The final version of this article is expected Nov 22, 2025. Click here for updates. See the Index of Articles of 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, introduced in the previous article and included again below, 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. 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.
The Practical Guide
Four Basic Rules
Visually respect all others in your heart by making the light of their identity (without gender, ethnicity or age) more important than your own in the light of Name. With the goodness of the light of Word, see their transparent light in its symbolic cubic form in and before Name, permeationally through your own, without blocking either so that you can give Name all your agapé through them as seen inside or outside the supersession.
While visually respecting everyone like this, reject any illusion in anyone who does not know who they are in the light of Name or its singularity—seeing through their piety illusion with every thought and feeling in the agapé light of Word.
While visually respecting everyone and rejecting all illusion, see the inner act of disrespecting others as the loss of spiritual will. Assuming it is willful when we cannot know only tempts us to judge others or ourselves.
While visually respecting everyone and rejecting all illusion, see the act of carrying out such actions physically as the loss of physical will. Since we cannot know on the spiritual level, we cannot assume we know on the physical level. Forgive them for not knowing what they are doing. Distinguish between the good, bad and ugly and bear with the bad but resist the ugly, peacefully as much as possible—while still loving those who commit them in regards to who they are in the light of Name and its singularity in the Now of Word, not who they blindly think they are in their physical attributes.
Three Refined Rules
Visually worship Name by loving the aspect2 of its light that perpetually cleanses (yirah) the eyes of our heart. But at the same time, it blinds them with fear when, through our oneness in the light of Word, we do not do our part to fully restore our spiritual and physical wills and respect all others on both levels. Seeing the cleansing aspect of the light both ways at the same time with Word’s agapé and piety light helps us realize that nothing originates in totality from us in our position in the glory of the grace of Name’s light. We partake of all through the light of Word and, through our own usage of it, are entirely fulfilled or unfulfilled by our own choices, individually and collectively.
Visually worship Name by loving the aspects of its light that cleanse our eyes and endow us with a healthy anger, one directed toward those of us who do not respect all others. At the same time though, they are misusing Name’s aspect of anger (ultimately, simply grace) in themselves so as to disrespect others and get them to fear them through misuse of the cleansing aspect in Name’s light. Seeing these aspects both ways at the same time with Word’s agapé and piety light frees us from imagining that anyone is independent of the light of Name in Word. We are entirely fulfilled or unfulfilled in it by our individual and collective choices.
Visually worship Name by loving these two aspects together with the fulfilled desire (which is no desire, ultimately, simply grace) for Name and its memory in us. It fills the eyes of our heart with the past and present goodness of Name in the light of Word and reveals it in the disrespectful as well. They misuse even this in themselves to foolishly strengthen what binds them, binding themselves tighter in Name’s anger. They do so to see fear in those they disrespect, unaware that they are trying to make Name fear and desire them, making their binding complete in these three aspects of the light of Name in Word. Forgive them and recognize that they have nothing of their own,3 like the rest of us, but blindly wrestle with the light of Name in themselves and between each other, despite the outer appearance that they are in control of themselves. Witnessing it with Word’s piety and agapé light empowers us to see through their illusion and bless them for who they really are in the glory of the grace of Name in Word. This keeps us aware of the singularity of our democracy and its full blessing in the light of Word—while peacefully resisting the ugly things they commit without judging them in the light of Name. For we are not against ourselves.
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.4 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
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.
Personhood5 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.
Your personhood is your allness in Word, seen in your consciousness, personality and character. Each aspect is not seen as your personhood. The essence of our personhood is agapé, a word for compassionate life. This is the core of all shared reality, being compassionate toward one another.
See every person as their personhood appears with its essence in their aspects — person-consciousness with a unique personality and character evolving its compassionate life. Likewise, see yourself this way. Experience the essence of your 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 reality.
See everyone this way with the eyes of your personhood, the eyes of your heart. This occurs through the noéma eyes in our heart, which see Word’s personhood manifest by and in the dianoia of our heart. We partake of it all from Name’s divine personhood through Word, the eyes of Name’s heart.
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.
The states of Name’s aspects are usually beyond our comprehension only because we have been or are misusing them. At their core, they are all the glory of the grace of Name, the greatness of the attributes of Life, revealed in Word, the truth of Life.
Knowledge of Word speaks of heavenly glory and earthly glory, indicating that even the physical is ultimately the glory of Name’s grace, ultimately the grace of Name. Distinguishing every kind enables us to learn the part of Name’s nature displayed in them. Although our physical body displays a part also, it is the physical means to experience all other physical things.
And yet, we experience everything with our suneidesis in its oneness with our mind, the nature of both spirit. In spiritual fasting, when making all others more important without being against ourselves, we bear the symptoms of those who are blind in our physical body, along with any of our own, with the glory of the grace of Name in Word in our suneidesis. Here, we can transcend the states experienced only physically due to misuse. Remember, practice spiritual fasting only when you yourself are not addicted to any symptoms.
When someone has authority over us that they can misuse to harm us, consider what Word taught.
They would have no authority over us unless it has been given to them by Name, and that those who give them authority over us have done the greater wrong.
This again points to the fact that no one has anything of their own, even in this world, and that everyone is responsible for how they use the authority given to them to save life, not to harm it. Seeing each other this way helps us keep the authority given to us by Name if we love the enemies of our conscience, for that is Name’s will for all of us, the will of Life.
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.
In Greek, hupostasis, hoop-os´-tas-is, means ‘that which supports’, but by context means ‘person’. The same meaning is given for tuwshiya in Hebrew, too-shee-yaw, ‘that which supports’, by context ‘person’.
“…(Word) being [the] brightness of His (Name’s) glory and engraver of His person (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 the person (tuwshiya). (Job 11:6)
“The Lord’s [Name’s] voice will call unto the city, and [every] person (tuwshiya) will see Your Name.” (Micah 6:9)
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.