Man is a psycho/physical organism. What do I mean by this?

The best way to describe the situation is to say that this solid

corporeal body is crystalised consciousness so to speak, and

a monument to every desire, every aversion, and every thought

we have experienced in this lifetime.

Our lives can be visualised as the process of an old fashioned

children's whipping top. It wobbles slightly as it spins for it is top

heavy and the little metal stud on which it turns is a bit off centre.

Lashed by the whip of desire and aversion it spins its wobbly way

from one life situation to the next.

Most of the diseases we encounter on our way are due to imbalances

which are the natural result of the limited individual mind and

consciousness field which accompanies an "unawakened" perception

of reality.

Some psychologists have stated that we are only using about

10% of our potential mentality. I suspect that these pundits are

merely playing hunches and have little real knowledge of the

situation. In my own experience this statement has inspired past

visions of infinite cerebral capacity.

Solving the Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle in two minutes,

baffling everyone with an encyclopaedic knowledge of history,

current affairs, science and technology and solving problems of

differential calculus whilst mowing the lawn.

There is mind and there is Mind. Intellect and intelligence are not

the same thing. Limited mind tied to our notion of ourselves as

separate autonomous beings is faulted and blind to the true nature

of its intelligence.

All Yogic i.e. Uniting methods of teaching whether Christian, Hindu,

Buddhist or Sufi have one aim in common, and that, metaphorically

speaking is to turn the mind around to realise Mind in its infinite

multi-dimensional Intelligence, Energy and Love.

Fortunately there is a very easy way to approximate this confrontation

in the world of everyday experience and that is to do what Lama Govinda

 recommends. Step outside of the house and gaze up into the deep blue

of fathomless space.

There, as far as the eye, the thoughts and the imagination can plumb

lies the true extent of Mind.

Your Mind and also mine.

The question naturally arises as to how and by what means Mind

descends into bodily corporeal existence.

There are in fact five stages of descent or body sheaths as they

are known to Tibetan authorities. Each and all of these can be

realised by the advanced spiritual practitioner. For our purposes we

shall concentrate on the lower three which, whether we are aware

of it or not are actively participating in our everyday sleepwalking

state of self.

The three bodies which actualise our everyday being are:

The Corporeal or Physical body

The Pran or Energy body

The Thought or Ethereal body

The first of these we are quite familiar with.

The Pran body is a concept no doubt novel to most of you,

but with a little practice it is possible to realise it and learn to

control it to some extent.

The thought body on reflection we will recognise as the body we

occupy in our dreams and in "out of the body" experiences which

occur to many people. It is the Astral body" central to "afterlife"

spiritualist belief and psychic healing.

Each of these bodies completely overshadows and penetrates its

lower, grosser partner. So, working from the bottom up so to

speak, the Physical body is penetrated and overshadowed by

the Pran body which in turn is overshadowed by the thought body

which therefore penetrates, and dominates them all.

These three bodies operate continuously, each one slotting into

and dominating the other, whatever our condition in life, whether we

are well or ill, happy or sad.

Most "normal" people are fundamentally out of balance, therefore

these layers of psycho/physical energy are manifested at a much

coarser wave-band than could be the case.

However, we have to start from where we are, and if for the present

we can only accept this as a working hypothesis then that is fine 

with me.

There is an old Buddhist saying:

Thought dominated by desire and aversion is in constant turmoil,

and it is not surprising therefore to find this confusion and alienation

ultimately presenting itself as physical ailments of various kinds.

On the other hand it is possible to train our thoughts to be calm and

single pointed.

In that condition they are the chariot of Will and the unconscious

hierarchy of the three bodies can be gradually transformed into a

conscious creative process. Thus Will descends into Energy, finally

to manifest as positive awakened being.

There is nothing occult or mysterious about this.

If there were no volitional tendencies or latent desires for experience

in in our primordial make-up we would not have been born.

"Why do we have to die?"

someone once asked Sakyamuni the Buddha.

"Because we were born"

answered the Enlightened One.

All things which come into existence must in the natural order of

things pass out of existence again. Most of us imagine birth and

death as being the beginning and end of our life history so to

speak, but the birth and death process is happening continually

within ourselves unnoticed.

The will to live holds our temporary existence together.

If there were no will stimulating our conscious and unconscious

mind then we would surely perish.

Die we must, but as G. I. Gurdjieff said,

"There is no need to die like a dog".

Nor is there any need for us to lose control of our excretory

functions until we are well beyond caring.

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