I certainly believe that being in contact with one's spirit and
nurturing one's spirit is as important as nurturing one's body and mind. We are
three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit. - Laurence Fishburne
When
I was an intern therapist with Riverside County Mental Health there was a
Psychologist whom I worked with whose name I can’t quite remember. What I do remember is that he was a strict
Behaviorist. He would jokingly challenge
me at times by saying, “You say there is a mind, but can you show me one?” The only good response I could come up with
was, “Well maybe you don’t have one.” I
never actually said it out of deference, but truly his position seemed absurd
and still does.
Seriously,
who or what might even be asking the question here, or monitoring behaviors,
writing articles? There is no denying
that there is an interior component of who we are – and it constitutes the “black
box” which has proved to an insolvable problem in strict behavioral
psychology. For better or worse there is
no psychology without psyche. And, there
is no psyche without awareness.
Awareness is the spiritual principal within us, without which the rest
is simply chaos.
It
is really all part of a developmental process.
When we are young, once we emerge from what William James referred to as
“blooming, buzzing confusion,” we begin to make sense of this world by
identifying with our physical bodies. As
we develop we begin to understand ourselves as interior beings, “mind beings.” In terms of cognitive development this is
referred to as developing a “theory of mind.”
Briefly stated, “having a theory of mind is to be able to reflect on the
contents of one's own and other's minds.”
People
with autistic disorder especially lack this developmental ability. As Lynne Soraya, in an article for Psychology
Today writes, “For many of those with autism or Asperger's, mindblindness, or
lack of Theory of Mind creates major barriers to communication and closeness.
These barriers often lead to those nearest to the individual feel, whether real
or perceived, a lack of empathy from the individual.” (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/aspergers-diary/200805/empathy-mindblindness-and-theory-mind) From my limited experience working with individuals
who suffer from autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder, I believe the
capacity is there but needs help drawing it forth.
The
development of spiritual awareness is an awakening to another dimension of our
beings. While we can relate to and
empathize with one another on a mind level, we start to resonate at a higher
level as we awaken spiritually. It
begins with a deepening of mindfulness, the ability to become an inner witness
of our own mental processes. At each
stage of development we have to be able to separate from, transcend and integrate
who we once thought we were. Eventually,
we arrive at an awareness of ourselves as pure awareness. Buddha described this as arriving at the
identity of oneself as “no-self.”
As I have practiced
meditation over the past several years, it seems I have moved more and more
into an expansive sense of being – beyond body and mind. But the other morning I came back to a love
and appreciation of this body. How marvelous
to have this experience! However,
conditioned and temporal it may be, it is great ride. It wasn’t just “me” experiencing this
however. It is the One who experiences through
each and all of us. We are all loved and
Love is who we are.
