The Spirit in Matter

The fundamental purpose of our life on earth is to realise God, the exalted point of reality that is the original state of love. The rarity of this must indicate that something is either being overlooked by the many, or that the masters and mystics who’ve declared their oneness with God are charlatans or fools.

The greater the attachment to the physical world of motion and objects, the less sensitive is the perception to the indefinable realm of the spirit. Spiritual energy is transcendental, which means beyond the senses and beyond the capacity of the human mind to process. The mind is an instrument of time and past which connects fragments of existence together to make a convincing mental image of the world. One person’s worldview, although perhaps sharing similar life experiences, concepts and beliefs, differs from another’s. Nobody can know everything about the outer world; but it’s possible to realise the totality of life as self-knowledge in the authentic world of the spirit.

For someone spiritually inclined, the mind as the thinker and reflector of the past represents the greatest obstacle to higher knowledge. In fact the mind is the only barrier to inner freedom. The mind, of course, has its genius and is capable of many wonderful faculties in connection with the practical affairs of living. But when the mind focuses inwardly with the same objective intelligence, it gets the wrong end of the stick and fills in the space with abstract formulations of its own. From these mind-induced interpretations of the psyche arises the religious idea and the innumerable psychic paths to God or the highest truth.

There is a creative process that is continually active every moment. Matter is the meeting point of the intangible substance of reality in sense. Resistance is created by the incoming current of the spirit and the downward stream of the universal energy of outer space (which produces the solid feeling of existence). When the mind is quiescent and receptive to the stillness of inner space, the projection of the world is suspended as an active presence and the resistance is neutralised. While the senses continue to function autonomously, the inner perception ‘travels’ unencumbered deeper within the psyche towards the source of reality. At a specific depth the increasing speed of intelligence merges with consciousness, which is registered as union with an aspect of God.

Each realisation of God, such as beauty, innocence, love or immortality, is perceived as a complete state of being. God realisation at any level is unable to be held as any memorable knowing, but is energetically retained as pure knowledge which is accessible at any moment. It’s the self as the emotional body and mind that realises the truth – not the being. The being remains unchangeable from birth to death since it’s already realised as an agency of the spirit in matter. What is happening in the spiritual process and in everyone’s lives (but mostly unconsciously) is a purification process of the coarse negative energies which attach themselves to the experience of sensual living in the world.

It’s through the deductions of past experience that the mind and emotions manage to create a plausible secondary existence that follows, to a degree, the inner workings of the spirit. But this identification with the formal side of existence in exclusion to the abstract informal side creates a hard and unyielding outer world. Yet when I am responsible as a conscious presence in the body, there is a growing sense that although I am in matter, I am not the matter. Although the experience of living is often hard and a struggle for many, the difficulty is that people get stuck in the matter of their body consciousness. It’s a common expression for someone to say ‘What’s the matter?’ when concerned about another’s wellbeing. When identified with the formal side of existence in exclusion of the invisible side, the flesh begins to calcify and is registered as resistance in the matter. This is the heavy burden that people carry in varying degrees as the weight of the past.

The truth is that I am spirit in matter; but to retain the freedom of being what I am without a position of mind to attach me to the world, I must be vigilant in letting go of existence as any continuity of the last moment. I must practise being conscious in the matter by being alert and attentive to the needs of the situation of life. This only means to enjoy whatever I am doing and not to hold on to any experience by thinking or dwelling on the past. An effective way to break through any resistance in the matter is to give. Giving is the giving up of the selfish inclination to hold back from the full participation in the living process. Everyone has something of value to give to life through the recognition of the privilege of being in existence.

I create my existence anew each moment in the immediacy of now – the recurring instant of eternity. The divine principle in each body is a wise, helpful and loving being. This is beyond the knowledge of the mind while it reflects upon its own creation in the world.

I go further into this subject in my e-book ‘The Call of the Spirit’