Are you spiritual. Do you discount the existance of a spirit? Do spirits exist? What the heck am I talking about?
Well, a great source of contentious conflict and argument is the nature of spirituality, how it is applied to our lives and whether or not a spirit exists. Before you can even approach how to live and pursue a spiritual life you have to acknowledge the existance of a spirit, otherwise what's the point, really?
Well, first, the word spirit exists. Spirit comes from latin word "spiritus" that literally means "breath", and also is used to represent abstract concepts such as "courage", "soul", and "vigor". The word in greek is "anima", in Chinese is "chi", in Japanese is "ki". So, since the word exists in mulitple cultures then it defines something. That the word itself exists in many different languages should be enough evidence, in my opinion, that the thing exists.
However, there are some really stubborn people in the world who are very skeptical and have a pretty self-righteous attitude towards what should and shouldn't be accepted as real. While I agree you should be careful what you believe and really study it enough to confirm it is reasonable, I don't condone being a paranoid consipiracy theorists that questions the very nature of everything and denies anything is real. That's a pretty counterproductive attitude when it comes to getting anything productive done in the grand scheme of things.
Spirit is one of three components of being human, of being you as an individual, in many different cultural perspectives. The three components of a person is body, mind and spirit. The good news is we live in such a technologically advanced time that some really good illustrations are available to us to conceptualize two of these three ideas.
I'm going to use a computer to illustrate the idea of body, mind, and then to show how spirit is what makes us human compared to a computer.
A computer has a body, all the physical componenents that make the computer exist and function as a computer. All the circuits, power, case, etc... that all combine that allow a computer to function as a computer; including the software. The human body is like all the physical components of the computer. If significant parts of the computer are missing then it can no longer function as a computer. If significant parts of the human body is missing then it can no longer sustain life and function as a human being.
The computer, coincidentally, can be used to illustrate the mind. All the functions of software that access the parts of the computer in order to store, retrieve, and use information are like the human mind. The human mind, the brain, stores information and retrieves it for use when required. All the peripherals of the computer used to interact with that function (keyboard, mouse, modem, etc.) are the same as human senses (sight, touch, hearing, taste, etc.)
So, body and mind are present in the computer. What makes a computer, no matter how advanced than a human in capabilities, different than a human? A computer can do nothing without external influence and input. There is no self-directing energy expended in a computer without some direction from an outside force.
In the human, all of us experience a whole range of motivations and thoughts that are not dependent on outside forces. We react, surely, to outside forces but we are not restricted to sitting idle waiting for something outside of ourselves to compel us to act. If we get bored, we seek stimulation.
Also we contemplate some very useless information for no particular reason. Rene Descartes justified existance by stating "I think therefore I am." meaning that the very act of contemplating existance indicates you are in fact existing. I would expand upon his concept and apply it to the existance of a spirit, saying "I think about things outside of my immediate senses and needs, therefore a spirit exists."
A computer, with no spirit, can do nothing with its capabilities until acted upon by an outside force. A human sitting idle can contemplate things outside of their environment or suddenly spring to action towards some goal without any external motivation. That is the spirit. That is the difference between humans and computers that illustrates and supports the existance of a spirit.
In the modern world, a lot is understood about the body and a lot understood about the mind, but there is very little understood about the spirit. This is because both body and mind present a lot more opportunities for experimentation and manipulation and the behavior of both can be measured and catalogued. With the spirit, it is a mystery because it is an internal process outside of our limited capabilities under our current conditions to manipulate and observe. Just because we are unable to come up with a way to measure the spirit doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it merely means we are very limited in our ability to understand its nature.
Once you establish and believe in the existance of a spirit, then it becomes very important for you to then explore the nature of spirit in your own experience of life. To ignore or discount the existance of spirit is to neglect at the very least 1/3 of what makes you human and seperates you from the nature of machines.
If you still fail to find spirit relevant then I ask you this last question. What is stress? Stress causes damage to the body and the mind, which is medical and psychological fact supported by scientific research and evidence. But what is it and where does it come from?
A computer experiences no distress, no stress, from being used to perform any function. A computer experiences wear and tear from use, abuse, or overuse but doesn't start destroying itself over some internal conflict in regards to what use it is being put. If a computer, which is functionally identical to mind and body experiences no stress then stress must come from the spirit.
If you ignore the existance of the spirit but experience stress then there will be no real resolution to your stress. Pharmaceuticals can shut down the parts of the body that respond to stress but cannot resolve the spiritual issue that is causing the stress to manifest. You can endeavor to change the way you think about things and this will reduce your stress, but I wonder if this is good because are you changing the very nature of who you are to avoid stress? Is that the best strategy in the long term? Who knows.
Think about it, and think hard. Once you accept that spirit exists then it becomes a serious concern and needs some thought on what to do in order to understand the nature of your spirit and how it works with the rest of you.
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