1.8. The Power of the Present: Spirit and Body United in Love
On the path of contemplation, we move in this direction:
We seek to open our awareness - and with it, our heart - to reality.
To do so, the processes of the mind must first come to rest.
Essentially, it is about the awakening of the spirit’s awareness - or, as Sun Myung Moon puts it, the awakening of the spirit-mind.
The spirit-mind can then become the subject over our brain and the psychological processes of the mind.
In such a state, we gain access to a higher level of thought, which resides in the spirit-mind. Since the spirit-mind is inseparably connected with God, we receive access to God-guided intuition.
Everything we strive for as religious people - humility, gratitude, inner joy, and a heart full of true love - unfolds naturally in this state.
Spiritual reality only reveals itself when our awareness is anchored in the physical reality of the present moment.
It cannot be found through concepts or fantasies about spirit and God.
True Spiritual Growth Through Rootedness in Reality
Esoteric practices often attempt to reach higher states of consciousness through trance methods.
Such approaches can induce mystical experiences more quickly, but they are not always based on reality. Often, a lot of imagination plays a role.
I do not deny that spiritual phenomena can occur in such contexts, but there is a great danger of getting lost in a mystical fantasy world. One may accumulate experiences without truly growing in love and in the heart.
Many lose humility and develop pride in their experiences - poison to spiritual progress.
Buddha was well aware of this danger, as were Christian mystics who warned against it.
The difference on the path of mindfulness is that we remain grounded in reality. Even during simple physical tasks - such as cleaning the kitchen floor - we can draw closer to the experience of God’s presence.
Furthermore, the practice of mindfulness protects us from premature spiritual openness.
God’s love and presence enter into our body. The unity of spirit and body describes a state in which we have become one with spiritual reality through the body.
Only when our spirit has arrived in the body can we truly practice love for others.
This is what Jesus meant when he said we should become a temple of God.