Prajna: 12 Universal Wrong Conceptions: 10. Body, Mind and Spirits
- Jan 1, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 26
«Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.» ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "Manon, Ballerina".
Taxonomy of Existence
10. Body, Mind and Spirits
Body
The body is an organized ensemble of real physical places that assumes—at each instant—a temporary form, itself composed of many transient forms, as it moves through a sequence of internal and external realities. Functionally, both body and mind can be pictured as tubular channels through which multiple flows pass.
Through body and mind flow currents drawn from both universes—material and immaterial—that nourish and shape their development and transformations of form. These flows include nutrients and toxins, forces and energies, information and impressions. Some of this input is absorbed and retained as reserves or memory; the rest is eliminated—excreted, dissipated, or returned to the larger cycles of material and immaterial nature.
Mind
The mind designates a set of loci—material or immaterial, memories or imaginaries—where physical and energetic processes operate. It functions through tendencies and preferences that change under the influence of inputs from those flows and through the unfolding of temporary forms.
In the most intelligible account, the mind arises from the living biological–electrochemical process that pervades the whole body, especially the nervous system. Typical mental operations are the cognitive functions: thinking, remembering, imagining, perceiving, reacting, learning, reasoning, interpreting, willing.
Metaphorically, body and mind are like cylindrical sleeves or intestines through which everything that enters passes: nutrients, poisons, energies, information, learnings, spirits, images, sounds, perceptions, habits, tendencies. Portions of these are taken up and stored in memory or reserve for later use; the remainder is released back to disintegration—dust, void, or larger natural cycles.
Thus the mind contains: memories, meanings, imaginations, habits, conscious and unconscious processes, energies, forms, schemas of thought.
Spirits
Spirits are, fundamentally, ideas, notions, mental forms, or packets of information—often expressible in words—that, when present, act upon the places and beings in which they appear.
The practical truth about spirits is simple: a spirit is an idea; every idea is a spirit; every word names a spirit. There are more spirits than words—unsayable, unnameable presences we may never describe.
There are invisible spirits we cannot detect.
[Buddha taught that the greatest adversary is Mara—the ruler of egoic temptation—whose three daughters are Passion, Repulsion, and Ignorance (the last being the most potent). These qualities often travel together: you do not see laziness or ill will without the company of ignorance, contempt, or disgust. The Buddha’s teaching is not to fight them with hatred but to let them go—unbinding oneself from the chains of desire, craving, and ignorance. He instructs us to invite wholesome presences and to release dangerous or unfortunate spirits, whether perceived or not.]
Some evident properties you may verify yourself:
A spirit manifests a quality, a function, and a force that cooperates with the material object or mental field it inhabits and with the agent using that object or field.
In the moving Uno, spirits may be present or absent. When they incarnate or are mentalized, they live both in matter and in energy, inhabiting bodies and minds during their immanent presence. Their presence ends when they dissipate from that body or mind into the void.
To say that a spirit is “inside” something means precisely that: it is present there, alive in its effect, and it influences what it inhabits. As information, a spirit can transfer, move, disperse, or dissipate into the void; it can also re-emerge into existence and presence.
Spirits congregate. From pairs to large assemblies, spirits join, integrate, or fuse—changing the places where they materialize, incarnate, or are imagined. Each has its strength, direction, and quality; together they alter present reality and produce effects and transformations. Through acts and events, spirits attract or repel other spirits; they travel in company and leave traces where they pass.
There is an infinite variety of spirits, each carrying one or more qualities, meanings, or aspects. Within us there is always a multitude—mostly imperceptible—of these presences. They energize body and mind, furnishing will and motive: they prompt thought, speech, and deed. As they vary in us, so do our thoughts, words, and actions.
Spirits supply and remove energy and transform our bodies and minds according to our accumulated tendencies and habits. The maximal spirit is the One Spirit (Holy Ghost/Spirit)—the Spirit that is maximal in the metaphysical sense.
Spirits act automatically with their qualities, producing consequences and drawing forth new manifest spirits. With them one can create or destroy, for good or ill. We are, by nature, both spiritualists and materialists—whether or not we are aware—because spirits continuously pass through our bodies and minds in a vibratory flux. Our lives shift according to how we use and relate to these spirits.
Some spirits are harmless or beneficial; others are dangerous. Understanding, discernment, attention, and awareness are required to manage them—to play with, harness, or dissolve them. Spirits propagate mathematically—by additions, subtractions, multiplications, divisions, factorizations, exponentials, logarithms—because they spread contagiously in social forms, cascading in viral waves of effect.
Finally, spirits may be natural (of nature), utilitarian, mental, constructive, destructive, high or low—“from the heavens,” “the earth,” or “the abyss.” Only the mind directly senses mental spirits, though with attention it can detect other types. The body reads, in general, natural spirits and some utilitarian or translated mental spirits via hormonal and somatic expression.
The Cabal Importance of Spirits
Based on the definitions and mechanics laid out behind, Spirits are of cabal importance in understanding, viewing, and successfully navigating the complex world of conflicting realities.
Spirits as the Subjective Filter (A)
In our previous analysis (4. Reality/Perspectives, Points of View, and the Structure of Reality,) we identified the Subject (A) as the unique, internal, and complex filter through which all reality is viewed. Spirits are the very components that constitute and energize this filter.
Spirits are Motivators: Spirits energize body and mind, furnishing will and motive... They prompt thought, speech, and deed."
Spirits are Tendencies: Spirits shape the tendencies and habits of the mind and body.
Conclusion: Since the mind's tendencies, motives, and habits are the filter through which the target (B) is interpreted, Spirits are the primary mechanism of subjective reality construction. A person hosting a "spirit of contempt" will have a subjective reality colored by that contempt.
Spirits as the Reality Blueprint (The A -> B Relationship)
Spirits as ideas are linked to the creation of reality itself, being central to the problem of colliding realities.
Spirits Create Qualities: "A spirit manifests a quality, a function, and a force that cooperates with the material object or mental field it inhabits."
Spirits Alter Reality: When spirits congregate, "together they alter present reality and produce effects and transformations."
Conclusion: If Spirits "alter present reality" and furnish the motives that lead to "acts and events," they are not just interpreting reality; they are the active agents creating and sustaining the specific, local reality in which the subject operates.
Spirits and Navigating Conflict
For the ultimate goal of successfully navigating the complex world of conflicting realities, the text makes the control of Spirits a prerequisite for success.
Condition for Success | How Spirits Relate |
Verification / Discernment | "Understanding, discernment, attention, and awareness are required to manage them." Discernment allows one to recognize which spirits (ideas/biases) one hosts and how they affect the perception of factual reality (B). |
Calibration / Transformation | "Use disciplined practice... to dissipate unhelpful spirits and strengthen beneficial ones." The goal is to strengthen the "wholesome presences" (ideas/values) that align the subjective reality (A->B) with ultimate reality. |
Avoiding Self-Destruction | The greatest adversary is Mara (egoic temptation), whose daughters are Passion, Repulsion, and Ignorance—all negative spirits. Successfully navigating conflicting realities requires letting go of these dangerous spirits, which are the root causes of wrong opposing value judgments and catastrophic failures. |
In the context of this framework, understanding and managing one's Spirits is not just important; it is the fundamental method for aligning one's internal subjective reality with the necessary external factual and ultimate realities.
Practical Implications
Discernment: Learn to recognize which spirits you host and which host you. Track habitual mental forms and test them against evidence and compassion.
Attention: Where attention goes, spirits gather. Cultivate open, non-clinging awareness to avoid nourishing harmful patterns.
Transformation: Use disciplined practice—mindfulness, inquiry, and skillful action—to dissipate unhelpful spirits and strengthen beneficial ones.
Humility: Remember that many spirits operate beneath conscious notice; humility and patience are needed in self-inquiry and social judgment.
Tell about your sense
I align completely with the text
I don't know, i'm not sure of several aspects in the text
I desaggree completely with the text
Thank you for seeking knowledge, wisdom and spiritual growth.
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