R U A Spiritual Being?

Is the essence of who are you a spiritual being?  Are you a spiritual being having a human experience?  Or do you understand yourself and the spiritual aspect of your life in a different way?  What difference does it make?

The following is a text version of this posting.

Think for a moment about spirituality and your life.  What does it mean to you to be spiritual?  Or perhaps, a spiritual person? Some people think that we’re spiritual beings having human experiences.  That concept is taken from French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  Some people think that our spirit or soul is our true self.  That idea is drawn from various Eastern philosophies.  More common in the West is that our spirit or soul is eternal and our body, which is inferior, is just a shell.  That idea is rooted in ancient Greek philosophers.  What do you think?  And why does it matter?

Let me start with the second question.  Why does what we think about spirituality and our lives matter?  When we view ourselves as spiritual beings having a human experience or that our soul is our true essence and better than the physical world, that says that our bodies and the things we consider physical aren’t important.  When the spiritual dimension of our lives, our soul, is more important than our bodies or the physical world, then the logical conclusion is that there is no need to care for our bodies, other people’s bodies, other living beings, or the planet.  We’ve inherited centuries of beliefs, dogmas, and spiritual teachings that have made the spiritual essence of people more important than anything else.  That belief has served racism, genocide, sexism, and countless wars.  After all, if the spiritual essence is most important, then it doesn’t matter if people die.  Their spirit or soul will live on.  While that’s an outrageous way to think, it’s a perspective that is part of many great religious and spiritual traditions.  It’s wrong. 

What’s my perspective?  It’s pretty simple and it’s the way we experience ourselves and our lives.  We are beings with different dimensions.  All of them are important.

When people meet me, they meet my body.  That’s what they see.  If they talk to me, they encounter my mind, my sense of humor, and maybe my outlook on life.  If people get to know me better, they’ll learn more about my emotions, my background and culture, and my values.  And a deeper part of it all is my spirit.  I would not be the person I am without all of those dimensions of myself.  The same thing is true for you.

Think about waking up sick one morning.  Maybe it’s seasonal allergies, a cold, or something else causing a stuffed-up head.  We don’t say, “My body is sick.”  Instead, we say, “I am sick.”  Yes, maybe it’s that my sinuses are stuffed because of allergies, but my mood is off, I have to focus more to think clearly, and I feel icky all over.  Instead of being quick to laugh at something comical, I may find it irritating.  If I try to pray or meditate, it feels like a chore.  All of me is sick.  My point is that all the aspects of who we are make up the whole person.  One aspect isn’t more important but all come into play.

Further, because we have different aspects or dimensions of who we are, we need to strive toward balance to live in a healthy, whole, and happy way.  When one aspect is out of balance, it throws us off.  Think about trying to walk with a shoe on your right foot and no shoe on your left foot.  You can walk, but it’s awkward.  It takes more work to walk smoothly.  That’s about balance.  This is true for who we are as people.  We require a balance among all the dimensions of who we are to be healthy and live in good ways.

Who are we as people?  We’re spiritual.  And we’re physical.  We’re thoughtful.  We are deep feeling.  We carry within us the DNA and ancient memories of our ancestors.  But above all, we are complete, whole, and integrated people.  That’s the way we’re made.  Our challenge is to live out of that amazing wholeness and integration.