Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00568)

Aki and Eldon are in coversation below:
>One more thing, our body is much older (Saturn period) than our other
>principes eg. mind, so in a way it is much more perfect and wise.

Our principles are emanated in serial order, so the first to
emanate is the Atman. When we've reached the physical, we're fully
functional (or at least started) on the different levels.
Having thus emanated the various forms or sheathes for our consciousness,
we then work on awakening, in reverse order, from the physical upwards,
the sense of self-consciousness. The physical level, then, is the first
level at which we become aware of our existence. Our evolution of
self-consciousness towards the spiritual progresses, then, up towards
the Atman, one principle after the next. At the end, we've awakened
all seven principles to self-consciousness, and can express that
consciousness *here on the physical plane*.

>For example it has autonomous functions such as respiration,
>digestion, sensing... etc, which are far beyond our mind's
>capabilities. And our mind doesn't (yet) function automatically
>as our blood circulation does. Eg. our feeling-system is already
?more automatic/perfect than our intelligent - being older (Moon
>period). I want to say that we, as a Human Monad, could learn
>much from our body.

Keith:

The body is often talked about in the Christian and Puritan traditions as
corrupt and leading us to corruption, that is "sin". It is seen in most
traditions as something to be transcended. But is it the body or the kama-manas
that is causing the "sin", leading the body to indulgences etc?

As anecdotal evidence I would like to relate that I had a car accident recently.
I hit a utility pole while avoiding hitting another car. The world is very
solid to me and the laws of physics hold, trust me. There was no maya about
hitting an immovable body in space. My face was smashed up pretty bad, but what
seemed like horrible swelling etc., was the body protecting itself. The
swelling set some of the broken bones and I didn't have to have surgery. SInce
then the swelling has gone down very fast. The body has a special consciousness
of what to do without the help my mentality or will. It knows and remembers.
It is WISE.

However, I have a question as to why our body and feeling nature might be seen
as more "perfect" because it is "automatic". Usually automatic is synonomous
with "stupid" or machine-like, whereas self-conciousness and control of the
bodies and will have been seen as the goal. In other words the limited
conscious mind has been seen as the seat of the will and therefore responsible.
The automatic processes have been seen as unconscious or not under the laws of
Karma.

Are the automatic processes even more the results of Karma and therefore our
present responsibility? That is, are we responsible for the "perfection" or
imperfection of our bodies from past lives or globes? It seems the conscious
mind is very limited and in control of very little, as Jung and Freud suggested.
Yet its effects are very evident in out modern world ina that science has
created that is "not natural or artificial" but powerful in limited time and
space..

I am thinking of things like cancer also. Is something like cancer a karmic
debt? The body according to Depak Chopra and others is a stream of information
and has the power to heal itself. I have just evidenced this. As you can tell
I still not thinking clearly, but felt moved to find some meaning in my
accident as many do in their illnesses and "bad" karma. The suprising thing I
have learned so far is the complexity of a simple accident,in the sense of
damage that can be healed and cannot be healed, but yet it seems that there is
more good than bad about the body and its wisdom.

Namaste

Keith Price