Friday, November 1, 2013

spirit

Spirit Very little in the ancient Celtic mythos is truly about Spirit, so we have to go back into Hindu writings to find some ideas that the Celts might have shared. The Isha Upanishad describes Spirit this way: Although not moving, the self is swifter than the mind; The gods cannot catch It as It speeds on in front. Standing, It outpaces others who run; within It Sages place the waters. It moves--yet It does not move. It's far away--yet It is near at hand! It is within this whole world--yet It's also outside this whole world. Recall that the Hindus thought of Spirit or Life as being equated to breath, so that the Ultimate Deity is sometimes defined as the Living God that does not breathe, or the Breathless One. A more modern way of looking at it is defined by philosopher Georg Hegel: The nature of spirit may be understood by a glance at its direct opposite--Matter. As the essence of matter is gravity, so, on the other hand, we may affirm that the substance, the essence, of spirit is freedom. If indeed it is true that every living thing has a spirit, then each cell of your body has a spirit. Is your spirit then the sum of all these minute spirits working in comjunction? Or is your spirit kind of a dictator-spirit that organizes and runs all the smaller entities?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I would say that my spirit is the sum of all of the other spirits as directed by the consciousness created by the integration of each. If that consciousness can be defined as a dictator, then it is likely a benevolent one working in concert.

Jevaud said...

Man, this is a mind blowing concept. I will have to meditate on this to get a deeper understanding of this idea. While I've always accepted that I have a spirit, I've never thought that each cell of my body may have one, and thus, I have never given any thought as to what relationship these spirits have with my own... I think volumes could be written on this.