Hi Friends.
Hope your day is bright. Mine is
because you allowed me to share your day. My theme today is connections. One way to connect is to post a comment at
the bottom of this blog. Just say Hi.
A very tiny bird repeatedly harassing a
very large hawk, a baby leaning towards its mother and two people talking about
their beliefs are examples of the triad that humans seem to live by. It is frequently referred to as mind, body
and spirit. The tiny bird, who won by
the way, was protecting his home while the hawk wanted food but that day didn’t
particularly care where it came from. The baby is expressing his/her desire for
a connection to the individual who satisfies his/her wants. The two individuals discussing their beliefs
are probably searching for meaning. Maslow expressed this in another way,
through his hierarchy of needs.
I grew up in a scientific world so even
though I am reaching for my connection to the spiritual world in order to share
that connection with others I think in scientific terms. What equation will express not only my
current feelings but the path to success?
I should note here that I am not in any way a scientist.
The first part of the equation is obviously
our brain. I think of our brain as being
a personal government. It handles our
interactions with the world and makes sure that the internal mechanisms are
working. This requires constant input and interpretation of said input.
We also have a second brain located in our
gut which would be the second part of our equation. This brain seems to be primarily concerned
with processing what we provide it, turning it into something useful and
letting the first brain know what it feels about what we are providing. Perhaps
this explains why stress and chocolate are so intimately connected in my life.
Judging by marketing, I suspect this was figured out long before the scientists
wrote papers on it.
For me there is one more item that must be
considered, the soul. The word soul has
many, possibly negative meanings, for people today so let me explain what I
mean by soul. Your soul is that part of
you that causes you to gravitate towards and away from specific things. If you look back at your life, a pattern
becomes obvious. Certain items, types of
people or experiences (or all) keep turning up in your life. You are happiest when you are doing certain
things. I believe that it is the soul
that develops those patterns and reinforces them by rewarding us with positive
feelings. It is also the soul that keeps
us striving for more. A popular
perception of a Buddhist belief is that desire causes suffering. I think that
our soul creates desire. It is our
perception of failure in meeting that desire that causes the suffering. I would like to add here that the scientists
will never find the soul. It is after
all our uniqueness, what makes us special.
You cannot replicate singleness.
So we have one side of the equation: 1st
brain + 2nd brain + soul = what or, if you wish, brain + body +
spirit = ? I choose to think that the
right side of the equation is the total person.
The person that is capable of living at the point of the paradox, the
center of the extremes or Maslow’s self actualized individual. It is not perfection because there is always
somewhere further to go.
Depending on our life circumstances, each
of us focus more on one area than the other. My focus now is not on the individual parts
but on the symbols between them and finally on what is on the right side of the
equation, in other words on the connections between them. It would be nice to know what is on the right
side of the equation but more importantly what does the equal sign stand for?
The birds represent our physical
needs. Like other species we are quite
capable of imposing our will when for some reason we decide that someone is in
the way of what we crave. The baby shows
our necessary connection to other human beings however we define that
requirement. The two people sharing
their beliefs is our soul shining through.
Those are the three primary connections.
There are five concepts which affect all areas of our life but that will be for
another day.
Let your soul send you positive rewards
today.
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