Welcome to a five session course of an Introduction to Metapsychiatry. Our first session introduced the idea that we are “spiritual” beings. Here are two quotes from Dr. Hora to help this understanding.
One note: Dr. Hora used the word “Man” to refer to “mankind,” which, of course, includes both men and women. It can be initially disturbing to the “feminist” awareness. I suggest that you put any irritation “up on the shelf” for the moment so that it does not interfere with receiving the wisdom of what is being expressed.
“What is man? Man is a spiritual being. What do we mean by that? When we speak of man as a spiritual being, we are not talking of religion, we are trying to go beyond religion. We are trying to clarify the peculiarity of human consciousness which is capable of becoming aware of invisible factors in life. What are these invisible factors in life which only man is capable of cognizing? Only man is capable of being consciously
aware of love, meaning, truth, life, beauty, goodness, freedom, joy, harmony. Only man is capable of being aware of ideas. This makes man a unique manifestation among all life forms. It is this uniqueness that man is endowed with which makes him an individual spiritual consciousness.”
-Existential Metapsychiatry, pg. 9
“. . .the sculptor Rodin conceived his famous statue “The Thinker” as the centerpiece of his great work, “The Gate of Hell.” Apparently, he was inspired by the same insight as Metapsychiatry about the invalidity and futility of the illusion that man can produce thoughts in his head. Elsewhere we have drawn a comparison between Rodin’s
“The Thinker” and statues of the Buddha. “The Thinker” depicts a tormented human figure, and the Buddha is a serenely majestic model of infinite awareness and compassion. Man is tormented by the illusion that he can produce thoughts in his head. Enlightened man has discovered that he is aware of thoughts which obtain in consciousness. Man
is an individualized unit of awareness. The question is, Can awareness be done?
No.
Then who is it that is aware? And where is awareness located? What is the organ of awareness? The Zen masters say, “Awareness is aware. The thinker and the thought are one. The dreamer and the dream are one.”
The Bible speaks of the soul. Man is a Living Soul. We are hid with Christ in God. It is the soul which has the faculty of spiritual awareness and discernment. Man is a spiritual being. He is an individualized aspect of infinite divine Mind, the creative intelligence underlying all nondimensional reality.”
-Can Meditation Be Done? pg. 4
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You can read more from each of these sections by going to http://www.pagl.org and clicking the image of the “open book” – that will take you to the concordance. I’ve indicated the “word” used to begin the search that brought me to the passages so that you could read more if it interests you.
Nancy,
always good to be reminded that what we are is AWARE.
This week I became aware of the similarity of the spoken word and God (In the beginning was the Word…). Just as God, and our true nature (soul/awareness), is formless, weightless, non-dimensional, so are words. They can not be touched, seen, measured, and sometimes- when words appears as a thought- they cannot even be heard by our ears. Yet look how powerful words (thoughts) are! This helps me understand the reality of the intangible, and marvel at our ability to be aware of spiritual ideas and qualities, and also to be aware of “garbage ideas”. I marvel at our awareness of being aware. It seems that IDEAS are what is eternal and human existence needs word to understand ideas. Am i making sense?
Yes. It is amazing to begin to realize that what we are is non-dimensional and unimaginable, yet knowable. We can be aware of who and what we are, which, as you pointed out, is awareness. Awareness, then, is a faculty of consciousness. ** And, we can know the difference between an expression of what is true (divine ideas/inspirations) and what is not true (mental garbage).
**”Awareness is an event in consciousness that is continually taking place.” -Dr. Hora, “Healing Through Spiritual Awareness”
Nancy,
Three thoughts lingered all week: 1) That each one of us knows that there is a part of us that remains pure and whole, regardless of events and appearances. 2) That we have the ability to become more conscious of that knowledge, and we can make the awareness our stepping off point 3) That even with that perspective its takes courage to face all the flotsam and jetsam and stuff of our lives.