A Letter to the Spirit

(For the spiritually bored)

My dear Spirit,

I have some time during my travels. I thought I might write you as I haven't done so in a while.

I say I once desired you because I was told I had to, but after mentally fasting for so long on nothing but air, my body yearned for solid food and drink. After being told to meditate and focus my eyes on nothing and darkness for so long, that which reflects light attracted my weary gaze. After being induced to sleep, to pray with eyes closed, to chant and to sanctify the entities of your imagination, your words, I desired to be awake. And upon finally opening my eyes and returning my focus to what was around me, my real relationship, with sensual clarity instead of mental obfuscation, I saw the pristine face of a loved one, the thundering ocean against a violet-orange sunset, and the damp and emerald forests by a campfire light. You were nowhere to be found.

Am I supposed to look in the eyes of my lover and look past them to find something like you? Maybe a soul or consciousness? Or would I rather see her eyes and look no further? I wish to see nothing more. I wish to imagine nothing more.

You have failed in your attempt to detach yourself from what you have so long condemned, like those who preach in your name fail to love anything but their own solipsism. That is all you are, Spirit: self-loathing and self-seeking in disguise. It's about time you confessed your purpose. You will not practice what is preached in your name: you will not nor can not transcend me, a mere body, what they call the flesh, despite one's efforts and contortions, despite one's rituals and mantras. Why not simply fly away? I ask. Why not unshackle yourself as quickly as possible, and end your eternal suffering? Why wait until I die? I forgot—parasites require a host.

But I live. I choose matter, stuff, things, movement, change, for that is what I find in life. These are the things I feel, see and taste, while you persist with nary a scent. How can one love what one cannot feel? And those who preach in the name of your liberation preach of death and the utterly barren, instilling verse with notions of the eternal, the infinite, the immutable, the nothing, as simply other words for death. They simply repeat what they've been told anyways, and they never admit this. They preach a nihilistic world disguised as a spiritual one, when the only thing nihilistic is what they preach. They look past their lovers eyes; they look past the sunsets and mountains to find you. Spirituality as escape.

Spirit. You are nothing but a vain idea, or rather, a grave error. Someone once laid witness to the same phenomena, the same world, the same bodies as everyone else, and imagined you as a heuristic principle. What damage a little ignorance can do over thousands of years. But the irony of closing one's eyes to see oneself is too much for me. The irony of sitting, closing ones eyes, praying, locking oneself in a monastery, or going to sleep in order to understand the world is too much for me. How they can only manage to throw more words at the phenomenon of the human organism, adorning it with confusing notions like consciousness, mind, soul, ego, with the mediocre hope that an idea will help us to better understand ourselves more so than what we actually are. It's tedious.

You have completely failed as a principle, dear Spirit. You are a failed notion. Most of the world claims to be spiritual and look what we've done to this place and to each other. What a mess we've made in your name. And once they found out you never existed in the first place, that the eternally valuable was never there when they looked, the slander of earth and the body had already achieved its end, and the love of the world was never regained.

You do not give the body life, Spirit, for the body gives the body life. I refuse to be your vessel. I refuse to be your vehicle. Vanish—and take your spirituality with you.

Sincerely yours,

LesMis

Sounds like a fallen spirit that is whining and mad, who found a companion who will vent for him.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Very well written good sir!

I do believe we have different understandings of the spirit. From your perspective I understand believing that spirit has failed as a principle. Looking around the world we see, as you stated, ample evidence of destruction and ignorance. However to me I see the ignorance as major part of the game we collectively chose to play.

In order for good to exist so must evil. In this physical plane we are given the opportunity to use our free will, in order to experience what we wish. The current world has set the difficulty to level impossible! People have lost access to true spirit for many reasons. Chief among them being the manipulation of organized religion all of those years ago. The destruction of the shamans and the burning of all the old knowledge.

You do not need to cut yourself off from the world in order to be spiritual. The idea of zen is to be with everything, completely absorbed in your self, while you partake in the activities that you choose. The ego is a tool, not to be discarded, but mastered! Taoism is a wonderful philosophy that is worth taking the time to learn about, if you so choose to.

Enjoy your travels! If you are ever given the chance I also recommend using some sacred medicines of the past, with a guide to help you through your consciousness!

Namaste (the divine in me acknowledges the divine in you)
Aloha (live each moment joyously)

I enjoy leaving people with that combo of words, most people think I am crazy, combining words that have nothing to do with my culture however, my spoken language of English fails when it comes to greetings/farewells!

a reply to: iNobody

A fallen spirit? I bet you've never came across such a being save for in the doctrines you have been told to believe.

a reply to: elementalgrove

Thank you for reading friend.

Japanese officers taught Zen to Japanese soldiers in World War 2 so they may detach themselves from killing another. Himmler read the Bhagavad Gita to his SS soldiers, so they may detach themselves from the mass slaughter they were committing, trading reality for lofty ideals by means of a simple Gestalt switch. Spirituality has done enough in my mind.

I have travelled the world for many years, and in my journeys, I have had the opportunity to witness and take part in the spiritualities of many cultures. Only when I was able to get people away from their sects and doctrines, away from the belief in their own spirit, into face to face, body to body interaction, was I able to meet and interact with who they really were. In my mind, the spiritual doctrines are small consolations and comforts for those who refuse to witness and interpret the world for themselves.

Thank you for the kind words.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

You are closer to spirit when you are sharing a moment with someone else than when you are sitting alone meditating on nothing. Did jesus talk about meditating and esoteric conquests? Or did he talk about loving everyone as your brother? You share what you have with your brother, whether it is a piece of bread, a sunset, or the mutual gaze of love.

When you are sharing a common purpose with others and the abstraction of self (little "s") is far away, you are close, very close to your real Self or spirit.

I actually really suck at sharing with others so I don't know why I would offer this up except I that I get the sense that this is important from some things I read

Confuse not, the religious with the spiritual.

They can share similar characteristics and are often linked together when talked about, but in reality, they are two different concepts.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope
What were you hoping to get on the finding of 'Spirit'?
What did you expect 'Spirit' to solve?
What is it you really seek?

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

And upon finally opening my eyes and returning my focus to what was around me, my real relationship, with sensual clarity instead of mental obfuscation, I saw the pristine face of a loved one, the thundering ocean against a violet-orange sunset, and the damp and emerald forests by a campfire light. You were nowhere to be found.

Am I supposed to look in the eyes of my lover and look past them to find something like you? Maybe a soul or consciousness? Or would I rather see her eyes and look no further?

The pristine face of the beloved is all there is but where are you when there is the seeing of that face? Is it not 'you' that cannot be found?
Is there the face of the beloved and a separate you appearing?
When seeing the eyes of the lover - where are you? Do 'you' appear within the image?

It is the 'man made' in the image that is not there in reality which seems to turn the spirit into material - it seems to make 'things matter'.

What is arising as now (could be the eyes of a lover or a sunset, or a room) is the beloved - it is what there really is. But where is the extra added on person this 'seems' to be happening to?
The present is just happening and is known by no one.

It is the separate person which is the illusion - the scene is the beloved. The seer and scene arise as one - there is nothing separate.

I wish to see nothing more. I wish to imagine nothing more.

The separate person that thinks spirit has failed him is nothing more than an imagination. Can you separate yourself from what is seen or heard or smelt or touched? Can you peel yourself away from this, the present scene?

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

But I live. I choose matter, stuff, things, movement, change, for that is what I find in life. These are the things I feel, see and taste, while you persist with nary a scent. How can one love what one cannot feel? And those who preach in the name of your liberation preach of death and the utterly barren, instilling verse with notions of the eternal, the infinite, the immutable, the nothing, as simply other words for death. They simply repeat what they've been told anyways, and they never admit this. They preach a nihilistic world disguised as a spiritual one, when the only thing nihilistic is what they preach. They look past their lovers eyes; they look past the sunsets and mountains to find you. Spirituality as escape.

You think you are some 'thing'. You think you can love some 'thing' else - but love is love - where are you in love??
It is only when you seek to find what you really are that you discover nothing. But you turn your back on nothing in favour of 'things' and then you are angry that 'spirit' has failed you.
Love is not a thing. When looking at the pristine face of the beloved there is just an immense feeling of love. No one did that feeling! And that feeling is not done to some 'thing'. It is a glimpse of what it feels like to dissolve into what is.
There are not two things.................ever - there are no things at all.
There is only ever this.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

I was unaware that the Japanese/Himler did with the manipulation of those philosophies!

However I do not fault Zen nor the Bhagavad Gita. I lay blame upon man for the manipulation of the mind of those willing to fear. This has been the case all across the globe, causing the suffering we see!

It is great hearing your perspective! I value you sharing your wisdom of your travels. I think that you are absolutely correct about getting people to be real. People can be so dogmatic and cling to that which gives them pseudo-security! That is the error of taking someone elses word for it!

originally posted by: Itisnowagain
a reply to: LesMisanthrope
What were you hoping to get on the finding of 'Spirit'?
What did you expect 'Spirit' to solve?
What is it you really seek?

Some refuge some sanctum maybe. The better angel of our nature. Some lofty perch within the self. Ah but alas to find it fouled!

a reply to: Itisnowagain

You think you are some 'thing'. You think you can love some 'thing' else - but love is love - where are you in love??
It is only when you seek to find what you really are that you discover nothing. But you turn your back on nothing in favour of 'things' and then you are angry that 'spirit' has failed you.
Love is not a thing. When looking at the pristine face of the beloved there is just an immense feeling of love. No one did that feeling! And that feeling is not done to some 'thing'. It is a glimpse of what it feels like to dissolve into what is.
There are not two things.................ever - there are no things at all.
There is only ever this.

I am some 'thing'. I can love some 'thing' else. I think you've trying to pass off nonsense as wisdom here.

How can I turn my back on nothing when there is nothing to turn my back to? No, I'm facing towards something.

There are more than two things. Look, there is a banana. That is a thing. There is a computer. That is a thing. If you are nothing, then why are you acting like you are something. Go be nothing if that is what you wish for.

Poetic Justice, when the spirit said to claim detachment from trivial pains or baser instincts, when it seems to relate to the idea of sanctity of the mind, or a clear conscious as being the want or need. The spirit is claimed to be devoid of such wants, to where its classified of having no corporal form, but yet, it needs crosses to scare or slay demons, or a tigers fur(early buddhism) to enchant the mind to summon the strength of a tiger, in a ideal.

The fact that religions use materials such as the bible being the guide to the pearly gates, that said to give eternal life with eternal sanctity, is possessive and boastful and have brought their own promises of destruction. While looking at other forms, any boasts about enlightenment or tools, are tossed out the window, and attempts at gaining a fixity of mental form of detachment from basic wants, or trying to attain something are usually the main focus of such practices.

How this detachment gets taught or used, well there probably just to many factors that I haven't found the right words. The bible says we are all gods children, but the benefits and rewards of spirit are often claimed by those who are the proud, while those who attain it, end up maintaining a vow of silence for their own sanctity of mind.

The spirit is nothing more then a child's play thing, and children can be cruel and hungry when bored.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope
So what did you expect spirit to do for you or the world if you had found it? If spirit was real and not just an idea what should it do?

a reply to: Itisnowagain

I do not know. All I knew was that it was advised to value the spirit above the body. The only reason the texts give for this is the assertion that the flesh and the earth is the source of all evil.

Read up "Kundalini Awakening" the evolutionary energy of man, by Gopi Krishna.

Think you need a read, I'm only on chapter three, and been reading it in on odd days. Im guessing you'll read it two day with your attention span (next thing the book spreads like a Cancer).

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

We both know you would fail that bet.

a reply to: elementalgrove

The idea of zen is to be with everything, completely absorbed in your self,

I thought in Zen the self is denied

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

I guess that is a matter of how you look at it, I was greatly influenced by Alan Watts's explanation of zen, in particular the washing of dishes example, to be completely with it, absorbed so to speak. What or who it is that is absorbed is a matter of personal philosophy.