Chapter 3. Aspects of BEing

Body-Mind-Spirit is an archaic paradigm. Yet, it continues to be errantly served up as an expression of new age holism. This is a 700-year old concept (in the western world) that continues to retard our development today.

In the history of man, first there was a model of self that included no more than the corporal being, body. Then it was clear that we needed to include a spiritual connection to understand ourselves more fully. Many philosophies and religions were born, and we knew ourselves as body and spirit. Then the importance of the mind became evident in the western world during the Renaissance, leading us to seek its training and development. And we understood ourselves as body-mind-and-spirit. This model of self-understanding has had six or seven hundred years to become axiomatic.

Each level of self-understanding has served the evolution of humankind. And evolution now demands a further step in our model. You are a physical being, but this is not all you are. You are a spiritual being too, but you are more than just physical and spiritual. You are also a mental being, and you must continue to address your mental development. But until you realize that, in addition to being body-mind-and-spirit, you are an emotional being, you will not claim the level of self-responsibility needed to be able to “consciously create” what you truly want.

Individual cultures have previously assigned emotions to one of the other aspects. The western world is fond of locating emotions in the mind. Eastern cultures are more prone to assigning emotions to specific organs of the body. And aboriginal cultures often assign emotions to spiritual influences. None of these views gives credence to the perfection of our emotional aspect in guiding us toward our Enlightenment.

Consciousness is a description of the collective level of skills we have on all four aspects of our being: physical, mental, spiritual and emotional. To grow in consciousness, you must begin to integrate the practice of emotional skills into your self-development.

The next chapter will begin to describe the different levels of consciousness and how the consciousness you practice determines the reality you live in.