The Trinity of Body Mind Soul
We are all spiritual beings, each of us with the gift of a body,
mind, and soul. When we are not very aware of our essentially
spiritual nature, we tend to identify ourselves as just one
thing or the other. Some of us think we are this body that does
things, or we're a mind that has to figure it out. Our soul, we
may imagine, is something that floats up and may or may not live
on after we die.
As we grow in spiritual awareness, we develop a more integrated
understanding of ourselves. We come to know ourselves as
spiritual creatures, operating through a unified trinity of
body, mind, and soul. These three facets of self allow us to
have a creative experience of life in (at least) three
dimensions simultaneously.
Through the body, we can experience and affect our physical
environment. We can build shelters, make clothing, and find or
grow food. We can feel pleasure and pain. Our brains (which are
organs of our bodies) can learn by conditioning to survive on
the physical plane. Our bodies have their own consciousness. An
example of this is in body memory. Have you ever found it useful
to "dial" a frequently used phone number in the air when you
need to remember it? The information seems not to be stored in
your head, because the fingers that dance that pattern so often
have their own memory.
While the body can affect our physical environment in a sort of
brute force way, the mind shapes our lives much more than most
of us realize. Its tools may appear to be more refined. Rather
than the power of hammers, muscles, and the opposable thumb, the
mind has the power of attention, belief, and observation. With
these tools, the mind shapes our world in a way far more
profound than bulldozers and chain saws. We can visualize a
whole new life for ourselves and watch it manifest without our
bodies forcing anything.
The challenging thing about the mind, for most of us, is that it
encompasses both conscious and unconscious attitudes, beliefs,
and desires. It is our whole mind that creates our
circumstances, not just the part we're aware of. This explains
why we so often experience the frustration of our conscious
beliefs and desires. The conscious mind has only a fraction of
the mind's total power.
Fortunately for us, neither the body nor the mind is in total
control. If there seems to be a stalemate between our conscious
desires and our unconscious beliefs and attitudes, attention to
the third aspect of ourselves can help us get unstuck. The soul
has direct access to all wisdom, power, health, and love.
The soul is the part of us that lives in the vast collective
pool of good that is God. When we integrate our whole selves
through regular attention to the soul, we find that we are
neither mind nor body alone, but that both our minds and bodies
give fuller expression to our spiritual essence.