Jane and the Image of Woman

The Key to the Future of Democracy

The Time is Now

Some of us sternly believe that this is not the right time to focus on spiritual matters when what is needed is action in our democracy now. When in fact, making positive changes in the way we see ourselves and others always brings a better perspective of urgent times—and often the very solution. Although never welcomed, such times are actually needed to make such changes. Knowledge of Word (Christ or Truth, depending on our beliefs) speaks to us on this matter, saying, “All discipline for those present seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those having been trained by it, after­wards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

Training for the Moment

In this knowledge, “trained by it” refers to our spiritual senses being trained, the eyes and mind of our heart, often through the discipline of hardship. Such training works according to “mature (experiences with Word in our thoughts) which, by possession (of them in our senses), have our senses trained to discern both beautiful and worthless (things in the world, opening our eyes much more to see what is going on around us).”

We are facing a lot of spiritual hardship ahead, possibly physical also, which is discipline we cannot benefit from spiritually unless we have specific knowledge about the difference between being spiritual children in our thinking and being mature. The result is the peaceable fruit of righteousness, which is the peace that comes from knowing how to love the enemies of conscience (suneidesis)¹ and doing so through whatever hardship that comes into our lives.

The Misperceptions of Jane

To distinguish the difference between being spiritual children in our thinking, not a derogatory inference since we all start here, and being mature, consider the example of a woman, Jane, her real name unimportant, who is struggling with her desire to help others while dealing with personal suffering, unknowingly due to misperception. The first misperception she is suffering from is that she sees herself as a woman, maybe middle-aged, possibly American, and sees all her relationships based on this. That is what her experience tells her, for she knows herself according to “the image of woman”.

Two Creations: Soulish and Spiritual

Whether we look at the Bible’s account of creation symbolically or not, interpreting it with spiritual knowledge shows us that Name (God or Life, depending on our beliefs) created us as living souls, male and female, according to the image of man, implying the image of woman for those of us with a female body.

The second creation was spiritual, based on the image of Word, without gender, enlightening us to who we really are. The first creation was simply to prepare us for the second, the first as living souls with a soulish body,² the second as life-giving spirit with a spiritual body, both, of course, with a physical body of gender.

No Different for the Image of Man

Seeing herself as a living soul, a woman, instead of as life-giving spirit with a female body, Jane suffers from the self-opposition that exists in the image of woman, no different for the image of man. This is the second misperception she suffers from.

Self-Opposition

The gender image of living souls is in self-opposition, for one, because of the obvious illusion of a female/male duality that it creates in our thinking, that is, when we see each other’s true identity as women and men. In contrast, the image of Word is genderless and exists as an individual self-image and collective one in a singularity. For the spiritual body is one of light, not bound by the limits of a single individual as the gender body is.

The Singularity of the Image of Word

Consider the word ethnos in Greek. It means both citizen and nation. The spiritual body of Word consists of us individually and as part of our nations, all nations in the world in their spiritual singularity of light. Therefore, the image of Word serves as an individual, national and world self-image for each of us in our spiritual body as part of Word's whole spiritual body. Consider this in the eyes and mind of your heart, not in any form remotely related to physical bodies and obviously not their gender.

We are warned not to be deceived and led away from “the singularity and purity that are in Christ (Word).” Word's national and world singularities are joined in his (its) spiritual political singularity. There is no self-opposition in this, only the opposition between seeing it with the eyes of our heart and being blind to it.

Jane suffers from self-opposition by being under the image of woman, sometimes seeing things clearly and sometimes not. The only thing lacking on her part is knowledge. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Mother Teresa and the Image of Woman

Did you know that Mother Teresa had grave doubts about God’s existence toward the end of her life? A crisis of faith. With so many people around the world admiring her charity work, it must have affected many in their faith. But like Jane, Mother Teresa's personal conflict was due to the image of woman and nothing else, for religious faith is based on walking with God blindly as a living soul in this image.

None of us should judge anyone for holding on to their faith, religious or not, at the expense of not receiving the image of Word as their real self-image. However, we need to discuss the matter openly to understand what is at stake for us personally and for our democracy, whether or not we are going to use hardship to train our senses and renew our mind to love the enemies of the human suneidesis,³ our greatest hope for a peaceful outcome.

Spirituality and Sexuality

The Eyes of Democracy (Introduction and Index of Articles)

1. Suneidesis is pronounced soon-eye-day-sis. After reading the link explaining it, you will see how central it is to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive in our awareness. When the word conscience is used, it will refer to the aspect of suneidesis that involves right and wrong, but this aspect cannot be separated from our co-conscientious awareness of all things.

If I understand that my awareness of something as simple as a cup includes co-conscientiousness, I do not allow myself to get blinded by the cup alone but know it as part of all creation at the hands of the Creator or the universe, depending on one’s beliefs. Spiritual maturity does this naturally.

2. In our first state, we come into this world as living souls, which means our soul is bound to our body through the breath, forming the soulish body. Everything we experience physically works through our soulish body, from soulish pleasure to soulish suffering.

We amplify the soulish experience with our minds by first thinking that it is evidence of who we are. We then use our minds to engage our soulish body through images and feelings of our physical body, bringing much greater soulish intensity. Intensifying soulish pleasure has no lasting effects nor does soulish suffering.

To be transformed, start with knowledge of who we all truly are, life-giving spirit. Use this knowledge to recognize that soulish pleasure or suffering is not evidence that we are these bodies. But most importantly, in your mind, use images and feelings of who you are as life-giving spirit to shift your soulish pleasure and suffering, joined to your physical body, over to spiritual pleasure and suffering, joined to your spiritual body. This transforms the soulish body of the living soul to the spiritual body of the life-giving spirit.

Our physical body still breathes and experiences the same, as our soul still experiences the same, but our mind is now the pathway for our spiritual body to give us control over our body. As a result, we are healed by Name and can enjoy spiritual pleasure and use spiritual suffering for others in the most effective way.

3. The repetition of suneidesis in these articles is meant to challenge you to consider this dimension in your awareness. Apologies, but it will only be a necessary annoyance until it becomes natural.