THE MEANING OF SPIRIT, SOUL, MINDFULNESS,AND SACRED.
The experience of ‘spirit’ has a neurological origin we understand – as does ‘soul’, and as does ‘mindfulness’, and ‘sacred’. We know the ‘meaning’ of these terms and why humans have those instincts (intuitions) and needs (mindfulness).
Humans have invented a whole series of method of achieving mindfulness, satisfying spirit and soul and the need for the sacred. We are just overly ‘saturated’ in the european christian and semitic religious framework instead of say the pre-chistian greco-roman, or the chinese confucian, or japanese ancestor worship.
All of these are due to the human debt response (risk), and alienation (being left behind) response. Mindfulness (suppression of neuroticism) must be produced to overcome it as populations increase. It can be done by ritual, private or public, and usually through recitation. But effectively it’s training self regulation in pursuit of mindfulness, so that the spirit (intuition) is calm and confident, and the soul (record of rights and wrongs) do not agitate the spirit.
The meaning of sacred is that we may not aggress against, impose upon, criticize or ridicule, use or abuse that which is sacred (without univeral punishment for doing so) – meaning we have no right to self satisfaction or expression in relation to the sacred. And this confidence in the absence of self interst creates the sacred, and the sacred provokes the spirit, and mindfulness out of habituation and indoctrination.
Most means of minfulness achieve their ends by repetitiously training us into non-aggression, norms and traditions(systems of measurement), and tolerance for those sharing the same systems of measurement, thereby reducing opporutnities for conflict,aggression, and most especially retaliation – and the danger to all peoples of any scale of retaliation cyles, and worse, expanding retaliation cycles that lead to civil disturbance and civil war.
The hard part is coming up with a means of mindfulness that satisfies the masculine and feminine mind, whether child, young adult, adult, or mature in age. And the harder part is coming up with something that isn’t false. Especially when we desire falsehood, magical thinking, and escape from the physical (scarcity), behavioral(self interest), and evolutionary (differences, natural selection).
The greeks did it with stoicism. The chinese with confucianism. The Japanese with ancestor worship. The indians, and the middle east did it with organized religion. The africans with magical religion. Of these the greek is the least false and most scientific – but also most masculine. Because it maximizes individual responsibilty for one’s mind. HOwever, women evade responsibilty for their minds, and so to a small minority of men. And these people appear to need something ‘magical’ or social as an external force to produce self reguation that they can’t themselves.
It’s just dog training for humans really.
And it works.
Cheers
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