five physical senses.

A Different Perspective on Eternal Life

Many believe that life, more specifically, human life in the form of the soul, is inherently eternal. They believe life always has been and always will be. It's a given in their view.

Truth be told, we do not know that life is inherently eternal. We do not know that life always has been and always will be. 

We also do not know if there was a time when life was not. We do not know if life had a beginning. If it did, we do not know when, where, or how. Much less do we know why there is life rather than not.

Since spirit is life, we do not know if spirit had a beginning or not. We do not know if spirit is inherently eternal. Maybe it is; maybe not.

We do know this: life and therefore spirit is potentially eternal. As long as the living continue to live life goes on. It is at least possible for life to continue eternally.

This means that eternal life is about spiraling forward with sex, conception, birth, nurturing, growth, maturity, sex, conception, birth, nurturing, growth, maturity and so in a potentially eternal spiral. This means that eternal is not a given. It isn't inherent to life. Rather it is depends on the actions of the living- all of the living.

It also means that every one of us plays a role in the potential eternity of life. We either contribute to it or detract from it. We either affirm and promote life or deny and negate it. 

The choice is ours. May we choose wisely. May we choose life. May choose that which makes alive. May we choose spirit.

Source of the Death Wish

Since I am a spirited body, I am naturally driven to take good care of myself as a living body. To do so is instinctual. What is living desires to keep living. 

Since I am a spirited mind, I am naturally driven to take good care of myself as a living mind. Again, the desire to keep living is instinctual. 

I am spirited and naturally driven to take good care of my spiritedness. What is spirited desires to remain spirited. The desire of the spirited to remain spirited is inherent to being spirited. 

Only when something is seriously wrong do I lose my natural desire to keep living. Only when my body is too weak, ill or injured; my mind too irrational or full of life-denying beliefs about myself and the world; or my spirit too ill, wounded, or broken do I desire to escape from life or wish to die rather than live. Then I might wax poetic and speak of death as a door to the "beyond" and "something better."

When I am healthy in body, mind, and spirit I enjoy living and desire to live fully. 

Visitor or Resident?

Have you ever noticed that visitors often do not care for places as well as residents do?

Many believe they are just visitors on this planet. This is not their true home. They're just passing through, on their way to a better place beyond.

Aren't these the same folks who habitually consume more than they need, clear cut forests, strip mine mountain tops, frack the earth, burn coal and oil, dump chemicals and other waste in rivers and oceans, exterminate entire species, enslave other animals and their own kind, and kill each other in wars of acquisition?

They are. I live among them. I'm complicit with them even as I seek to liberate myself from their life-denying ways.

Have you ever noticed how those who believe in Earth as their mother and true home live different lives, more in harmony with and respectful of the land, water, wind, and all living beings?

They aren't just passing through on their way to a better place beyond. This is their true home. They are from Earth, sustained by Earth, and to Earth they return. They're permanent residents here.  Everyone around is their neighbor. They do their best to be good neighbors with all. My heart is with them.

Two Reasons We Don't Care

Just as I naturally desire to take good care of myself, so I naturally desire to take good care of all other spirited ones too. I cannot take good care of myself apart from taking good care of all others with whom I live. As others go, so go I.

All others naturally desire to take good care of me too. They cannot take good care of themselves apart from taking good care of me. Many, both plants and animals, give their lives for me so that I might keep on living. 

Often taking good care of each other is simply a matter of giving each other the space to freely live our lives.

There are only two reasons we do not take good care of each other: First, we are naturally limited in our knowledge, skill, and power. Because we are limited we do not get it right every time. We can fail to take good care of each other out of our natural ignorance.

Secondly, we're prone to illness and injury. When we are seriously ill or injured we do not take good care of either ourselves or others. We're unable.

When we're healthy we naturally take good care of each other. Just as other animals, we do so without religious, moral, or legal codes.

I Answer to You

That I live  on this planet with you and all other spirited beings means that I am responsible to you and all others with whom I live. 

To be responsible is to be response-able, able to respond. 

I am not responsible for you. I am not able to respond for you. Only you can do that.

However, I am responsible to you. I am able to respond to you. I answer to you for how I treat you.  We answer to each other.

I speak and act. You answer. You either thrive or fade. I answer back to you for the thriving or fading affect I had on you. 

With rare exception when you thrive so do I. When you fade, so do I. 

Why? Because we live together. We are one. What affects your spirit affects mine. 

In Gratitude to Mother Earth and All Our Kin

See the beauty of Earth. She her as mother and forever home.

Give joyful, heart-felt thanks to her for giving us the gift of life. She sustains us as a loving mother does. 

Give equal thanks to Sun, Moon, planets, and all the stars. Indeed, it takes a village.

See all the living as older sisters and brothers. All of the plants and animals were here long before we were. They are older and wiser in the ways of life than we humans are. They are patient and generous teachers.

We humans are the youngest of Mother Earth's children and often behave immaturely as the youngest in the family do. We do well to respect and watch and learn from our elder kin.  

Our plant and animal kin do not depend on us in order to live. We depend on all of them. From them we have much to learn. We also have much for which to give thanks to them.

Are the Poor in Spirit Blessed?

Many believe they live fallen lives in a fallen world. Some believe they are sinners in a sinful world. Others believe they chose to descend from a "spiritual" realm into this world in order to live as a human and learn an important lesson. Still others believe this world is an illusion of suffering and they continue to reincarnate in this world until they are enlightened and liberated from it.

These different views share much in common. They share in common a low view of both this world and human beings. They express a belief that this world and all human beings are flawed or somehow less in comparison to something higher and beyond. Some go so far as to say that we humans are to blame. They believe that we ruined ourselves and the world by our own free will.

Those who believe such things devalue both this world and being human. They deny rather than affirm them. At heart they are anti-world, anti-human, anti-life, anti-spirit.

Why would anyone believe that this world and all human beings are somehow flawed or less than something beyond? Why would they believe in an imagined better place and way of being? 

From whom would such belief spring? Would such beliefs spring from the hearts and minds of the strong spirited among us?

Might such beliefs come from the poor in spirit who lack the strength to live well in this world?  Are they not the ones unable to enjoy the beauty of the world and the pleasures of life. Are they not too weak to live noble human lives in the world as it is? 

Do they not cope with their poverty of spirit by fantasizing about a better place to go after they die? Is it not they who want prophets and teachers to show them a way to escape this life? Is it not they who long to be rescued by a savior?

Perhaps the problem is neither the world or us humans. Perhaps everything is just as it is. Perhaps the problem is the belief of the poor in spirit. Perhaps what they believe is wrong.

Religious Belief a Thought Virus?

As far as we know, we human beings are the only animals on Earth that have religious beliefs.* Dogs are not religious. Cats are not religious. Neither are crows nor catfish.

Does having religious beliefs make us superior or inferior to other animals? I wonder...especially since we, like other animals, are not born religious. We humans are made religious by other humans- parents and others in positions of power over us.

Religious belief is not natural. At best it is artificial. It consists of stories we humans make up and tell to help us cope with the challenges of life. At worst it is a serious, life-denying thought virus spread by word of mouth and reinforced by guilt and fear- guilt about our natural instincts and fear of divine rejection and punishment. Guilt and fear, expressed in words of divine love, join in our hearts and give birth to a bad conscience, the symptom of a sick spirit.

If religious belief is a serious, life-denying thought virus, we do well to cleanse our hearts and minds and cure ourselves of it. When we are clear, we will be free. We will be free to live spirit-related lives in which we love and celebrate spirit as that which makes us and all the living alive.

* Those who are "spiritual but not religious" may replace "religious" with "spiritual."

Renouncing the Eastern Inward Turn

Is there a more "spiritual" culture than India? It is the home of Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, ashrams, asceticism, yoga, meditation, mantra, chakras, kundalini, world as illusion, karma, transcendence, reincarnation, nirvana, and a crowd of many other "spiritual" beliefs and practices. The Buddha hails from there. India is the home of the inward turn: Turn inward and find truth and transcendence within.

Have you looked at the external, social conditions of India lately? I mean besides the news about the commonality of women being gang-raped. Azadindia.org helps paint the picture of what life is like in a culture that practices the inward turn-a deeply introverted, escapist, life-denying, (anti)spirituality.

Over the past several decades many Westerners have succumbed to the seduction of the Eastern inward turn. Meditation, yoga, renouncing meat and other material goods, chanting mantras, counting beads, balancing chakras, invoking karma, asserting reincarnation, exploring past lives, and aspiring to nirvana are common among Western New Agers and Hindu wannabes with last names like Smith, Johnson, Williams, and Jones.   

Could there be a connection between following the Eastern inward turn and the decline of social conditions in Western cultures? If nothing else they're symbiotic. The Eastern inward turn feeds the social decline and provides a fictional escape for those in it. This in spite of unsubstantiated claims that those who practice the inward turn play an essential "spiritual" role in society, that of simply being. Their escape into being, into now, supports the decline.

It is past time for an about face toward a spirit-focused, life-affirming, empirically-based, Western-rooted spirituality. 

Note: I said nothing about a revival of religion. We're way past that.

Thumonauts: Explorers of Spirit

Thumonauts are pioneers. They explore one of the last great frontiers. They explore thumos, spirit, that which makes alive.

Thumonauts are possessed by a sense of wonder that we are spirited, alive, rather than not. Being possessed by this wonder compels them to explore and discover all they can about spirit.

Here are a few of the questions that burn in the hearts of thumonauts and compel their exploration:

What is the spirit that spirits the living? What is its nature?

What are the characteristics of spirit?

Plants and animals, including humans, are alive. They are spirited. Does the spirit of plants differ from the spirit of animals? If so, how?

What affects the spirits of plants and animals?

What all is spirited? Only plants and animals, others too, everything?

What is the difference between being spirited and not?

How does one become spirited?

Why does spirit leave and how?

When it leaves, where does it go?

Can the spirited be more or less spirited at different times? If so, how? What alters the degree of spiritedness?

Was there a time when nothing was spirited?

If so, from where did spirit come? How did the spirited become spirited?

When did being spirited begin?

Could being spirited come to a complete end so that nothing at all is spirited? If so, what would end spiritedness all together? 

Our Western ancestors associated spirit with both the wind, breath, heart, and the thymus gland. Why?

How is spirit associated with wind and breath?

How is it associated with the heart?

How is it associated with the gland that bears its name, the thymus gland?

These are just a few of the questions about spirit. There is so much to discover about spirit and  so few thumonauts doing the exploring.

 

Reincarnation? A Different Perspective

After being a spirited-minded-bodied ego can I die and yet remain as a spirited-minded ego? No, every spirited-minded-bodied ego is unique. When one dies it ceases to exist.  We only live metaphorically after we die. At best we live on as an influence in the lives of those who knew us.

However, it does seem possible that in some instances our spirited-mind can continue to exist. However, as a spirited-mind I would be less than I was as a spirited-minded-bodied ego. I would be only a shadow of my true self, a shade. The Ancient Greeks understood this well.  So did the Ancient Germanic tribes.

Can a spirited-mind be reincarnated? It's possible. However, since the body is not the same, neither is the ego, the person. Essentially, a reincarnated spirited-mind is a new and unique spirited-minded-bodied ego. As such it is possible that it could recall memories of being a previous spirited-minded-bodied ego.  

After being a spirited-minded-bodied ego can I die and yet remain a spirited ego? I think not. Spirit is simply that which makes alive. It is the same in everything that is spirited. I have no sense that my spiritedness is imprinted with my ego or unique or in any way.

I could, however, have it all wrong.  Right or wrong, I'm not sure it matters.

Just Say No to Transcendence

I do not seek to transcend my self. My ego is not something I want to transcend. I cannot both transcend my self and be my self. Why would I want to be something other than my self?

I might want to transcend myself if I believed there was something wrong with me or something "higher". However, "I" am not a problem that needs transcending. "I" am not a caterpillar in a cocoon. There is nothing "higher" for me to become than me. "I" am a one-of-a-kind gift. That means I am very rare. I am valuable, of inestimable worth.

Rather than transcendence I seek transformation. Rather than seeking to escape my self, I seek to become the full, strong, mature, unique ego I am meant to become.  Then I will be the best gift I can be for the world.

Contra Vedantists and New Agers: No "Self", Just "self"

Some believe in a Self, an ultimate, eternal, infinite Self. It's like an ocean. 

They believe their self, their ego, interferes with their awareness of Self. They desire to transcend their ego and, like a drop of water, be absorbed into the boundless oceanic Self. Then they will be without limits. Nirvana.

Let's be clear. They're not talking about something they know. They're talking about something they believe, a matter of faith. They are certainly free to believe what they believe. 

They might have had what I call an ecstatic unitive experience. They might have experienced being absorb into the ocean. It's an experience based on what they believe. As we believe so we experience.

I do not share their faith. I do not believe in an ultimate, eternal, infinite, oceanic Self. What I see and experience are drops, egos, individual selves: your self, my self, and all other selves. "Drops" is not the best metaphor. "Stories" is better. 

For the time of my life, until I die, I am a story, forever changing, always in the process of becoming. My story is an adventure. I make it up as I go, one action at a time.

As the main character of my story, I do not seek to vanish like a drop in a boundless ocean. Like an acorn lives to become an oak tree, I live to become me. I am always becoming me. "Me" is an ongoing creative process of development. "Me" is a narrative of revelation in a network of other narratives of revelations. 

We all play roles in each other's stories. Our lives are interwoven networks of spirited

narratives. We are living threads in a potentially eternal weave.

"Me" is always new. So are you. There is always more of us to become.

Why would anyone want to extinguish their self? Extinguishment. That's what nirvana is. It's the opposite of being truly alive and becoming who we are meant to become. Turning inward to seek nirvana is another way of avoiding and denying our life. It's another form of self-medication. 

I prefer opening my eyes, engaging in life, and living it fully.

This World, a Boarding School?

I have no reason to believe that I existed before I was conceived in my mother's womb. 

I have no reason to believe that I am an eternal soul that chose to descend from "above", enter a human body, and have a human experience in order to learn an important lesson.

This world is not a boarding school that I attend for a while to learn a lesson and then leave to return to my true home up there somewhere. I'm not just a visitor here.

This world is my home. To this earth I belong. Every grain is my kin, a living universe of learning. It's far more than I could ever take in before to the earth I return. 

The Virtue of Faithlessness

Faiths are mental constructs, jigsaw puzzles of fictional ideas, buffers between us and reality. 

Dare to live a faithless life. 

Shed what you can of your mental construct, inherited from others, and live free.

Dismantle, piece by piece, the jigsaw puzzle of fictional ideas. Peek at reality on the other side.

Exercise the power you have, your innate virtue, to live face to face with reality, buffer free.

Dare to live naked, faithless, intimate with reality, and feel alive.

Contra Descartes

That I am a spirit means that I am spirited, alive. Spirit is that which makes me alive. Without spirit I would not be a living body. Without spirit I would not be a living mind. 

Spirit precedes body and mind because spirit is the life of both body and mind. By my spirit my body functions. By my spirit my mind produces thoughts and images. By spirit I am alive. 

Descartes declared, " I think, therefore I am."

Contra Descartes: I am spirited, therefore I live.

Knowledge and Belief or Wonder and Curiosity?

The previous posts raise a few of the questions we can ask about the great mysteries of life, death and sex. More important than answering the questions is allowing the questions to have their way with us. 

Let's not pretend to know the answers. Rather than knowledge we have beliefs. Wonder and curiosity are better. 

Wonder and curiosity trump knowledge and belief every time.

The Great Mystery of Sex, Part 3

For many sex involves physical pleasure: touching skin to skin, the firm embrace, the moment of penetration, the ride, orgasm, the physical desire fulfilled.

For others sex involves pain, even death (How does the Black Widow spider become a widow?) Why does physical passion go hand in hand with sex? Why are they linked?

For many sex involves intense emotions- fear, excitement, happiness, anger, guilt, shame, and sadness. Why are sex and intense emotions linked? 

Some recognize that sex is spirit-related. It's about life. It sustains life. Why are sex and the continuation of the living linked?

For a few sex is a devotional practice and the sexual embrace a sacred and magical act. Why? What's behind that?

The abundant pleasure, pain, and power of sex raises so many questions.

Why is life squirming in sex?

The purpose of asking questions is not to get answers. Behind our pretense, we do not know. Our questions are met with silence.

It is okay that our questions link with silence. It's okay that the answers remain secret and hidden.

It's okay to stop making up answers to fill the silent void in our mind and eclipse our wonder.

We can open ourselves to wonder and smile in the presence of the great mystery of sex.

The Great Mystery of Sex, Part 2

Why are the living, the spirited, "driven" to sex?

Some have sex with many others. Some have sex with only one for their whole adult life. Others have no sex at all. Why the variety of ways?

Why have some developed restrictions with regard to sex- who can have sex with whom, when and how? Are they about producing the best off-spring? Are they expressions of power? Fear?

How did we humans become so mentally and emotionally conflicted about something so natural as sex? What perpetuates our conflictedness?  How do we liberate  ourselves from it?

Many perform elaborate rituals before they join in sex- strutting, deferring, calling, cooing. Why?

Why do so many of the living have sex for reasons other than reproduction - for pleasure, comfort, bonding, distraction, escape, manipulation, or dominance? 

Has sex always been so complicated? Does it have to continue to be?

The Great Mystery of Sex, Part 1

What death takes sex gives: life.

Sex and spirit go together. Sex is spirited and sustains spirit. Sex sustains life. Sex affirms life. It celebrates life.

As you read this sex goes on all around.

Right now billions of the living are touching, stroking, sucking, mounting, penetrating, thrusting, clawing, biting, smacking, humping, riding, banging, panting, moaning, groaning, screaming, spewing, gushing, collapsing, gasping for air, relaxing and calming back down.

Members of the opposite sex writhe together. So do members of the same sex. Members of the same species join. So do members of different species. Some squirm alone, others in pairs, still others in groups.

By light of day and darkness of night, the living dance a wet and wild orgy.  No law or moral code constrains it.

Why all the slippery, messy sex? Why is it that sex sustains life rather than something else?

Why is it that sex and spirit, that which makes alive, intermingle?

Why are so many conflicted that they do?

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 4

Afterlife?

Do we continue to live after we die? I ask on behalf of all the living.

That I ask confirms our not knowing.

I hear two replies: beliefs and silence.

Why do we even ask this question? Is it born from an innate drive the living have to keep on living? 

If we do live on after we die, who among us lives on- only humans, other animals, plants, the stones? 

If, as some believe, only humans live on, do all or only some live on after they die?

If we live on, how? Where? 

Do we ever live again on this earth?

If what is living inherently desires to keep on living, isn't it natural for us to create stories about how we continue to live after we die? Isn't it natural to create beliefs about living on and reinforce them with divine authority?

Rather than beliefs, I accept the silence.

We do not know what happens after we die. We do not know. 

The answer to this question is hidden from us. It's a secret. It always has been. It is one of the great mysteries.

What happens after we die? We do know one thing.

We decompose.

But then there are also those intuitions, dreams of the dead, ghosts, NDEs and other allusive experiences that leave us wondering. 

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 3

Death-like Experiences

Sleep, fainting, hibernation, being knocked unconscious, coma, near death experiences, orgasm: These are death-like experiences.

Sleep. We lie down and are dead to the world for a while. We humans spend a third of our life in the death-like state of sleep. 

Why? What is the purpose of sleeping?

Many of the living dream when asleep. Why? What are dreams? What is their purpose?

Hibernation: Many of the living self-bury and sleep like dead for months each winter to rise again in the spring. Why? What is the purpose?

Fainting: Something or someone takes our breath (spirit) away and we fall like dead to the ground. For a few moments we're dead to the world. Why do we faint?

Being knocked unconscious, coma: A blow to the head of almost any animal will render it unconscious. The effect of some blows is short-lived. Other blows induce comas. Still others kill. What a mystery the death-like state of unconsciousness is. While we're unconscious the living keep vigil hoping- or not- for our resurrection. 

Near death experiences (NDE): Heart, breath, and brain waves flat-line on the monitor. We see ourselves below. Through the tunnel we go toward the bright light. We experience love. Suddenly we back but not like before. We're transformed. Real? Hallucination due to a lack of oxygen? We do not really know.

Orgasm, the little death: It's a type of unconsciousness, similar to fainting but more fleeting. Induced by intense pleasure, it takes our breath, our spirit, away. It's a death we live for, a death we return to and rise from again and again. If not inflicted by another, we'll inflict this little death on ourselves. 

Do you know how many orgasms are happening right now? Why orgasm? What a wonderful and mysterious little death it is.

Note how resurrection follows all of these death-like experiences. That's what makes them death-like rather than death.

Are all these death-like experiences rehearsals for the real thing? Do the resurrections that follow make you wonder? I wonder if after death itself...could it be...that we...? 

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 2

Death: The Crust of Earth

Former rocks, plants, and animals, including humans, make the crust of this global grave yard on which we live. It's a crust of death.

Death supports life. All of the dead feed all of the living.

Life supports death. All of the living feed the crust of death.

What does it mean to die? Is dying the act of giving life?

The living kill. We share in the violence of death. We force deposits into the crust of this global grave yard.

Why? Why do we kill each other? Why all the death? Is it to feed life?

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 1

We expire, spirit-out. We die. We all die.   

Death is omni-present. It's all around. It's within. Cells of our body are dying right now. We're all in the process of dying.

Dying is happening right now. Do you know how many died as you read this?

From the moment we're conceived we begin our journey toward death. Any moment could be our arrival time.

Why? Why do we die rather than keep on living? 

Why does our arrival time remain hidden while we live?

The Great Mystery of Life

Why are we alive rather than not? Is this not the biggest question of all?

Does life have a purpose? If so, what is it? Is it the same for all living beings?

What does it mean to be alive? If something changes, is it alive? Is there anything that doesn't change? Is everything alive?

Did life have a beginning? If so, when? Where? How? 

Are some lives more valuable than others? If so, which ones? How do we decide?

Why is sex such a huge part of life?

Why does life feed on death? 

What determines how long we live?

These are just a few of the questions we can ask about the great mystery of life in which we participate.

Some borrow answers from others- parents, religious authorities, spirituality celebrities, philosophers. 

Others presume they're wise enough to make up their own answers. 

Either way their discomfort with not having an answer is numbed. 

I prefer the discomfort of not having an answer. I call it wonder. 

For me the point of the questions is not to answer them but to let them inspire in me a profound sense of wonder. 

Life, Death, Sex: The Three Great Mysteries

The word "mystery" comes from an ancient Greek word that meant "secret, hidden". It's related to the word "mute" which means silent.

We humans  are limited in our ability to know and understand what we experience as we live. As a result, we feel that much about life is secret. Much about life is hidden from us. 

Things hidden attract us. They feed our curiosity and compel us to ask questions. We ask about life. The answer is silence. Nature is mute about so many things. The gift nature offers us wrapped in muteness is wonder.

So, we live with our questions unanswered. We live with secrets in the presence of a nature that is mute about most of our questions, especially our big ones: 

Why are we alive? 

Why does anything exist rather than nothing? 

Why do the living die rather than keep living? Why do we stop existing? 

Why is sex so intimate with both life and death? 

Why are the living driven to unite in sex for pleasure, pain and reproduction? 

Why sex?

These are the three great mysteries: life, death and sex.

My next three blog posts ask the unanswered questions about these great mysteries that give us the gift of wonder, if we accept it. 

Ah, No Place Like Home

Nature is not something out there I go spend time in. I'm as much a part of nature as everything else. 

It's all nature and nothing but nature as far as I can see. There is nothing above or beyond, nothing supernatural. Even goddesses and gods are part of nature.

Who sold me the lie that I live apart from the rest of nature? Who sold me the lie that my true home is somewhere else or that I can go to a better (or worse) place after I die?

Why did I believe them? Why do others still believe them? 

There is no other place for me to be than here. I'm from here. I live here. I love here. This is my home. 

Home sweet home. Ah, yes, there is no place like home.

Being Spiritual: What it Isn't and Is

If being spiritual is about being less here, in and of this world, and more "up there" somewhere, then being spiritual is about being less than human.

In my view, being spiritual is about embracing the fact that I am spirited, alive.  It's about being mindful of and taking good care of my own spirit and that of others.

It's not about trying to escape my life. It's about saying "Yes!" to being alive and living my life in this world. 

It's about rising to meet all that challenges me as I create the adventure that is my life in this world.

Being spiritual is about being nothing less than fully human. 

Contra Teilhard: I'm Not a Spiritual Being Having a Human Experience

Some believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience. They believe we're visitors in this world, in human bodies to learn things for a while, but our true home is somewhere else. It's beyond in some unseen "spiritual" realm. In other words, they believe we're extraterrestrials, aliens from another place. Maybe some of us are.

As for myself, I'm a terrestrial, an earth man: fully human, from the humus - earth, water, wind and fire. I'm spirited, alive, like other living beings, only for awhile.

I'm not just a visitor here. Earth is my home. She is my mother. From her I came. She sustains me. To her I will return.

I'm not a spiritual being. I'm a human being creating my own experience as I go.

Low "Low self" Esteem

Some believe we have a "Higher Self". This implies a "low self" as well. 

They believe that the Higher Self is better than our low self, our ego. Oh, how they exalt the "Higher Self." They can't get away from ego fast enough.

If I am split into a Higher Self and low self, I have high "low self" esteem. 

However, I'm not split into a higher and lower self. I do not have an a ego. I am an ego, one that is multifaceted and constantly developing. 

When asked by High Selfers, "When you observe yourself, who observes you?" I say, "I observe myself. I have the ability to self observe. It's not that big of a deal really."

I sometimes wonder if those who believe they have a "Higher Self" do so because they loathe their self. Well, of course they do. They want to escape their ego; that is, they want to escape themselves and be someone else.

Some want to dissolve completely, like a drop of water in the ocean. Now that's low "low self" esteem.

I Do Not Have a Body

I do not have a body. I am a body. I do not have a mind. I am a mind. 

Likewise, I do not have a spirit; I am a spirit. I am a spirited body-mind. 

As a spirited body-mind I do not have an ego. I am an ego, a unique self. My ego is not a part of me. My ego is me. 

There is only one of me. When I am here, I am here. When I am gone, I am gone.

While I am here, I cannot lose myself. I cannot find myself. I am my self. 

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Conclusion

Conclusion

Just as great women and men in the past dreamed big dreams and led movements to realize them, I believe it is time to dream the big dream of Thumotics: the new science, therapeutic care, and spirituality of spirit in which we understand spirit as that which animates all living beings. 

We already have sciences and therapies for our body and mind. Now is the time to establish and develop sciences and therapies for our spirit. It is also time for a spirituality - a body of knowledge and practice--that is spirit-focused, life-affirming, empirically-based, and rooted in Western traditions. 

Let those who share this dream join the adventure.

September 21, 2013

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 10

I believe in a spirit-focused spirituality that is secular and based on thumology and thumotherapy, the new science and therapeutic care of spirit, rather than on religious and metaphysical beliefs. I believe in what I name thumotic spirituality. It is spirit-focused, life-affirming, empirically based, and rooted in Western traditions while being open to knowledge from other, non-Western sources.

Thumotic spirituality is clearly focused on spirit. In it the findings of both thumology and thumotherapy come together. It is a body of knowledge and practice related to spirit.

Since thumotic spirituality is focused on spirit, unlike some religious and metaphysical traditions, it attends to and puts into practice that which sustains and nurtures life. It values and affirms life in all of its forms, rather than denies and diminishes it. 

Since it is based on both thumology and thumotherapy, thumotic spirituality is empirically-based rather than faith-based.

Since it is based on the Ancient Greek understanding of thumos, thumotic spirituality is rooted in Western traditions. However, it remains open to assessing knowledge and practices related to spirit from all sources.

I call on all who are interested in living lives that are spirit-focused, life-affirming, empirically-based, and rooted in Western traditions to join with me in the practice of thumotic spirituality. Together we will help expand the body of knowledge and practices related to our own and other's spirit.

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 9

I propose the following definition of spirituality: Spirituality is a body of thoughts and practices related to spirit. From the perspective of this definition, there is not one spirituality but rather many spiritualities. For example, there are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Theosophical, Neopagan, and many other spiritualities. Each religion has its own body of thoughts and practices related to spirit.

 

Furthermore, from the perspective of my proposed definition of spirituality, most of what is called spirituality today is not spirituality. It is more accurately called "personal religion." It has little if anything to do with spirit as that which animates, and is usually a personal collection of beliefs and practices culled from different religious and other metaphysical traditions. While some personal religions, like established corporate religions, might have spiritualities, they are not themselves spiritualities.

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 8

I Believe in a Spirit-Focused Spirituality 

We live at a time of great confusion and creativity with regard to both religion and spirituality. Our confusion and creativity are expressed in the increased numbers of people who either change from one established corporate religion to another, or leave them altogether, joining the ranks of those who identify as "none" or "spiritual but not religious."

We see the confusion and creativity in the vast diversity of what is often called "spirituality." Not only is there no general consensus on what the word "spirituality" means, but also much that passes as spirituality has little if anything to do with spirit as “that which makes alive”. Much that passes as spirituality is often an individual's personal collection of various religious and/or metaphysical beliefs and practices culled from different Western and Eastern religions. 

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 7

Just as the therapeutic care of our body and mind is based on science, I believe in basing the therapeutic care of spirit on science rather than religious and metaphysical beliefs. I am not saying that we should completely ignore or reject religious and metaphysical beliefs. I am saying that when we investigate them. we do well to do so from a critical perspective in which we test their validity with established scientific methods.

I call on those with expertise and interest in counseling, therapeutic care, and healing to join with me in establishing and developing the new therapeutic care of spirit, thumotherapy. Join with me in becoming the first thumotherapists, exploring the vast frontier of the spirit and its injuries, illnesses, and therapies.

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 6

I Believe in Caring for Spirit

Since we know and understand so little about spirit, we have yet to develop ways of taking good care of our own and other's spirits. While we do already speak of wounded and broken spirits, we have yet to recognize what could be a broad spectrum of injuries and illnesses of spirit.

We have therapies for physical injuries and illnesses based on experience and scientific research. We also have therapies for mental illnesses based on experience and scientific research. I believe it is time to develop therapies for injuries and illnesses of the spirit. I name the therapeutic care of spirit thumotherapy.

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 5

The opposite of attending to spirit is ignoring it. Attending to spirit leads to knowledge and understanding of spirit. Ignoring spirit leads to ignorance and neglect. Knowing spirit makes many benefits possible. Ignoring makes possible much harm.

Since I believe in knowing spirit, I believe in establishing the science of spirit. Many sciences  attend to aspects of the physical world and the bodies of living beings.  Much of this knowledge informs our practice of medicine. We also have a science of the human mind, psychology.  Much of this knowledge informs our practice of psychotherapy. I believe it is time for the science of not just the human spirit, but the spirit of all living beings. I call this new science thumology.

I call on those with scientific expertise and interest in spirit to join with me in establishing and developing the new science of spirit, thumology. There is much exciting work to do and room for many in this wonderful adventure. 

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 4

I Believe in Knowing Spirit

That we humans and all living beings are spirited moves me to wide-eyed, open-minded wonder. What a profound mystery! Is it not an awe-inspiring mystery that we exist and live here and now, rather than not? 

How can we prevent ourselves from exploring this great mystery of being alive? Our natural sense of wonder compels us to look more closely at this in order to know more about it and understand it better. What is it that makes us alive? What is spirit? What can we know and understand about it?

Some say that space is the final frontier of exploration. Others say it is the oceans. I add to the list of vast frontiers to explore spirit. When we attend to and explore spirit, we attend to and explore the mystery of life itself.

I call out for daring explorers of spirit, and name those who would pioneer the frontier of the spirit thumonauts. We thumonauts lead the way in attending to and exploring spirit.

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 3

For the Ancient Greeks, thumos was not limited to humans. Thumos animated  goddesses, gods and other spiritual beings. It animated animals and plants, especially trees. It animated mountains, valleys, and caves; rivers and springs; the four winds and every living being 

Thumos was often translated into Latin by the word "spiritus", from which we get the word "spirit." It is the Ancient Greek understanding of thumos that informs what I mean by spirit. Spirit is that which animates and makes alive.

I believe in and deeply value spirit. It animates all living beings. I call on others who believe in and deeply value spirit to join with me in promoting the importance of spirit. It is essential to life. It is life. 

I believe that as we promote the importance of spirit, we will make this world a better place for all living beings.

What I Believe: The Thumotics Manifesto, Part 2

I Believe in Spirit

By spirit, I mean something as natural as our body and mind and everything else in the world.  By the word “spirit”, I mean “that which animates.”  Every living being is spirited; alive.  And spirit is that which makes living beings alive.  

I do not use the word "spirit" to refer to a goddess, god, or any other kind of non-physical being.  I do not mean anything religious, spiritual or metaphysical.  

My understanding of spirit is rooted in the perspective of the Ancient Greeks. The Ancient Greek word for spirit was thumos. To the Ancient Greeks, thumos was a quasi-physical aspect of living beings. In humans, it was located physically in the chest, and lends its name to the thymus gland and the herb thyme.

Thumos was also closely associated with the heart, lungs and breath. Fainting was understood as a temporary loss of thumos. When thumos returned, the one who fainted returned to life. Death was understood as the permanent loss of thumos. Death occurred when the thumos left and did not return to the body.

Part 3 will say more about thumos.