Spirit, Breath, Wind

Spirit, breath, and wind is spiritbreathwind. One. The same.

Spirit is breath. Breath is wind.

Where there is breath, there is wind, there is spirit.

No wind, no breath, no spirit.

No spirit, no breath, no wind.

Inspired, we breathe in wind and spirit and become alive.

Our breath is the wind and spirit in our nostrils, mouth, lungs, blood and cells. We inhale and breathe it in. We exhale and return it to inhale it again.

We know not the birth of spiritbreathwind. We know not where it comes from. We know not where it goes or how long it will be. It is a mystery.

Spiritbreathwind is invisible to our eye. We see, hear and feel its affects: Leaves speak rustled words and dance in the wind that rustles our clothes and hair. It has done so since long before we began walking the earth and will do so long after we're gone. It needs us not and yet on it our lives depend.

Sometimes it howls. Sometimes it's unnoticed it's so still. Other times it's gentle, refreshing and inspires a smile. At still other times it's warm, thick, and sultry too. Not just the wind. Our spirit and breathe too.

When we breathe out our last breath, we breath out our spirit into the wind never to breathe it in again. We expire.

The Spirit of Earth

Like a dancer on ice skates, Earth spins. Who knows how long her dance has lasted or will?

When I walk through the woods, I see that the path on which I walk differs from how it looked yesterday. Rocks appear today that weren't there yesterday. In some places the soil is dyer than it was. In other places, the wind has rippled sandy soil.

Earth moves. She's alive. Spirited.

Wind spirits Earth. So does water and fire.

No weak, demurring spirit is she. Her solid strength supports the weight of all. She bounds raging rivers and waterfalls and limits stormy seas.

And yet her strength is passive and receptive: She-

Absorbs all liquids, the heat of fire and Sun, and the cold of ice and snow

Allows herself to be blown by the wind and takes on wind's humidity and aridity

Hardens with dryness and softens with rain

Receives the remains of the slain

Earth gives her substance to the physical bodies of all:

Mountains, valleys, caves, and plateaus

Grasses, ivies, flowers, shrubs, and tress

Fish, bugs, animals, and birds

We all are her children: born of her through our mother's womb, nourished by her plants and animals throughout our life, and received back when we die.

We are kin.

We honor her when we live following her lead.

The Spirit of Fire

If it moves, it's alive.

If it's alive, it is spirited.

Doesn't everything move? Isn't everything alive, spirited?

I'm sitting in of my fireplace gazing at the fire I made. The flames dance and sing hums and snaps as they feed on the wood at their feet. They move. They're alive. They're spirited like every other living being.

As I watch and tend the fire, I notice that its spirit varies according to the wood and air it feeds on. When I serve it dry wood with a steady flow of of air, its spirit lifts and strengthens. It dances with delight.

When I serve it damp wood or lessen the flow of are, it's spirit calms. Its song modulates to a hiss of displeasure. Fed too much damp wood and too little air, its spirit departs altogether. It dies.

Fire can be smothered to death with water, earth, and either too much or too little air. 

It's mortal.

Like all over living beings, fire consumes and transforms what it feeds on. Ashes are fire's feces. Like all feces, they can be utilized in beneficial ways by other living beings.

In the wild, fire consumes and transforms. It kills, clears, and opens up spaces to allow in more sunlight and wind. New life comes forth. Thus fire affirms life.

For us humans, fire is both friend and foe. It gives warmth, cooks meals, protects, provides light in darkness, purifies, and helps us forge steel. It also destroys material goods and kills.

It's immoral and life-denying when it kills unnecessarily. It is moral and virtuous when it affirms life even in the taking of it.

We do well to acknowledge the spiritedness of fire. We do well to respect and befriend fire. We do well to not interfere with fire's freedom, except when it threatens our life and goods and those  for whom we care.

We do well to befriend fire.   

  

Spirit-Centered Living, Part Three: Relationships

This post is a sketch about how I relate to others, from spirit to spirit.

As I mentioned in Part Two of this series, I see everyone of us as spirited and alive. As such, I see us doing what we need to do to remain alive and do what we are alive to do. 

Kinship

So, I see a kinship among us all. We are related by the mere fact that we are spirited and alive rather than not. We are also related in doing what we need to do to remain alive and fulfill our purpose.

Because of our kinship, my basic way of relating to others is as a friend rather than a foe. At first, I'm a cautiously friendly. It takes me a while to know if you are a friend or foe to me. Being cautious protects and affirms the value of my life.

Friends

If you are a friend, then my basic way of relating is to accept you as you are and not interfere with you living your life as you choose. I give you space. Not interfering and giving you space is about a mutual affirmation of my life and yours. It's about both of us being free.

The only time I harm my friends, is out of the necessity to sustain my own life and the lives of those in my care. I am personally responsible for the deaths of countless friendly plants and animals that I eat to sustain my own life. 

Since the deaths of others sustains my life, I do well to honor them and their spirit by minimizing the pain of their death, wasting as little as possible of their bodies, and respectfully returning to Earth what remains.

Otherwise, being a friend is about helping each other if and when we need and want help. It is also about enriching each other's lives with gifts that only we can give.

Foes

If you are a foe, my basic way of relating to you is to avoid you. I want nothing to do with you. You go your way and I'll go mine.

If you threaten or harm me or anyone dear to me, then I will aggressively defend myself, family, and friends. In defense I will kill you if I have to. If you are eatable, I will eat you, waste as little as possible, and respectfully return to Earth what remains.

Context

Of course, I do all of the above to varying degrees in the larger context of a declining industrialized system. In that larger context, factory workers kill and process most of the food I eat. I know they do so with no respect for the spirits of those they kill. They make no attempt to use everything to honor the spirit and life of the each one killed but only to maximize share-holder profits.

Even so, I continue to develop my practice of living a spirit-centered life, of relating spirit to spirit, and respecting the life and freedom of every living being. 

Spirit-Centered Living, Part Two: The Spirit of Others

Not only am I alive, others are too. They too are spirited: 

Earth, water, wind, and fire-all moving, all alive. 

Stones, grass, flowers, vines, shrubs, and trees-all moving and alive. 

Every insect and animal, including us humans- moving and alive.

Even the moon, planets, and stars- all moving, all alive.

The spirit, that which makes alive, spirits us all. We share spirit in common.

We all are alive rather than not.

Let this great mystery move us all to wide-eyed wonder!

Some live lives that affirm their own life and the lives of others.

Some live lives that deny their own life and the lives of others.

Those who deny life, make the lives of those who affirm life necessary.

Those who affirm life, make the lives of those who deny life necessary.

We depend on each other.

Has it always been this way?

I don't know. I just know that it is this way now.

Will it always be this way?

I do not know. I just know that it is this way now.

Why is it this way?

I do not know. I just know that it is this way now.

Shouldn't we try to change it and make it better- more life-affirming?

The only way to make it more life-affirming is to deny the lives of those who deny life.

We who affirm life, affirm the lives of all the living, including those who deny life.

Spirit-Centered Living, Part One

This is the first in a series of posts about what it means to me to live a spirit-centered life.

Spirit-Centered Living Defined

Spirit-centered living is about living from my own spirit in relation to all other spirited beings. It includes being mindful of my own spirit, the spirits of others, and our relationships.

Mindful of My Own Spirit

Being mindful of my own spirit includes but is not limited to-

1. Being aware of and moved to wonder that I am alive rather than not, open to experiencing the mystery of being alive, and at peace with not knowing how or why I am alive.

2. Delighting in being alive.

3. Acting from my spirit,  engaging with my in-the-world experience, meeting the challenges I face, not avoiding what life presents to me.

4. Being what I do.

5. Synchronizing my spirit, body, and mind in all I do. Doing this defines integrity for me.

6. Naturally doing what protects and promotes my own life. Taking excellent care of myself also benefits others.

7. Fulfilling the life-affirming desires of my heart. Doing what I am meant to do.

Part Two of this series is about being mindful of the spirits of others

The Spirit of Living Water

I live in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina where the Cherokee once lived. They, as did my European ancestors, knew experientially the different spirits of different kinds of water. For example, they knew the experience of drinking living water. Later, confined and crowded together by European immigrants, they knew the experience of drinking dispirited water.

Growing up, I drank living water at my grandparents' homes in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of Northeast Georgia. Their water came directly from mountain springs on their land.

While living in Boone, North Carolina, as young adults, my wife and I with our two year son, drank the living lithia spring water in Ashe County.  Click the following link for more information:  http://www.cabinsathealingsprings.com/our-history.htm

As an adult, for several years my wife, children and I lived in East Tennessee. Our house was connected to the city water system. However, I got our drinking water from a spring of living water in New Market, a small town next to the one we lived in. Click the following link for information about the spring http://www.houstonsmineralwater.com

Over the years we've also made several trips to Hot Springs, North Carolina, where we drank the living spring water at Hot Springs Spa: http://nchotsprings.com

Living water moves. It's fresh, clean, and alive. It's found in clean springs, streams, creeks and waterfalls. It inspirits and enlivens those who drink it. It restores and lifts weary spirits, especially the spirits of animals, including us humans.

Now living water is difficult to find. Reckless, industrialization and greed for financial gain have and continue to pollute, chemically process, and dispirit the waters of fresh springs, streams, creeks, waterfalls, and almost all other natural sources of fresh water.

Many, if not most, Westerners, have lost the awareness and experience of the spirit of living water. To find living water to drink takes significant time and effort.

Perhaps if more of us experienced for ourselves the spirit of living water, we would also experience the lifelessness of the chemically processed water that flows from our faucets as well as the filtered water we drink from plastic bottles, including bottled spring water.

Perhaps then we would be inspired to treat the water of Earth with more respect. Perhaps we would protect, clean, restore, and revive the water sources on which our lives and the lives of all the living depend. Perhaps we would stop polluting the waters of life and no longer need to chemically process it. Perhaps.

It's really up to us. 

Our regard for water is a direct reflection of our regard for life itself.

  

We Are Alive! The Fundamental Fact of Thumotics

The fundamental fact that I acknowledge and affirm in Thumotics* is that we are alive. We have thumos, spirit, that which makes alive.

Everything else I present with regard to Thumotics emerges from the fundamental fact that we are alive rather than not.

Being mindful of being alive moves me to a state of wonder: Wonder of wonders! I am alive! You are alive! We are alive together! I want to constantly live in this state of wonder.

Since I do not know why we are alive, being alive is a great mystery to me: Mystery of mysteries! I am alive! You are alive! We are alive together! I want to constanlty live with this sense of mystery.

Descartes declared, "I think, therefore I am." I declare, "I am alive, therefore I pulse, breathe, hunger, thirst, see, hear, smell, touch, taste, feel pain and pleasure, emote, desire, imagine, think, speak, choose, move, and take action. The only reason I exist and can do anything, is because I am spirited and alive. Everything flows from being alive rather than not.

Since I am alive rather than not, I feel the drive to remain alive. This drive inheres in spirit. It propels me to do whatever I need to do to live. I am always answering with my actions the question, "What will I do to remain alive?"

I am not alone. I am alive because of others: my parents and ancestors before them, but also because of farmers, physicians, scientists, law enforcement officers, military personnel, and countless others. 

I live with you and all other living beings who are also driven to remain alive. So, I am always answering the question with my actions, "How will I live well with others?" How will we treat each other and all other living beings with whom we share this planet we call Earth?

*Thumotics is an umbrella term based on the Ancient Greek word for spirit, thumos. It includes thumology, thumotherapy, thumotic spirituality, and thumotic theology.

Goddesses, Gods, and Spirit, Part Five: Our Relationship

Goddesses, gods, and we humans share much that is significant: We are alive. We share spirit. We are conceived by parents and born. We grow up to become adults. We mate and have children.

We live in the same universe. We experience pleasure and pain. We experience the full range of emotions. We have our own strengths, unique abilities, and weaknesses. We make choices and take actions that sometimes help and sometimes harm. 

We communicate with each other. Some call our communication with deities prayer. Some call the communication of deities with us revelation. Others call it divination.

Some goddesses and gods have no interest in us. Some do. We have no interest in some goddesses and gods. In others we do. Some of us have only one goddess or god. Some of us have two or more.

The point: There are goddesses and gods. There are us human beings. And there is the relationship between us.

Some believe their god is the only god. They also believe there is only one right way to be in a relationship with their one true god. That's fine. They are free to believe as they so choose.

Some believe that everyone who believes in one god believes in the same god. They just call him by different names. Others believe their god is the one true god that all should worship and the one god others believe in is not the one true god.

Others believe there are many goddesses and gods and each is related to in their own way. That's fine too. They too are free to believe as they so choose.

The relationship between deities and us varies from deity to deity and human to human. The relationships are dynamic and complex. That's what makes them so interesting.

Goddesses, Gods, and Spirit, Part Four: Eternal Life? Cont'd

Instead of being eternal, I believe that goddess and gods are potentially immortal. Here's why:

First, within our visual range most, if not all, of the living things we see are conceived by parents in some sense of the word, they are born in some sense, grow to maturity, decline, die, decompose, and are reborn in some sense of the word. Consider the life cycles of oak trees and  cats for illustrations. It seems reasonable to me that the life cycles of living beings outside our visual range would follow the same pattern. Living organism too seen only with microscopes follow this pattern. It seems that goddesses and gods would follow the same pattern.

When we consider the narratives about goddesses and gods handed down to us from our Greek, Roman, and Norse ancestors, we see the same pattern with one exception. Goddesses and gods are conceived by their parents, born, and grow to maturity. The difference is that they consume food and drink that keeps them young and makes them potentially immortal. The Greek deities consumed nectar and ambrosia. The Norse deities consumed golden apples. 

The Greek, Roman, and Norse goddesses and gods can also die. For example, most of the Norse gods die in Ragnarok.

The deities of our Greek, Roman, and Norse ancestors live and act in the same world as do we and the rest of nature rather than an eternal, unchanging realm apart from this world. They even involve themselves in human events, such as war and and sex. Their existence is consistent with the rest of living beings that we know. Rather than devaluing life they value and live it as do we.

I can believe in such beings that value and affirm life.

Goddesses, Gods, and Spirit, Part Three: Eternal Life?

As mentioned in the introduction to this series, spirit, understood in terms of the Ancient Greek concept of thumos, is that which makes alive. Everything that is alive has spirit and is spirited, including goddesses, gods, and other beings invisible to us humans.

The question I address in this post is whether or not I believe goddesses and gods are eternal. In addressing this question I reflect on the meaning of "eternal", the effects of believing that goddesses and gods are eternal, the meaning of immortal, and the effects of believing that goddesses and gods are immortal rather than eternal.

First, I do not believe that goddesses and gods are eternal. Here's why:

In Western civilization "eternal" tends to mean "always has been and always will be." An eternal god is without beginning and end. He is unchanging. He has no parents that conceived him, no birth, growth, decline, death, and rebirth. Such a god by necessity exists "outside of time", apart from the universe, and in a supernatural/metaphysical realm.

The effect of such a belief is the valuing of a realm, life, and existence that is outside the world we live in. It exalts what is eternal, unchanging, separated from "this world." It values life before and after the life we live in "this world." Those who believe in eternity often speak of going to a better place than this world after they die. Such a belief devalues, and often denies, all that is temporal and mortal, all that changes, and all that is of "this world"; that is, all of nature.

I simply cannot believe is something so life-denying.

Goddesses, Gods, and Spirit, Part Two: What I Believe

When it comes to the existence of goddesses, gods, and other beings invisible to us humans, I describe my current perspective as that of an optimistic agnostic believer: I'm an agnostic because I do not know with certainty that goddesses, gods, and other such beings exist. I'm optimistic because I have good reasons for believing that they do exist. I'm a believer because I think it is reasonable for me to believe that such beings exist and I chose to do so. Here's why:

There's More Than Our Human Eyes Can See

First, I believe it is possible that divine and other beings invisible to us humans exist because I know that our physical senses are limited in their abilities. For example. our field of vision is within a very narrow energy range. It's between approximately 400 and 790 THz (terahertz). We cannot see in the ultraviolet range below 400 THz. Neither can we see in the infrared range  above 790 THz. Moreover, we cannot see gamma rays, microwaves, radio waves, x-rays or anything else outside our visual range.

Using microscopes we can see very small and otherwise invisible forms of life . But we do not yet have macroscopes with which we can see very large and otherwise invisible forms of life. I think it is reasonable to believe that there is much more that exists in the universe than what we are now able to see with either our unaided or aided eyes. I think it is reasonable to believe that living invisible beings that have been called goddesses, gods, angels, deamons, fates, geniuses, and other names exist. Why not?

The Weight of Testimony

Secondly, the testimony recorded throughout history and currently in the world today bearing witness to direct encounters with such beings carries weight with me. Reports of direct experiences with goddess, gods, angels (messengers), evil spirits, and other invisible beings are common throughout historical records and in the world today. Indeed, I am among those who bear such witness. 

A Conceptual Framework

Thirdly, Henri Corbin's article,  Mundus Imaginalis*, in which he articulated the differences between the imaginary and the imaginal, provides a conceptual framework for me to believe in the existence of goddesses, gods, other invisible beings, and other realms. 

So, when asked if I believe that goddesses, gods, and other invisible beings exist, I say, "Yes, I do and I am optimistic about one day developing our technologies that help us better know and communicate with them." In order to develop such technologies in the West, we will have to further shed the materialistic view of the universe that still dominates our culture.

* http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/mundus_imaginalis.pdf

Part three of this series will present my current view on whether or not goddesses and gods are eternal.

Goddesses, Gods, and Spirit, Part One, An Introduction

This is part one and an introduction to a multipart series on goddesses, gods and spirit. As in all of my writing, spirit is understood in terms of the Ancient Greek understanding of thumos. Thumos translated into Latin as spiritus from which we get our English word, spirit.

Spirit understood in terms of thumos is not a religious concept. It's not "spiritual" or supernatural. It is very much a part of nature. It's associated with the wind and our breath.

It is that which makes alive. When we have spirit, we are alive. When it leaves and returns we faint and recover. When our spirit leaves permanently, we die. 

It's quasi-physical. We feel it in the center of our chest, behind our breast bone and between our breasts. We often refer to it as our heart. It is the seat of our emotions. 

According to the Ancient Greeks everything alive has spirit; for example, rivers, trees and other plants, animals, humans, goddesses and gods and other beings invisible to the human eye.

Human spirits and the spirits of all living beings vary in quality. A few spirits are great; that is, strong, expansive, and influential. Most are average and some are weak. Some spirits are warm and loving. Others are cold and mean. Some are expansive, others contracted, and so on.

The series of posts to follow are about goddesses, gods, and other beings invisible to the human eye. It will include my thoughts on the existence of goddesses, gods, and other beings invisible to our human eye, about their being spirited, my answer to whether or not they are eternal, and their relationship to the world and us humans.

Part Two will present my thoughts about the existence of goddesses, gods, and other invisible beings. 

Healing Illnesses and Injuries of Our Spirit

Physical Health Care

In Western cultures, we have a fairly well developed care of physical illness and injury. The germ-based, industrialized paradigm has produced a wide-spectrum of effective antibacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal medicines. 

The machine-based paradigm of the human body has produced a wide-spectrum of effective reparative, replacement, and transplant surgeries.

Mental Health Care

Western approaches to care of mental illness and injury are still very young. They struggle under the social idominance of materialism, "hard science", social stigmata, and religious beliefs. Even so, much has been learned about the human mind and how to care for and heal it.

Care of the Human Spirit

When we consider care of illnesses and injuries of the human spirit, we are in the conceptual phase at best. There are mountainous obstacles to overcome in order to make progress.

We have no general consensus of what the human spirit is or even if it exists. We tend to speak of the human spirit as a metaphor, religious belief, synonym for mind, or concept of metaphysics or spirituality.  

We have no list of identified illnesses and injuries of the spirit.

We have no protocols for providing therapeutic care of the ill or injured human spirit.

Neither have we identified what a well and healthy human spirit looks like and what nurtures, strengthens, sustains, and prevents its illness and injury.

More pointedly, we have -

No definition of spirit

No science of spirit

No therapy of spirit

No practices for developing and sustaining a healthy and strong spirit

The Heart of My Work

The heart of my work is to care for the human spirit and lead the way in defining the human spirit, and developing a science, therapy, and spirit-centered way of living.

Life-Affirming Social Practices, Part 3

Contributing to the Collective Good     

We have our own work to do to sustain our own lives. However, we also have shared work to do that benefits everyone: protecting ourselves from threats to our lives, healing the sick and injured, and raising our children.

Protection from Threats

Protecting ourselves from what threatens the life of those dear and near to us is basic. Many threats are larger than we can address by ourselves. For example, climate change, storms, floods, earth quakes, draughts, and the greed and violence of aggressors. We do well to combine our efforts and work together to protect ourselves from threats. Divided we fall; united we stand.

Raising Our Children

We raise our children to become mature adults able to support themselves. Everyone benefits from children becoming self-supporting adults who contribute to the common good. 

Education is part of raising children. Since we all benefit from well educated children,  we all do well to share in the cost and work of educating our children. We do well to educate them to become self-supporting rather than cogs in the matrix of industrialized consumerism.

Healing the Sick and Injured

What affects one, affects all. We know this in our relationships with family, friends and co-workers. When one of them is sick or injured, it affects everyone connected with them. They all have to adapt. 

The same is true in our communities, countries, and entire world. 

For this post I tried to find a fairly solid answer to how many people in the world are sick. I was unable to find a well-researched answer and will keep searching. 

Perhaps the fact that this information is not easily accessible indicates that, generally speaking, we do not care how many of us are sick. Not caring how many of us are sick implies a lack of caring about living healthy, life-affirming lives.

Furthermore, as our industrial, factory-based economy continues to wane, we're becoming more aware of how harmful it has been to the health and well-being of all the living on this planet. 

We're also becoming aware of the fundamental flaw of industrialized medicine that treats humans and other living beings  as machines with malfunctioning and replaceable parts that can be serviced with tests, chemicals, and surgeries for huge financial gain. 

There is something fundamentally wrong with getting rich off of the sick and injured. There is something fundamentally right about helping to heal the sick and injured. We all benefit from everyone being as healthy as we possibly can be.

There is also something fundamentally right about supporting the dignity of and comforting the dying, regardless of their species. 

A Reflection

How do you contribute to the collective good? How are you contributing to the health and well-being of all other living beings?

What role do you play in protecting yourself and others from threats to life and well-being? Are you actively engaged or dependent on others?

What are you doing to help raise healthy, well-educated, life-affirming children?

What are you doing to keep yourself and others healthy for the common good?

What small steps can you take to do more?

Life-Affirming Social Practices, Part 2

Self-Support

When we adults support ourselves we work to obtain for ourselves the water, food, clothing, shelter, protection, and transportation we need to sustain our own lives. We do not expect others to support us. 

When we are self-supporting we do not depend on and add to the burdens of others who are working to sustain their own lives. Some who have others do their work for them are called "leaders" and "business owners." Others are called "dependents", "lazy", or worse. There is little difference between the two. Both live off the labor of others.

There are times when we are sick, injured, or otherwise unable to support ourselves. Then we have to depend on others to some extent.  That is as it should be.

A Reflection

How dependent on others are you for the water, food, clothing, shelter, protection, and transportation you need to sustain your life? It might be surprising to become aware of how deeply embedded we are in the matrix of industrialized consumerism. 

We're so embedded in and dependent on the matrix of industrialized consumerism, that we have lost the skills of obtaining food and water for ourselves, making our own clothes, building our own shelters, protecting ourselves, and providing our own transportation.

Based on your reflection of how dependent you are on the matrix of industrialism, what are some ways that you choose to use the matrix to your advantage? What are some ways that you'd like to liberate yourself? What small steps in the direction of liberation can you take starting today? 

Life-Affirming Social Practices, Part 1

Our spirit is that which makes us alive. Spirit-centered living is about living from that which makes us alive. It's about saying, "Yes!" to life, not just to our own but everyone else's life too. Here are some simple social practices in three categories for affirming the spirit in others:

Social Courtesies

Social courtesies acknowledge the existence and validate other spirited beings. Social courtesies include but are not limited to the following:

Smiling

Greeting

Welcoming

Expressing genuine interest in others

Listening when others speak and not interrupting

Gift-giving, including giving compliments

Gift-receiving

Saying, "Please" and "Thank you"

Saying, "Farewell" or something similar when parting

Try This

Pick just one of the courtesies listed above and intentionally practice it today. Attend to the affect  the courtesy has on your own spirit. Attend to the affect it has on those to whom you show the courtesy.

My next post in this series will be about how supporting ourselves affirms the lives of others.

How Our Mind Affects Our Spirit, Part 2

Our Mental Images Either Affirm or Deny Our Spirit

What we see in our mind's eye affects our spirit. Generally speaking, our mental images can either affirm and strengthen or deny and weaken our spirit. 

When we consider how our mental images affect our spirit, it's important to distinguish between our mental images themselves and our opinions of our mental images. In my experience, for example, the mental image of a fire in my fire place on a cold day comforts my spirit. The comfort feels immediate, directly related to the image of the fire. I have no opinion about the fire. I just experience it.

However, the mental image of receiving an unexplained calendar invite to a meeting with my CEO  evokes fear in my spirit. It evokes fear, not because there is anything inherently fearful about meeting with my CEO, but because of my opinions about going into an unexplained meeting with my CEO.  

An Experiment

The effect of your mental images on your spirit is easy to test this for yourself.

First, attend to your spirit. Focus your attention on the center of your chest, behind your breast bone and between your nipples. We often call this area our heart. It's where we feel our spirit. If it helps, place one or both hands over your heart as you breathe into and out of your spirit.

How would you describe how your spirit feels? Make a mental note of it.

Now, imagine yourself waiting in a check out line at a grocery store. You're running late and feel a bit impatient. Then someone cuts in line two people ahead of you and no one does anything about it. 

Focus again on your spirit. How does it compare with how it felt prior to imagining the check out line scene? Has it changed? If so, how?

Now, change scenes. Imagine someone dear to you scratching your back and rubbing your shoulders. Feel the sensation of their fingers scratching up and down your back. Feel their warm hands on your shoulders rubbing the tension away.

How does your spirit feel now? Has it changed? If so, how?

This simple exercise might or might not illustrate for you how our mental images can affect our spirit. Whether it did or not, I encourage you to become more aware of your own mental images and the effects they have on your spirit. 

 

How Our Mind Affects Our Spirit, Part 1

Spirit-Centered Living and Our Mind

Spirit-centered living is about understanding spirit in terms of the Ancient Greek understanding of thumos. Thumos (spiritus in Latin, spirit in English) is what makes us alive. It's quasi-physical. We can feel it. It's located in the center of our chest, behind our breast bone and between our nipples. The Ancient Greeks associated it with the thymus gland. We often refer to it as our heart.

Spirit-centered living is about being mindful of and living from our spirit, our heart. It's about being aware of what affects our spirit and how. This post is about the relationship between our mind and our spirit. It addresses the question of how our mind affects our spirit.

Our mind affects our spirit in at least two ways: our thoughts and our mental images.

Our thoughts are what we say to ourselves in our mind. They are our self-talk. We can verify for ourselves whether or not our self-talk affects our spirit. We can also learn the specific effects our self-talk has on our spirit.

Basically, our self-talk either affirms or denies our spirit. It either strengthens or weakens it.

Experiment #1

Relax and focus your attention on the center of your chest, behind your breast bone and between your nipples, your heart. Breathe into and out of your heart. If it helps, place one or both hands over your heart as you focus on and breathe into and out of it. How does your spirit feel? How would you describe it? Make a mental note.

Next, recall a time when you put yourself down. Recall what you said to yourself. Did you call yourself stupid, a screw up, weak, not good enough, unlovable, undeserving, or some other denigrating, devaluing word? As you recall the scene, become aware of how your spirit feels. Has it changed in comparison to before recalling the self-denigrating scene? If so, how? Take note of the change.

Focus again on your heart. Breathe into and out of your heart. If you need to clear the scene and denigrating self-talk, say to yourself at least twenty times, "Don't think!"

Now, as you breathe into your heart say to your heart, your spirit, "I love you!" As you breathe out of your heart say the same, "I love you!" Do this for at least three minutes. Breathe into your heart saying, "I love you!" Breathe out of your heart saying, "I love you!"

After three minutes or so, again become aware of how your spirit feels. Does it feel different than when you said denigrating things to yourself? If so, how? Take note of the difference.

The next post will be about how our mental images affect our spirit.

 

Your Spirit at Work

Since spirit is that which makes us alive and our primary work is to survive and stay alive, our work is a spirit-related matter.

Spirit-centered work is life-affirming action taken from and for our own spirit and the spirits of others.

We Work to Sustain our Spirit

We work to provide for ourselves and those in our care the water, food, clothing, shelter, and protection we need to stay alive. Believing that our real work is something greater than sustaining our lives, denies the value of our lives. Is there any greater work that sustaining and promoting life?

Working to provide for ourselves water, food, clothing, shelter and protection easily becomes an opportunity for creativity and the production of art. It becomes an opportunity for each one of us to do what only we can do. Each one us is unique. We each have gifts to share that no one else can share.

The Slow Death of Capitalistic Industry

Capitalistic industry turned work into a form of economic slavery. Owners of the means of production were the slave bosses. Laborers gave their work and freedom in exchange for wages to spend on buying manufactured goods from other owners. It was a pretty good deal for both parties for a while.

Capitalism and its factories are dying a slow death. It's winning its race to the bottom where the cost of manufacturing so-called goods cannot be cut any further. Let us celebrate its demise. 

Emerging New Economies

A new economy continues to emerge. Now, we have the means of production and connection with each other at our finger tips with our computers and the world-wide web. 

Try this:

1.When you are working, pause and become aware of your spirit. Focus your attention on the center of your chest, behind your breast bone and between your breasts- your heart. This is your spirit's home. Breathe into and out of your spirit. Become aware of how your spirit feels at work. Does it feel affirmed or denied? Does it feel in place or not? Does it feel free or constrained? Do you feel that you are free to share your unique gifts at work or not?

Some will find that their work affirms their spirit. Others will not. In which group are you? 

2. Identify what is absolutely essential for you and your family (if you have one) to live. I mean absolutely essential.

Determine the cost of what is essential. Base the cost on where you now live.

Now, identify three things or services you are paying for that are not absolutely essential. You literally can live without them. 

Estimate how much time you spent buying, using, and maintaining those things for the time you have owned them.

What would you do with your time and money if you let go of those non-essential things?

Sex as Re-Creation,, Part 2

The second effect of sharing our spirit during sex is re-creation. I'm not talking about recreational sex in the casual, superficial sense. I'm talking about sex in a re-creational sense, in the sense of sex as a form of play.

Sex as Play

Play is any activity that is pleasurable. Pleasurable activities restore and renew our spirits. They re-create us. 

When sex is pleasurable, like other forms of play, it restores and renews our spirits. It re-creates that which makes us alive.

Two Basic Experiments

Try this: Set aside some private time for some sex play with yourself. Before you begin, focus your attention on the center of your chest. The area behind your breast bone and between your breasts. This area, often called your heart, is the home of your spirit.  If it helps, place one or both over this area and breathe into and out of your heart. Become aware of how your spirit feels. How would you describe the feeling?

After you have a good sense of your spirit, play. Have sex-play with yourself. Pleasure yourself to orgasm.

Afterwards, give yourself plenty of time to soak in the pleasure, then focus on your heart again. Breathe into your heart and breathe out.

How do you feel now? Do you feel different than before you pleasured yourself? If so, how? What effect on your spirit, if any, did your sex-play have?

When you have the opportunity to share your spirit with another during pleasurable sex, reflect on the experience afterwards. How did you feel before, during, and afterwards? Did your feelings change? If so, how?  What effect, if any, did the sex have on your spirit?

With these and other playful experiments, we each can discover for ourselves the connections between our spirit and sex. 

Our Spirit and Sex, Part 1

Our spirit is what makes us alive. We express and share our spirit with others in a variety of ways, with 

our facial affect, speech, tone of voice, gestures and actions.

Sex: A Spirit-Related Matter

Touching is one action by which we express and share our spirit with others. Since sexual touches and embraces are specific ways of touching, they are ways we express and share our spirit with others. So, sex is a spirit-related matter.

Sex as Procreation

In this post I want to highlight two effects of sharing our spirit during sex. The first is procreation. The woman gives birth to her egg. The man labors and with the final push of orgasm gives birth to his seed. His seed races to penetrate her egg. Their bodies and spirits merge at the cellular level and create new life. 

Sex is essential to life. By sex life continues and remains potentially eternal. As long as females and males embrace, eggs and seed merge, and healthy babies are born and nurtured to adulthood, human life goes on.

Sex as procreation-ovulation, sexual embrace, orgasm, conception, gestation, birth, nurturing and protecting our young to adulthood- these are life-affirming celebrations we do well to value and honor deeply.

In part two, I will discuss sex as re-creation and share some experiments to play with. 

Spirit-Centered Protection

My life, health and well-being are primarily my own responsibly. It is primarily up to me to protect myself from harm and keep myself alive and healthy. It is a responsibility I refuse to relinquish to others. Since protecting myself is about keeping myself alive, and since spirit is that which makes me alive, self-protection is a spirit-related matter.

Spirit-centered protection looks at self-protection from the perspective protecting one's own spirit in order to stay alive and live a healthy, creative, and happy life.

Self-Protection is Inherent to Our Spirit

Based on observations of living beings, I think it is reasonable to generalize that every living being has a natural, basic instinct to protect itself from harm. When we feel threatened  we either fight, flee, or freeze. Self-protection is inherent in our spirit. That which makes us alive has a basic desire to stay alive, unharmed, and healthy.

Self-Protection is Life-Affirming

Self-protection is life-affirming. It is something we do well to become very good at if we value our own spirit and life. If we do not value our own spirit and life, something very serious is wrong and we do well to address it.

Self-Protection Takes Many Forms

For us humans, self-protection takes many forms. It includes breathing fresh, clean air; drinking fresh, clean water; eating fresh, organic whole foods; having sufficient clothing and shelter; sleeping well; doing meaningful work; and protecting ourselves from both predators and natural disasters. 

Being able to protect ourselves is one characteristic of living as a mature, adult human being.

Questioning Relinquishing Our Responsibility to Others

We do well to recognize that often those who encourage us to depend on them for our protection, do us no favors. They nurture a dependence on them that weakens our natural instincts and bodies, and limits our freedom. They put us at risk.

Questioning Self-Sacrifice

We do well to recognize that often those who call for self-sacrifice do us no favors. Those who call for self-sacrifice rarely sacrifice themselves. They call on others to do what they themselves will not. 

However, we also do well to recognize our natural instinct to put our own lives at risk for those who are dear to us. For example, it is natural for parents to risk their own lives to protect their young. It is natural for friends to risk their lives for each other. Such actions to protect the lives of those dear to us and unable to protect themselves, differ greatly from those where we are asked to sacrifice our lives for cowards who clothe their appeal in abstractions of greater causes and higher callings.

Some Question to Consider

How safe are you? Are you giving yourself the air, water, food, shelter, and protection from harm you require in order to not only live but thrive?

What do you need to do to better protect yourself from harm?

What can you do today to take some steps in the direction  of better protecting yourself from harm?

If you have relinquished you responsibility for protecting yourself from harm, what can do to take it back?

The Spirit in Play

Squirrels, cats, monkeys, and whales play.  Dogs, dolphins, and crows play. So do we humans.

What is Play?

It's natural. It's any activity during which we feel pleasure.

The pleasure we feel might be physical, mental or emotional. Since the seat of our emotions is our spirit, play is a spirit-related activity.

Play alternates with work, rest, and sleep. We work to provide for ourselves what we need to stay alive- water, food, clothing, and shelter. We rest and sleep to assimilate, recover and regain our strength. We play for pleasure and pleasure re-creates us. Pleasure renews our spirit, that which makes us alive.

The Necessity of Play

Re-creation, renewal of our spirit, is a basic necessity of life. When we do not play, we do not renew and replenish our spirit. We weaken our spirit and make ourselves vulnerable to illness and injury. We increase our risk of premature death.

We cannot not play. We naturally play just as we naturally breathe.

An article from Scientific American says this about play:

 “Free play,” as scientists call it, is critical for becoming socially adept, coping with stress and building cognitive skills such as problem solving. Research into animal behavior confirms play’s benefits and establishes its evolutionary importance: ultimately, play may provide animals (including humans) with skills that will help them survive and reproduce." You can read the entire article by clicking on this link

Here's a quote from an article from HelpGuide.org

"Playing can boost your energy and vitality and even improve your resistance to disease, helping you feel your best." You can the entire article here

Improving Your Game

It can be helpful to become aware of the activities we do for pleasure. Make a list of the things you do that give you pleasure.

When you play, be all in. Don't hold back. Play!

After you play, rest. Rest gives us time to soak in the pleasure of play and allow it to renew our spirit at deeper levels.

Conclusion

It's not much of stretch to say that our lives depend on play. 

The more we work, the more we need to play. It renews our spirit.

Spirit-Centered Sleeping: On Sleeping Well

In an excellent WebMD article, Camille Peri summarizes recent research on ten consequences of inadequate sleep:

1. Sleepiness causes accidents

2. Sleep loss dumbs you down 

3. Sleep deprivation can lead to serious health problems

4. Lack of sleep kills sex drive

5. Sleepiness is depressing

6. Lack of sleep ages your skin

7. Sleepiness makes you forgetful

8. Losing sleep can make you gain weight

9. Lack of sleep may increase risk of death

10. Sleep loss impairs judgment, especially about sleep

You can read the entire article by clicking on the link below.

Her article illustrates that sleeping well is essential to our health and well-being. It's essential to staying alive. Since our spirit is that which makes us alive, sleeping is a spirit-related matter.

So, we do well to assess how much we value sleeping well. How much we value sleeping well is a reflection of how much we value our own spirit and life. 

We also do well to assess how well we are sleeping. If we aren't sleeping well and want to do better, there is a lot of excellent research and information published about various things we can do to improve our sleep, heal and strengthen our spirits, and improve the quality of our lives. 

Sleeping well is a very individualized thing. It takes trying different things to find out what works best for us. So, enjoy the process of discovery. 

And be assured of this: you do not have to buy anything to improve your sleep.

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/10-results-sleep-loss?page=1

Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 4: Awareness

Once we've tried the basic spirit-centered breathing experiments, we have taken our first steps to no longer taking the air we breathe for granted.

Again, since we have to breathe to stay alive and spirit is that which makes us alive, breathing is a spirit-related matter. So is the quality of the air we breathe.

Our Homes

Wherever you are take note of the quality of the air you breathe. Often the air in our home is more polluted than the air outside. What chemicals and gasses affect the quality of air you breathe in your home? What can you do to reduce indoor pollution and improve it's quality? 

Simply switching from chemical-based cleaning products to vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and hydrogen peroxide can help. Adding air-cleaning in-door plants also helps. And, depending on where you live, opening the windows occasionally to let in cleaner outdoor air can help as well. 

Traveling

When you are walking, riding a bike, driving a car, taking public transportation, or flying take note of the quality of the air you breathe. Is it fresh and clean? Can you take alternative means of transportation or routes where you can avoid combustion engine exhaust and breathe cleaner, fresher air?

Our Destinations

When you arrive at your destination- office, factory, store, restaurant, someone else's home, a park, a hotel- what is the quality of air? How does it affect your spirit? Is the air helpful or harmful for you to breathe?

Conclusion

Unfortunately, in the highly industrialized West, much of the air we breath is polluted. Improving its quality begins with a heightened awareness of how essential clean, fresh air is to our health and well-being and the health and well-being of all the living.

Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 3: Aromas

The breathe of life we breathe is often aromatic. Flowers, coffee, soap, recently cut grass, smoke from a chimney, steaks being grilled, freshly baked bread, cookies right out of the oven, perfumes and colognes, body odors, bathroom and liter box smells, chemicals, car exhaust, and a decaying carcass are just a few things that might scent the air we breathe on any given day.  

Have you noticed that it is when they change that we become aware of the aromas in the air we breathe?

Three Experiments to Try

Experiment 1 : When you become aware that the aroma of the air you're breathing changes, pause.

Focus on the core of your being, your heart, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. Breathe the aroma into your heart, hold, and breathe out. Repeat at least three times. 

What do you feel in your heart? How does the aroma in the air you breathe affect your spirit?

Experiment 2: Buy some dried white sage leaves, a small smudge bundle. You'll also need something to safely burn it in and some matches or a lighter.

Before you burn the sage, focus on your heart, the core of your being, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. Breathe into your heart and breathe out a few times. Take note of how your heart feels.

While focusing on your heart and breathing in and out, light the sage, let it burn for a bit, then blow out the flame.

Still focusing on your heart, breathe in the smoke of the sage, just enough so as not to be uncomfortable, and breathe out. Do this for several minutes and be mindful of any changes in your spirit.

What did you notice? Did your spirit change or remain the same? If it changed, how so?

Experiment 3: Buy one bottle each of the following high quality, pure, organic, therapeutic grade essential oils: lavender, peppermint, and lemon. Wait until after the following experiment to learn what all you can do with these oils.

Place the oils in front of you. Focus on your heart, the core of your being, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. Breathe into your heart and breathe out a few times. Take note of how your heart feels.

Open the lemon essential oil, put one or two drops in the palm of your hand, put the cap back on the bottle, and rub your palms together. Lift your palms up to your nose and breathe the aroma into your heart. Rub your palms together again and breathe in the aroma into your heart again. Repeat as many time as you like.

Focus on your spirit. Does it feel different than before smelling the lemon essential oil? If so, how so? How would you describe its effect on your spirit?

Do the same exercise with the lavender, then the peppermint oil.

Afterwards, learn what all you can use these essential oils for. Notice if you experienced for yourself what you learn from reading about the oils.

Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 2: Wind, Breath, and Spirit

Thumos and spiritus the Ancient Greek and Roman words for spirit (that which makes alive) also referred to both wind and breath. The exercise that follows explores the connection between wind, breath, and spirit.

Go outside. Find a place to walk, sit or stand where you will not be interrupted.

Notice the wind. See and hear it rustling the leaves of the trees. It makes them alive. 

Feel the wind touching your face. How does it feel?

How would you describe the wind? Gentle or harsh? Hot, warm, cool, or cold? Humid or dry? Give it a personality. In Western culture, the four winds of the four directions are considered male spirits. Does the wind you feel, feel like a male?

Focus on the core of your being, your heart, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. Breathe into and out of your heart. Notice how your heart feels. Without forming an opinion about how you feel, just feel what you feel.

Breathe in and fill your lungs with the wind. Breathe out. Continue breathing in the wind and breathing out. Continue breathing the wind into your heart for as long as feels right to you.

How do you feel after breathing the wind into your heart? Do you feel the same or different than before you breathed in the wind? Do you feel more like how you described the wind or not? 

Whenever you have the opportunity, practice this exercise with different types and wind and see what happens.

Spirit-Centered Breathing, Part 1

Introduction

We can live three weeks without food, three days without water, and only three minutes without air. To stay alive we have to breathe. Since spirit is that which makes us alive, breathing is a spirit-related matter.

We do not just need air to breathe in order to stay alive, we need clean, fresh air. Breathing clean, fresh air sustains our spirit, life, health, and well-being. Breathing polluted air weakens our spirit, reduces our quality of life, causes disease, and quickens death.

And yet, it is so easy for us to be mindless of breathing and the quality of the air we breathe. It is so easy for us to take for granted the air that is essential to our lives and the lives of others. Worst of all, it is easy for us to take for granted polluting the air we breathe, as if polluting the air we breathe is just a natural part of life. It isn't.

An Exercise in Spirit-Centered Breathing

Try this: If you live in or near a city, pick a high traffic time, and find a place to walk or sit near the traffic. Focus on your heart (not the organ, the core of your being), the center of your chest, behind your breast bone and between your breasts. This is where our spirit resides. 

Breathe in through your nose, breathe out, and take note of how you feel in your heart. 

Still focusing on your heart, continue breathing in and out through your nose. Take note of what you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. Take note of how you feel in your heart. Suspend forming an opinion about how you feel, just feel how you feel and remember it.

Next, take sometime to go to a highly wooded area during late spring or summer when there are lots of green leaves on the trees. Repeat the exercise you did in the high traffic area. Focus on your heart. Breathe. Take note of all of your sense perceptions and how you feel in your spirit. 

Compare and contrast the high traffic experience with the highly wooded experience. What was similar? What was different? Which feels more life-affirming in your heart?

Spirit-Centered Drinking, Part 4: Effect on Others

What effect does our drinking have on the spirits of others? Does it unnecessarily devalue, diminish, and deny the spirits and lives of others or does it help care for, support, and affirm their spirits and lives?  

Asking ourselves these questions might lead us to see that we can easily take for granted what we drink. We can drink mindless of the effect on others.

Asking these questions can lead us to understand that they are not easy questions to answer. Asking them can also inspire us to wonder and ask more questions.

I find it helpful to be specific. What effect does drinking this bottle of water have on others? My answers to this question differ from the ones I ask about drinking this cup of coffee, this cup of tea, and that shot of scotch.

Such questions can lead to me asking, "Where did this drink come from and how did it get to me?"

If I'm drinking bottled water, I can become aware of where it came from and how it got to me. When I do this I am amazed by the complex industrial matrix with which I connect when I take a sip from the bottle of water I hold in my hand. 

After I become aware of the matrix I'm in,  I can reflect on whether or not I want to remain in it or opt out for something more life-affirming for myself and others. If I choose to opt out, I can then explore my alternatives for the best life-affirming choice available to me at the time and take steps in that direction.

Spirit-Centered Drinking, Part 3: The Spirit of What We Drink

Why do we call alcoholic drinks "spirits"? Perhaps because they are spirited?

In my view, everything we drink is spirited, the question is how? How spirited is it- a lot, a little? How is it spirited in terms of its qualities? Is it mild or strong; sweet, salty, sour, or bitter; cold, cool, warm, or hot; healthy or not; or health-giving or not?

Try this: Before you take a sip of whatever it is you're about to drink, focus on the center of your chest, your heart. Breathe in, breathe out. When you breathe out open and extend your spirit to what you're going to drink. Connect with it, spirit to spirit.

Now take a sip, hold it in your mouth, and from your heart, with your spirit, attend to the spirit of what you're drinking. Do this with each sip.

What do you become aware of? What do you feel? How would you describe the spirit of what you're drinking? How spirited is it? Is it a good spirit for you to drink into yourself?

Spirit-Centered Drinking, Part 2

Spirit-centered drinking is drinking mindful of our own spirit, the spirit of what we drink, and the spirits of others. 

Here is an exercise: Before you drink water, coffee, fruit juice, tea, beer, wine, scotch, or anything else check your spirit. Focus your attention on the center of your chest, breathe in, breathe out. How is your spirit? How does it feel? How animated is your spirit? Is it warm or cold? How would you describe it? After you have a good sense of your spirit, take the next step.

Drink. Take a sip. Hold it in your mouth and taste what you're drinking. Swallow. Notice how it feels flowing down your throat.

Now, attend to your spirit again. Focus again on the center of your chest. Breathe in, breathe out. How is your spirit now? How does it feel? Has it changed? How?

Take another sip and repeat. Hold it in your mouth and taste what you're drinking. Swallow. Feel it flowing down your throat.

Attend to your spirit, the center of your chest. How does it feel now?

Repeat the steps above until you finish your drink.

Spirit-Centered Drinking, Part 1

Since spirit is that which makes us alive and we must drink water to stay alive, drinking water is a spirit-related matter.

Fresh, clean drinking water is the water of life.

Isn't it interesting that we often take for granted something so essential to life as water?

According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, our brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and our lungs are about 83% water. Our skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even our bones are watery: 31%.

Here is a link to a page of facts about the water on which our lives depend:

 http://www.waterbenefitshealth.com/water-pollution-facts.html

How did we get to the point in Western culture of treating the water of life with such little care and respect?

How did we get to this place where we so recklessly pollute the water on which our lives depend  as well as the lives of all other living beings?

Who talked us into giving up our personal responsibility as well as other's responsibility for maintaining the highest quality of the water on which our lives depend?

More importantly, how long are we going to keep polluting the water on which life depends?

At what point will we stop the life-denying practices that pollute our water and threaten all the living?

These are just some of the questions I ask to set the table for talking about spirit-centered drinking of water.

My next few posts will present some practices by which we individually and collectively can make a meaningful difference in how we take care of the water on which we all depend, the water of life. 

Spirit-Centered Eating, Part 3: The Spirits of Others Affected by Our Eating

Everything we kill and eat is the neighbor, child, sibling, and possibly parent of others. What effect does our killing and eating other living beings have on those to whom they are related? Are we mindful of the effect?

Do we take the killing and eating of plants and animals for granted? If so, why? How did we become so thoughtless about killing and eating other living beings?

How might eating habits change by being mindful of the spirits of others connected with what we kill and eat?

Next time you're about to eat something, pause for a moment.  Consider the effect of your eating on the spirits of others affected by the killing of what you're about to put into your mouth.

The Wisdom of Spirit-Centered Eating

Perhaps there is wisdom in us being mindful of our own spirit as we eat. 

Perhaps there is wisdom in being mindful of the spirits of those we kill and eat.

Perhaps we do well to be mindful of relationships affected by the death of what we eat.

Perhaps we do well to treat with deep respect and honor those we kill and eat. On them our lives depend.

Spirit-Centered Eating, Part 2: The Spirit of Our Food

What about the spirit of what we eat? 

When we kill other living beings in order to eat them, their spirits leave at different speeds. For example, an apple doesn't die as soon as we pick it. Its spirit leaves gradually over time. However, the spirit of a freshly killed chicken leaves quickly.

How spirited are the seeds, roots, stems, leaves, vegetables and fruits we eat? How spirited are the fish, birds, and other animals we eat? Generally speaking, fresh, local, in-season, organic, whole foods are the most spirited. The sooner we preserve the plants animals we kill, the more spirit they retain. However, the more processed plants and animals are, the less spirit they retain. 

Try this: eat a meal of fresh, local, in-season vegetables and eat a meal of the same vegetables from a grocery store's canned vegetables aisle. See if you sense a difference in the spiritedness of the two meals. An even easier test is comparing fresh, free-range, organic chicken eggs with cheaper caged, chemically-treated chicken eggs. Can you sense the difference?

Spirit-Centered Eating, Part 1

This is the first of a three-part series on the practice of spirit-centered eating.

Our spirit is that which makes us alive. To stay alive we must eat. To eat we must kill and take the spirit of what we eat. Eating is a spirit-related matter.

One of the practices of thumotic spirituality is spirit-centered eating. It's being mindful of spirit- our own spirit, the spirit of what we eat, and the spirits of others- while we eat.

Our Own Spirit While Eating

What happens to our own spirit while we eat? Is our spirit nourished, uplifted, and strengthened or is it deprived, brought down, and weakened? 

What about how we prepare, serve, and eat the plants and animals we consume? How do these affect our spirit?

What about the circumstances of eating- the place and the others with whom we eat- how do they affect our spirit?

Simply being mindful of our own spirit while we eat can transform our lives.

Part 2 will be about the spirits of the plants and animals we eat.

Why Practice Thumotic Spirituality?

Thumotic spirituality isn't for everyone.

It isn't for those at home in the status quo of the Western industrialized culture- capitalists and their machine-like factory workers building widgets and providing services in compliance with productivity numbers.

It isn't for those at home in the Western monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in which adherents alienate themselves from non-believers as well as the rest of nature.

Neither is it for those who seek an escape from Western industrialized and monotheistic culture by turning to Eastern religious ways and looking inward.

Thumotic spirituality is for those who can no longer deny the denial of life, destruction, depletion, depression, disease, and death in the wake of the so-called "progress" of Western civilization.

It's for those seeking a life-affirming alternative within Western civilization. 

It's for those who value life, all of life, and want to engage in rather than escape from it. 

It's for those courageous enough to be responsible for their own life in relation with others, blaze their own path out of the Western status quo, and shift the momentum of Western civilization, one person, one step, at a time.

How to be Mindful of the Spirits of Others

The first fundamental exercise is practicing being mindful of our own spirit. The skill we develop from practicing it helps us with the second fundamental exercise: being mindful of the spirits of others.

Purpose

The purpose of this fundamental exercise is to simply connect with others, spirit-to-spirit, with complete openness, full acceptance, and kind curiosity. It's to turn our attention to the spirits of others and calmly hold it there with no expectations of outcomes.

Benefits

This exercise affirms, heals, and strengthens our own spirit, the spirits of others, and our relationships. These benefits increase as we do this exercise on a regular basis over time.

Resources

As with the first fundamental exercise, we need nothing special to do this exercise. We do not have to do this exercise at a predetermined time. We can do it anytime we choose. We do not have to go to or create a special place. We can do this exercise anywhere we choose. We do not have to learn to sit a special way or do anything out of the ordinary with our legs, hands, or posture. Any posture is fine. There is nothing to buy- no books, special clothing, jewelry, images, or paraphernalia. We already have everything we need to do this exercise.

What to Do

As with the first exercise, remember, in thumotic spirituality we understand spirit in terms of the Ancient Greek concept of thumos. Our thumos, our spirit, is quasi-physical. It is located in the center of our chest, behind our breast bone and between our breasts. We often call it our heart. 

Start by focussing your attention there, in your heart. That's where your spirit resides. Become aware of your own spirit before connecting spirit-to-spirit with another.

Smile and breathe into your heart. When you breathe out smile and imagine, think about, and feel your heart opening and your spirit reaching out to the one with whom you want to connect.

When you breathe in let your spirit stay connected with the other and attend to the connection of your two spirits. Let information from the other flow in. If the other chooses not to connect, that's okay. This is not about forcing unwelcome connections.

When you do connect, form no opinions, just be together, connected, spirit-to-spirit. Take note of but let thoughts, mental images, physical sensations, and emotions come, stay awhile and go. 

Continue for as long as feels right.

Some Spirit-to-Spirit Connections to Play With

Now that you know how  to connect spirit-to-spirit with others, here are some suggestions for things to try. 

Entertain the idea that everything that moves is spirited and alive. Physicists have been reporting for quite some time that everything is in constant motion. Everything is moving. Take that one more step: everything is spirited, alive.

Try connecting spirit-to-spirit with others besides humans. If you have pets, try connecting with them. Try connecting with plants in your home and outside. Try connecting with trees. Hugging is optional.

Find an interesting rock or gem stone and connect with it. Be open to whatever you experience. It's okay if you experience nothing interesting at all.

Experiment with connecting with a stream, creek, river, waterfall, lake, or ocean.

Try connecting with the wind you feel on your face and in your hair.

Mountains, valleys and other land forms can also be interesting to connect with.

Finally, try to connect with Sun and Moon. 

What do you experience? How do they feel to you? How does it feel to connect spirit-to-spirit? What did you learn? 

Add practicing this fundamental exercise to your day, develop you skill, and see where it takes you.

In upcoming posts, I'll share additional practices to try. 

How to be Mindful of Our Own Spirit

Purpose

The purpose of this fundamental exercise is to simply be with our own spirit with complete openness, full acceptance, and kind curiosity. It's to turn our attention to our own spirit and calmly hold it there with no expectations of outcomes.

Benefits

This exercise affirms, heals, and strengthens our spirit. These benefits increase as we do this exercise on a regular basis over time. 

Resources Needed

We need nothing special to do this exercise. We do not have to do this exercise at a predetermined time. We can do it anytime we choose. We do not have to go to or create a special place. We can do this exercise anywhere we choose. We do not have to learn to sit a special way or do anything out of the ordinary with our legs, hands, or posture. Any posture is fine. There is nothing to buy- no books, special clothing, jewelry, images, or paraphernalia. We already have everything we need to do this exercise. 

What to Do

Remember, in thumotic spirituality we understand spirit in terms of the Ancient Greek concept of thumos. Our thumos, spirit, is quasi-physical. It is located in the center of our chest, behind our breast bone and between our breasts. We often call it our heart. 

Focus your attention there, in the center of your chest, your heart. That's where your spirit resides.

If it helps to close your eyes, close them.

If it helps to put one or both hands over your heart, do so.

If it helps, imagine breathing into and out of your heart when you inhale and exhale.

If your mind wanders to other things, simply return your attention to your heart.

Be aware of your heart beat. You might or might not feel increased warmth in your heart. Either is fine.

Take note of the thoughts, mental images, physical sensations, and emotions as they come and go. They might express the life-affirming desires of your heart. But let them come and let them go.

Continue for as long as feels right to you.

When you stop, try setting your intention to take mindfulness of spirit breaks periodically throughout the day.

It's that simple.

In my next post I will describe how to be mindful of the spirits of others.

Basic Spiritual Exercises: An Introduction

Practicing basic spiritual exercises is to living what practicing scales is to making music. Just as practicing scales improves our ability to make music, practicing basic spiritual exercises improves our ability to create the art of spirit-centered lives.

While practicing scales is more like preparing to make music than actually making music, practicing basic spiritual exercises is not preparing for spirit-centered living. It is spirit-centered living.

The basic exercises I share with you are those that are helpful to me. If they're not for everybody, that's okay. Anyone can experiment and create practices that help themselves.

The two fundamental exercises are-

Mindfulness of our own spirit

Mindfulness of the spirit of others

In my next post I will present directions on how to be mindful of our own spirit. 

The Goal of Thumotic Spirituality

The goal of thumotic spirituality is the process of living from our spirit so that we fulfill the life-affirming desires of our heart. As we fulfill the life-affirming desires of our heart, we fulfill the purpose of our life. We become who we are meant to become. 

In thumotic spirituality, the Ancient Greek understanding of thumos informs our understanding of spirit. Our spirit is that which makes us alive. It is quasi-physical. We feel it in the center of our chest. It is associated with our thymus gland. We often call it our heart. It is the seat of our emotions and has its own way of knowing that differs from that of our mind.

The life-affirming desires of our heart show us the purpose of our life. They show us our way. They are our way. As we live from and fulfill the life-affirming desires of our heart, we naturally become who we are meant to become. We naturally do what we're supposed to do. As we fulfill the life-affirming desires of our heart, we naturally fulfill the purpose of our life.

May we be engaged in the meaningful and challenging work of attending to, knowing, and fulfilling the life-affirming desires of our heart.

How Shall We Live?

Earth is our mother. We are her children. By "we" I mean all of us who came from, depend on, and will return to Earth.

Blazing Sun penetrated Earth with his phallic beams and she conceived. From her moist womb she birthed and brought us forth.

Our bodies are our mother's earth and water. Her breath, the wind, is our breath. By her life in us we live.

We humans are the babies among our mother's children. We came last. Everyone else was already here. The other animals were here. The plants were here. So were the rocks. They were the first-born.

All our elder siblings did just fine before we came into the family. If the day of our extinction comes, they will do just fine without us again. On us they do not depend. We depend on all of them for our very lives: Earth, her water and wind. Sun. The plants and animals. All.

Wonder of wonders!

Mystery of mysteries!

We are alive.

Here.

Together.

Now, what kind of children and siblings will we be?

Everything Follows From Being Spirit-Centered

The heart of thumotic spirituality is being centered in spirit, with spirit clearly understood in terms of thumos as "that which makes alive."

When we are spirit-centered we are within all of the other parameters of thumotic spirituality: clearly-defined, nature-focused, empirically-based, life-affirming, and Western-rooted.

When we are spirit-centered, we are mindful of spirit in ourselves and everyone else.

When we are mindful of "that which makes alive", we are mindful of nature and aware that it is alive.

We are mindful of nature by way of our own perceptions, our own experience; that is, empirically, not on the basis of an external authority.

When we are mindful that everything- or better, everyone-is alive, our natural response is to value and respect everyone, every living being. We naturally take life only when it necessary to sustain our own. We naturally take the minimum we need and nothing is wasted. In other words, we affirm, we say "Yes!" to life, our own and that of others.

When we do all of the above, we Westerners are deeply rooted in our own civilization and culture, the civilization of our ancestors, who gave us life, and whose spirits live on is us and those who come after us.

Dear Readers, Thank You!

This blog just passed 10,000 page views. Readership is is growing in the U.S. and other conutries too.

I just wanted to say, "Thank you!" for reading.

It amazes me that anyone found much less read my obscure little blog. I've done nothing at this point to increase my visibiltiy on search engines.

It's remarkable that people in 25 different countries have found this blog and read it.

I have a couple of requests:

1. Please spread the word. Whether you agree or disagree with what I write, if what I write engages you and gives a fresh perspective to consider, please tell others about it so they can read too.

2. Please share your thoughts, questions, comments, challenges,  and examples. I welcome them all. There is much for us to discuss. Discussion helps us develop our own thoughts.

Thanks again for taking the time to read what I'm writing. I appreciate you for doing so.

What is Thumotic Spirituality?

Here is my most recent iteration of what thumotic spirituality is:

Thumotic spirituality is a collection of ideas and practices related to spirit in which spirit is understood in terms of the Ancient Greek concept of thumos.

Thumos is that which makes alive. It's quasi-physical. We feel it in the center of our chest, behind and around our breast bone. We sometimes call this area our heart. It's the core of our being. It's associated with the plant thyme which was carried into battle by Ancient Greek and Roman warrior to fill their spirits with courage and strength. It is also associated with the thymus gland which is located behind the breast bone.

Thumos translates into Latin as spiritus, from which we get the modern English word spirit.   

Spirit, understood as thumos, is at the center of thumotic spirituality.

Rather than a specified set of beliefs and practices to which adherents are expected to conform, thumotic spirituality provides a set of parameters within which practitioners can create their own set of ideas and practices. As long as the ideas and practices fit within the parameters, the spirituality is thumotic.

In other words, thumotic spirituality provides a platform in which the content is "user defined". The parameters of thumotic spirituality are six: 

Thumotic spirituality is-

1. Well-defined rather than ill- or undefined. For example, in thumotic spirituality the words spirit, spiritual, and spirituality are clearly defined with reference to spirit, understood in terms of thumos. Many, if not most, discussions that include the words spirit, spiritual, and spirituality, fail to clearly define the meanings of the words. A shared meaning is often assumed that closer examination shows to be nonexistent.   

2. More spirit-centered than body- or mind-centered. Thumotic spirituality consists of a collection of ideas and practices related to our own spirit and the spirits of other living beings. At its best, it is informed by both thumology and thumotherapy.

3. Nature-focused rather than supernaturally focused. Spirit understood in terms of thumos is natural rather supernatural. It is as natural as our body and mind.

4. Empirically-based rather than faith-based. Since thumotic spirituality is nature-focused, it is based on our own experiences rather than assertions made by others that must be accepted by faith alone.

5. Life-affirming rather than life-denying. Being centered in spirit, that which makes alive, thumotic spirituality is inherently life-affirming. It is pro-life in the fullest rather than political sense of the word. It is for all living beings living their lives fully.

6. Western-rooted. Rather than turning to the religious traditions of Asia, thumotic spirituality goes deep into roots of Western civilization and draws on its own rich history related to spirit understood in terms of thumos, that which makes alive. Even so, it remains open to incorporating ideas and practices from other traditions.

Any collection of ideas and practices within the parameters sketched above is a thumotic spirituality. Indeed, there is not one, there are many interrelated thumotic spiritualities. There are as many thumotic spiritualities as there are practitioners.