Thursday, April 7, 2011

Deciphering Aristotle

Today is Thursday. I returned home from my business trip last night; so this morning, I returned to my regular routine. I got up at 3:15 and spent the first 45 minutes in spiritual study and meditation. Then, I went running for an hour on hills.

I'm not sure you could call Aristotle's "Metaphysics" very spiritual. But philosophies which delve into the origin of being necessarily concern themselves with a first cause. Most of us think this first cause is God.

I'm pretty sure that I mainly have no idea what Aristotle is really saying; and I don't think the translation I have could be accurate. But here is the connection I made for myself. I, as a unique personality (soul), had to have come from somewhere; hence there must be a Source (God) which spawned my soul. To add to that, I'll mention that Paul Brunton, whose essays I am also reading, says that we can connect with a higher intelligence but the higher intelligence is not God (Source). Perhaps the higher intelligence is a step towards God, but not God.

I now define what I mean by "spirituality." This higher intelligence is not physical so I will call it spiritual. My spirituality is the learning about and connecting with this spiritual higher intelligence. Some call this spiritual intelligence: Holy Spirit, Higher Self, Overself, Atman, Tao, Essence, even Jesus is at times considered this spiritual intelligence.

When I turn my will and my life over to a power greater than myself, I mean this higher intelligence; not God. I surrender to this higher intelligence because it does a better job of running my life and telling me what my life means than my individual ego. My ego is not my soul. I consider my ego as soul sickness manifested as conscious delusion.

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