UPDATED SOON
See the Index of Articles for all articles in this series.
The chaos many of us are experiencing due to the new administration puts focusing on higher spiritual needs out of reach.
May you catch your breath, reach into your sublime inner strength, and see that we can rebuild our inner world without having to wait for circumstances to change.
In due time, we will turn ourselves around and attend to spiritual needs in order to attend to physical ones.
Review
As discussed in Spirituality and Democracy, the first hurdle we are overcoming is knowing each other according to our physical appearances, gradually succeeding in knowing each other spiritually. In part, this is knowing each other according to character but more so according to our shared essence of being.
In developing our collective vision of democracy, we are also overcoming the second hurdle by recognizing our singularity in spiritual terms. We are light, more specifically names of light, in a unity held together by the common intelligence of the light of Word in each of us.
The Practical Guide explains how to keep spiritual unity in democracy by blessing those of us who have lost sight of it. Losing sight of it creates a polarization in our mind between democratic and autocratic thinking, the illusory battle between light and darkness, illusory because there is no darkness in Name. Ultimately, every mind engaged in the illusion is drawn into the world polarization between democracy and autocracy, where different values only appear to be the real problem.
Two Levels of Polarization
Polarization between democracy and autocracy is difficult and almost unresolvable. Commonalities exist between them but neither side is willing to give up their view of the world, and yet, this is not the most difficult polarization. Even with many commonalities and similar values among the diverse groups on the democratic side, it is we who pose the most difficulties. We are simply unable to sustain clear awareness of the singularity in and between our democracies.
The only thing that brings us together every generation or so is the threat from the autocratic side. Then when the threat is gone, we go back to our group focus and often simply tolerate each other without recourse to anything greater. Kept under economic constraints and various types of addiction, we fail to create a unity that stays strong perpetually to abate polarization amongst ourselves or against us from autocracy.
Some of you may even see me or yourselves outside the unity, demonstrating the point. We use a form of equality to see each other in a tolerable-type unity. Those we do not see or are not willing to see as equal to us or others are excluded in our minds from any unity of singularity.
The key is to make all others more important than ourselves without being against ourselves, the principle of conscience (suneidesis).1 As practiced in The Practical Guide, it does not make anyone more important in essence. It is an attitude of humility, a method of spirituality, which is not against our nature, only against our present way of thinking blindly. A process quite natural to learn, it reflects our co-conscientiousness, our suneidesis, expounded on according to seven rules of thinking democracies.
The Pearl Moon
The moon is like a pearl orbiting around all nations, symbolically with a force capable of uniting or polarizing our view of the world, democratically or autocratically, respectively. It is the “Plus One” in the title. As part of the twelve pearl gates in The City of Name’s Agapé Light, the pearl has the spiritual gravitational force of unlimited agapé, uniting us through political parties around the world. But under limited agapé, it polarizes us in our many groups and, between us, in the two worldviews. Consider the simple approach to uniting us through Name, Word and Spirit.
Spirituality and the Holy Spirit
Using the word Name for God or Life, the word Word for Christ or Truth, and the word Spirit for Holy Spirit or Great Spirit, all depending on our beliefs, we can come together in a democracy and use the following knowledge to strengthen the principle that holds democracy together — to unite in loving the enemies of good conscience and thereby resist them peacefully as much as possible.
Paraphrased with these terms in the discipline of spirituality, knowledge of Word states:
1. Cleanse them in the name of Name, Word, and Spirit.
2. Name is in Word and Word is in Name in a oneness; we are all in a similar oneness within their oneness, and Word is in our oneness and Name is in Word; all of us together in a perfect oneness.
3. In the light of the spiritual city (where this perfect oneness exists), there is a spiritual throne for Name and a spiritual throne for Word.
4. The Spirit comes forth from Name.
5. (As names in the perfect oneness,) we do not move according to the physical nature but according to the spiritual nature if we are conscious of the Spirit of Name in us, but if we are not conscious of the Spirit of Word in us, we do not know Word.
6. (Working from our perfect oneness,) Word is the light of life in everyone who takes birth in this world.
7. Anyone who loves knows Name, for Name is agapé, unconditional love, and anyone who follows the teaching of Word to love the enemies of good conscience knows both Name and Word.
Existing in our perfect spiritual oneness with Name and Word, we each have a spirit working in our oneness as they do. But like knowing them, we cannot know ourselves or each other without the teaching of Word. In the teaching, Word said that if we do not believe in him (genderless spirit in our perfect oneness), we should at least believe in his works, all of which work from agapé. Word said that if we do that, we will come to know Name and that Name sent him.
For knowledge of Word states that Word came forth from Name and that Word is the offspring of Name’s agapé, making us offspring agapé names in Word.
However we interpret this knowledge according to our belief system, religious or not, may we find common ground in this country to love the enemies of good conscience in this light, inviting them to follow the principle and come to know as we do.
Illusory Boundaries
Blessing others for who they are is foremost blessing them as names in the unlimited agapé light of Name, each of us agapé names. The source level of this agapé is found between Name and Word, who never block out the other’s light to see themselves first, called the exquisite light.
But we, by not knowing who we are, block out the fullness of our unlimited agapé and others’—in our awareness—and believe that we exist in a limited form. Those of us with similar blindness seek each other out in our blind light-folds, creating the boundaries of our illusory house, where limited agapé appears to grow and fill us to our true capacity. Contrary to a house of knowledge structured on the principle in its symbolic cubic form, it is a dwelling where we unknowingly wrestle Name and Word perpetually. Envisioning with The Practical Guide restores our house, agapé name by agapé name in our double light-folds.
We all reside in the full unlimited agapé light of Name in Word, and when ready, we always do our part to restore anyone’s vision that has lost sight of Word. This includes Word’s pearl of agapé light orbiting all 200 of our nation-names, within which are our 175 political names and through which are our 10 world-names. With Word’s knowledge, we leave the illusory boundaries that hid the many positions each of us hold in this singularity of democracy in our suneidesis. Without sight of our positions, these boundaries ultimately hid the allness of Name’s personhood from us, and thus Word’s personhood within us.
Personhood — Hupostasis/Twushiya
In the midst of our sinking ship, someone is shouting at you. You think they are repeating over and over, “It’s sinking, take off your jacket!!” But they are saying, “It doesn’t have to sink; take this lifejacket!” To save our democracy, we must save ourselves first by fixing our inner compass. We chartered our course right into the storm because the settings of our inner being are not revealing something.
Personhood is the core of all reality, not the body. Within it comes the aspects of consciousness, personality and character, expressed through our body and breath. We do not start with these aspects and form personhood. Compare it to the body. It is greater than the sum total of its parts, but we do not start with its parts and form the body. The parts simultaneously exist as the body, but we see the body in each of its parts, not each part as the body.
In Greek, hupostasis (hoop-os´-tas-is) means ‘that which supports’, but by context means ‘person’ or ‘personhood’. The same meaning is given for tuwshiya in Hebrew (too-shee-yaw´), ‘that which supports’.
“…(Word) being [the] brightness of His (Name’s) glory and engraver of His personhood (hupostasis) [into our being].” (Hebrews 1:3)
What makes us in Name’s image is the fact that we have personhood like Name through Word. We too are persons, individuals with the same aspects as Name. Personhood supports all else about us. That which supports all else about Name and us is that we are persons of spiritual light, whose essence is agapé.
“O that [Name] would manifest to you the secrets of wisdom, for double folds [of light] belong to personhood (tuwshiya).” (Job 11:6)
“The Lord’s [Name’s] voice will call unto the city, and personhood (tuwshiya) will see Your Name.” (Micah 6:9)
Just as achieving adulthood is a process of development, personhood is a spiritual process but not to be associated with what we mistake as personhood through our physical bodies. When we speak of Name’s personhood, it is obviously not a process, just like the Greek word for mature, teleios, is a process but applied to Name is correctly translated ‘perfect’.
Our personhood is our allness in Word, seen in our consciousness, personality and character. Each aspect is not seen as your personhood. The essence of our personhood in Name is agapé, unconditional love as beingness. This is the core of all shared reality, being and having unconditional love toward one another.
See every name of agapé light as their personhood appears with its essence in their aspects — person-consciousness with a unique personality and character of agapé. Experience the essence of your own personhood first, then see yourself in your aspects, and lastly, see yourself greater than but reflected in your body and breath amongst all others in our shared physical experience.
The relationship between personhood and suneidesis depends on which state of being we are in. As living souls, we see the soul as ourselves and the heart as something we possess. But as life-giving spirit, we see heart and soul as levels of our suneidesis, its highest state, heart suneidesis or spiritual heart, the second state being soul suneidesis or spiritual soul, both experiences of life in spirit. Personhood has suneidesis in these states and formed as senses, since senses are forms of consciousness in touch with what there is to be conscious of.
While Name’s Personhood upholds everything without being formed by any of its attributes, personhood can still be experienced as a spiritual sense, the seventh following sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and knowing of Name’s light-senses. Their oneness works in a oneness with the seven mental functions or minds of Word, dianoia, nous, noema, ennoia, nephros, phronéma and phrén. Together, they form mind-sense-objects of agapé with facets for every combination, including personhood and phrén.
Knowledge of this makes us strong Democrats, Republicans and Independents if together we use it to form the new vision of democracy. We do this by envisioning our national personhood in Word among others, all 200 nation-names in The Spiritual Story of Democracy. The Practical Guide gets us there, agapé name by agapé name.
See your national personhood in everyone sharing your nation-name in Word, but see it in every other person as the strongest link in your singularity, as you know the national personhood of Word sees you this way through them.
Suggested Articles:
The Eyes of Democracy (Introduction and Index of Articles)
Suneidesis, pronounced soo-NAY-day-sis, is a Greek word that joins our natural awareness with our sense of conscience. Click on the link for a detailed explanation. It is central to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive working in our awareness itself. 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.
Life is passing.
Philip Quigley
It is over in a flash, and the only place to find the kingdom of Heaven is in the present moment. And there are no teachings in any tradition worth so much as an aspirin!
A voice inside me, a kin to a wise man at the back of a cave, whispered;
If you miss this moment, you will miss your life.!
This is one of the best articles I have read recently. Albert Einstein left the Quantum Physicists because they were missing one big element- Spirituality. Leonardo daVinci and Michaelangelo were both very spiritual so too many great poets and playwrights like Shakespeare, William Wordsmith, WB Yeats to name but a few. Great minds think alike.
Myself, I am just about to put my book of art and poetry online. It’s entitled Chasing Eternity- Reflections of a Wandering soul. A spiritual awakening following the untimely death by suicide of my late wife. Without that awakening I’m sure I would have followed her! It has opened my eyes another world of exploration and thinking.