Body and Soul

(fatherdavidbirdosb)

"You don't have a soul; you are a soul.

You have a body."

C. S. Lewis

I was at a religious service this morning

that was wholly based upon the above quote.

And I can't agree with it more.

And I just had to post it here.

Those of you who have waded through

some of my past entries, may recall what I've said about our bodies

as our avatars, in the very same sense that humans slipped into other wordly

skin in the film Avatar.  

And that is, 

fundamentally,

what Lewis is saying above.

Specifically, it reminds me of something that I,

Makropoulos,

wrote in a much earlier entry on Second Life:

"You see, I feel that I'm already

in an avatar. 

This body,

I live in,

is my earthly

avatar,

it's the form I chose

to use for 

this stretch of time

on this earthly domain.

I have enough trouble,

and enough fun,

negotiating this earthly

avatar,

why the hell would I need another?"

(Who Needs A Second Life?)

 And I really believe this is true.

We are spiritual essences,

sent to spend a little time

in the material domain.

We're sort of sent on a mission,

the same way the humans were sent on missions

in the film Avatar.

This is why I thought that film

was pretty fabulous,

but also pretty funny,

because it had humans

getting into another form

so they could return to the garden,

so to speak. 

(I write about that elsewhere, too.  Please follow links

to the word "avatar" on the side or below

if you want to see more

of my rambling thoughts

on this.)

The humour of it all is two-fold:

#1: I really believe we are already in avatars,  Our avatar

is a human body.  My cat's avatar is a feline body.  But we are all 

part of the same shared spirit that is our origin.  (So why the hell put on 

another avatar, if you're already in one?)

#2:  Notably, when we were put into these human avatars,

we were already in The Garden. The problem is:

we got caught up in thinking that The Garden,

and Our Bodies (aka: Avatars) constitute Everything,

when in fact they're just constituents of a Larger Whole

(that no human could perceive.)  But of course

we as Humans

have fucked up our Earthly Paradise so much

thinking that we were the Be-All and End-All,

and so now we make movies about 

putting on primitive avatars

so we can live in The Garden,

again.

 ~ ~

"You don't have a soul; you are a soul.

You have a body."

C. S. Lewis

 

~ ~

At church (OK, yes, it was a church,

to be specific:

a Unitarian Universalist Church

)

this morning,

they welcomed a new child

into the assembly.

Now, as a 425 year old Greek Woman;

I was raised in a Christian Tradition,

being born into the Orthodox --

I have moved around,

from country to country,

and in each one, sought the Church

where I could celebrate my personal beliefs

publically, and comfortably:

I was only Orthodox until I discovered the Jesuits,

and then I had to become Roman.

I longed to be

a Jesuit Priest.

No, not a nun,

a priest.  I could tolerate not being able to marry

if I could think the thoughts of a priest.

When I told any Jesuit Priest my desires, they would always draw away in fear)

I was Roman Catholic for Centuries.

Then I married an Englishman and went Anglican;

then I lived in Turkey and contemplated Islam.

It did not frighten me.

In many ways, the study of Kabbalah and the Sufi tradition best

acknowledge my personal beliefs.

But for now, I'm trying Unitarianism,

occasionally visiting a Sufi group

nearby --)

Today, I witnessed for the second time only,

a Unitarian "baptism"

Yes, they use water,

but not in any startling way:

the Minister holds a white rose,

and presents it to the child

before dipping it into the water,

and touching it to the child's head.

Today,

as the Minister held the rose

out towards the baby boy,

the child reached out,

and grabbed the stem of the rose firmly.

He clearly knew it was for him.

And the Minister,

wisely,

said: "may you grab every opportunity life gives you

with equal energy and certainty."

And I thought:

that Child will, for

that Child's will 

is ingrained in

his Soul (Soul aka; Spiritual Essence),

that Substance that Combined

and entered

His Chubby Fleshy Avatar

is a bold one.

That is who he is.

Which reminded me

of another belief

that I firmly hold:

we are each our Essential Self

at the time of our birth,

and as children,

we act out our truthfulness

in every gesture and sound we make.

It is the Process

of becoming part of society

that messes us up,

beginning

with loving,

with parenting,

then schooling,

then friending,

then loving,

then working,

then hating,

then mating, 

then loving,

then reproducing,

then loving,

then playing,

then aging.

The soul inside of you,

the Spiritual Essence that is 

the Real You

(not to be confused with your body,

which is rather randomly chosen)

is the child in you.

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (The Bible. Matthew 18:3 ).New Living Translation (©2007)

The Child in Me is Gentle;

the Child

in Me is Quiet

and Kind.

I had not encountered her

for a long time,

until a few years ago,

when I fell

childishly in love

with a man who

 appeared to do the same

with me.

But it was

a beautiful love

partly because it helped me rediscover

the Child in Me; I was

wholly and fully

myself

with him,

and I could not figure out

why I hadn't found My Inner Child before,

since I'd been there all along.

It was the simplest thing in the world,

yet it was the hardest.  Because society

would belittle, and does belittle, the 

Common Sense of The Child.

But in fact, 

the Common Sense of The Child

is equal to

the Common Sense of the Essential Spirit.

So,

to return to one's childishness

is to return

to one's Essential Self,

the Self

we were meant to be

in The Garden,

before we went and messed it all up.

 ( dailymail )

It's that easy:

find the Child in You,

and be True 

to it.

But it's also very very hard:

for to find 

The Child in You,

you must be able to distinguish Who

You were before

a parent first called you "stupid"

or told you not to pick your nose,

or reprimanded you for talking to loud,

or for chewing with your mouth

open.

That's right:

you must find the You

you were before

someone broke your heart the first time,

or lied to you,

or yelled at you for picking their flowers,

or raped you

or beat you

or didn't feed you

or locked you in a room.

I found my Essential Me,

My Child,

and Shared My Childish Love

with one who I thought felt the same

in return.

Unfortunately,

my lover

grew jealous and angry

and worked very hard

to hurt Me,

and succeeded.

(Yes, he acted like a child.)

And now my Child cowers

behind a door in my Heart,

afraid to come out again.

Any human who has had that experience

I describe above

has trouble finding their Child;

and if Your Child 

has been hurt many many times,

it is hiding even deeper inside of you

as a child would do.

But it's still there.

(And don't forget--

this Child is the Essential You,

the Spiritual You

that moved into your body

at birth)

Am I still angry at my lover?

No.

Only hurt.

Deeply hurt.

I don't blame him,

because I really believe

that the only way his 

Inner Child could Justify

hurting another Child

would be because he was

hurt so so much as a child.

He was abused

as no child should have been 

abused,

and in his knowledge

that the abuse he received

was unjustified, he feels a need

to impose it on Other Children,

so he won't feel so much

like a freak.

But he's not a freak.

He's a Child; he's a sad sad spirit

whose fate in this lifetime

was to live in an avatar

that others abuse

continually.

I don't blame him;

I can only love him

still,

and pray for him,

and hope his Inner Child

was not hurt so badly

that it is eternally lost to itself. 

"You don't have a soul; you are a soul.

You have a body."

C. S. Lewis