You Are a Spiritual Being! Part 1

You Are a Spiritual Being

Here is an excerpt from the book I'm currently writing. 

Do you know who you are? Take a moment to ask yourself, “who am I?” Take a moment to listen to the answers you get beyond just hearing your name and a description of your age and body, your ethnicity and roles you currently fill. Do you hear any answers beyond the obvious outer form of you? Keep listening. Be still. An answer which may not have occurred to you is that your true reality is not physical. You've probably heard this before but I invite you to experience for yourself the essence of you as an eternal spiritual being. This can be done perhaps in many ways, through either meditation, reflection, prayer, or even in serving others. If you are wondering how knowing that you are a spiritual being is important, read on.

Consider for a moment that you are not your body, for in dreams you live fully. You are not your thoughts as thoughts are prone to error and fooled by illusion. Ahhh, perhaps we are our brain, the generator of our experiences and perceptions. When we look at the brain we are challenged to discover the “I”, a singular pilot or source of consciousness, the seat of intention, the whereabouts of essence. Granted, we have more clearly identified specific functions for many of the different parts or organs of the brain. Perhaps you are satisfied considering that one or a few of these parts of the brain is the essence of who you really are. Some may argue that our essence is the whole of our many parts including body, thoughts, experiences, roles, etc. That is certainly valid.

If you are not satisfied with all or part of the brain being our essence, consider the following common practice. If you have ever watched a royal funeral on T.V., for example that of President Ronald Reagan or Princess Diana, you may have noticed that we seem to make a distinction between the person and their body. Ponder this CNN report on August 31, 1997, the day of Princess Diana's fatal car crash:

Prince Charles brought the body of the beautiful woman he once took as his princess bride back to London Sunday night, as the nation and the world mourned her death.[1]

In this one report the journalist made at least five references to 'the body' or 'Diana's body' such as “The body of Diana, Princess of Wales, was taken to a private mortuary...” [1]

Interestingly, even before she passed away, the report stated "Diana's body arrived [at the Salpetriere Hospital] in a condition of ...” [1]

While this tradition is certainly a dignified and reverent approach, it may speak of a deeper knowing or hope that our body is not who we are but rather a temporary vehicle we use. Again, I invite you to consider that you are an eternal spiritual being having a temporary physical experience. As you will not doubt realize one day, you are an ethereal being. Looking at this word ethereal I quickly saw e the real... or perhaps ...eternal the real). You decide what the e could stand for. Ok, back to earth!