What Is Our Spiritual Consciousness

[sparklekaz]

My question is this..

Does our true spirit self have consciousness, and what is that consciousness? What does it do, or what is its purpose, when we are living a physical life?

[alexandrafalcon]

What a wonderful question Kaz!
The beauty of forums is there will be so many different answers posted as so many belief systems see things differently. None are wrong. Just different perspectives.

I myself do not see our spirit as having much of a conciousness beyond our own mind we experience on earth. Our spirit being our connection to the earth and our personality and memories...basically our spirit is what makes us who we are.
But in my belief our soul is completely different. I believe our soul's conciousness is connected to the source, God, our creator.
I believe that is we could "see" or "hear" through our soul, we could see and hear what the source thinks, feels and does and the thoughts and actions of all living things universally at once.
I believe we are all of the whole, the source, so are all connected energetically and conciously.

[Floraloak]

Spirit and Soul are often terms that are used interchangeably. Yet in some cultures and religions they are spelled out as two different aspects.

The way I see it… Spirit is that piece of God within us all; it is our direct connection to God… the word Namaste says it beautifully…’The God in me acknowledges the God in you.’ To me the spirit IS consciousness. It is this part of us that is aware of all things… just as God knows all, our spirit does too as our spirit is part of God… spirit is our connection.

Now the soul in my view, simply houses the spirit, much like a hand (spirit) in a glove (soul). It is the soul that keeps our connection to God pure and sound. The soul records all that we go through in our physical incarnation(s). It holds our past lives memories; as well as this life’s memories. The soul is also what many refer to as our higher self… it is the soul that deals with the ‘ego’ in some cases wrestles with the ego… lol. Does the soul have consciousness? Yes it does…because it carries the spirit… it carries consciousness itself.

Now having said all that… takes me to a question many ask at some point or other… do animals have consciousness? I’d say … yes they do… they have spirit (that connection to God) without it there’s no life. Do animals have souls? Again, I’d say yes they do… like ours… Their souls house the spirit; hold memories, etc. as do our souls… the difference between animals and us I’d say is the ‘ego’…

So now I’ll bring the ego into this… The ego is the ‘free will’ component of our makeup. However, to have free will it would be cheating to know ‘all’ in advance… so it is the soul that masks over the consciousness… in order to give the ego ‘free will’. During our physical existence it is our ego that we see the reality that we create and we continue to create it with our choices (our free will)… now if the ego does not (unconsciously) connect /listen to the soul… then the ego makes choices purely on what the intellectual (physical) mind has experienced…and life becomes very difficult… the soul and therefore spirit are held in the heart not in the mind… so for all three to work together for optimal life experience the mind (where ego is housed) and the heart (soul/spirit) must connect and learn to work together…

Now I have a thought for you all… I say that it is ego that has no consciousness… it is the ego that is unconscious… it is like those dreams where we are both the dreamer (taking part in the dream) and the observer… the consciousness is in the observer… not the dreamer… the part of you that is taking part in the dream is doing just that... going through the motions… while the part of you observing what you’re doing in the dream is very conscious of the fact that you are dreaming…. So are we truly as conscious as we think we are?

Anyway, enough of my rambling…
God bless,
Silvia

[elrick]

My apperception of the soul, mind and spirit resonates pretty much with some of the members contributing to this topic.

The way I see it, material mind is the arena in which human personalities live, are self-conscious, make decisions, choose God or forsake him, eternalize or destroy themselves. Material evolution has provided us a life machine, our body; God (or The First Source) himself has endowed us with the purest spirit reality known in the universe, your Spiritual Self.

The human personality is identified with mind and spirit held together in functional relationship by life in a material body. This functioning relationship of such mind and spirit, as I understand it, does not result in some combination of the qualities or attributes of mind and spirit but rather in an entirely new, original, and unique universe value of potentially eternal endurance, the soul.

The relationship between material mind and divine spirit, connotes a value and carries a meaning not found in either of the contributing factors to such an association. The reality of this unique relationship is neither material nor mindal but spiritual. It is the soul.

Both the human mind and the Spiritual Self are conscious of the presence and differential nature of the evolving soul -- the Spiritual Self fully, the mind partially. The soul becomes increasingly conscious of both the mind and the Spiritual Self as associated identities, proportional to its own evolutionary growth. The soul partakes of the qualities of both the human mind and the divine spirit but persistently evolves toward augmentation of spirit control and divine dominance through the fostering of a mind function whose meanings seek to co-ordinate with true spirit value.

Mortal mind seems to be a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings for use during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence. Mind is about all you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and your Spiritual Self will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions which the mortal self is making.

Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-energy system above. Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of which he is conscious. And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification. It is not so much that man is conscious of God as that man yearns for God that results in spiritual ascension. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity.

Mind is the cosmic instrument on which the human will can play the discords of destruction, or upon which this same human will can bring forth the exquisite melodies of God identification and consequent eternal survival. The Spirit bestowed upon man is, in the last analysis, impervious to evil and incapable of sin, but mortal mind can actually be twisted, distorted, and rendered evil and ugly by the sinful machinations of a perverse and self-seeking human will. Likewise can this mind be made noble, beautiful, true, and good -- actually great -- in accordance with the spirit-illuminated will of a God-knowing human being.

But man does not passively, slavishly, surrender his will to the Spiritual Self. Rather does he actively, positively, and co-operatively choose to follow the Spiritual Self's leading when and as such leading consciously differs from the desires and impulses of the natural mortal mind. The Spiritual Self manipulate but never dominate man's mind against his will; to the Spiritual Self the human will is supreme. And they so regard and respect it while they strive to achieve the spiritual goals of thought adjustment and character transformation in the almost limitless arena of the evolving human intellect.

Mind is your ship, the Spiritual Self is your pilot, the human will is captain. The master of the mortal vessel should have the wisdom to trust the divine pilot to guide the ascending soul into the spiritual harbors of eternal survival. Only by selfishness, slothfulness, and sinfulness can the will of man reject the guidance of such a loving pilot and eventually wreck the mortal career upon the evil shoals of rejected mercy and upon the rocks of embraced sin. With your consent, this faithful pilot will safely carry you across the barriers of time and the handicaps of space to the very source of the divine mind.

In so far as man's evolving spiritual soul becomes permeated by truth, beauty, and goodness as the value-realization of God-consciousness, such a resultant being becomes indestructible. If there is no survival of eternal values in the evolving soul of man, then mortal existence is without meaning, and life itself is a tragic illusion. But it is forever true: What you begin in time you will assuredly finish in eternity -- if it is worth finishing. This is my understanding on the definition of mind, soul and spirit as I experience it.

[lindae333]

There is a big difference between personal aspiration and divine inspiration..


Linda