Just thought this, has anyone heard of similar? [Well, I developed as I went along, so not the brief little idea I began with. It has turned now into a full-blown brain explosion. Don't mind the mess, I am working on cleanng up after myself ;)]
We have a brain which deals primarily with the world of thoughts and ideas, genitals primarily focused on the physical world's sensations and pleasures, and in between a heart (or "core"), the center which we consider to focus on love or more appropriately "emotions". No the heart is not "love" anymore than the brain is "smart" or the genitals are "oragsmic" - those are all merely possibilities just as "hate" and "fear", "stupidity" and "impotence". Now also keep in mind, emotions and core/heart are not to be confused with "spirit", or "spirituality" either - emotions are about function in relation to family, friends, community, and when balanced with the others can lead to spirituality. Also mind that mental is NOT the same as emotional. This is why the concept of thinking with your heart OR your head makes any sense. We make emotional choices, or rational choices, or physical choices... but I'll get into that I'm not quite there yet so give me a bit to finish this part up... Mind, Body, Feelings - When we balance all of these, they are capable of much more than one alone - the mind will integrate both the emotions and the physical so that the mental aspect of "humanness" is balanced and doesn't outweigh the other two; the physical will integrate emotions and the mental so that the physical aspect of hummanness is balanced; and the emotions will integrate the physical and the mental for the same result - balance.
Think of a table with three legs. If one is too long it will knock the top off and be useless. But, if you were to reduce the leg to the extreme and try to saw it off entirely, the table would STILL be useless. And certainly a 3 legged-table with one good leg and too very long ones would be expected to tip. You can not successfully balance a table on one or two good legs and expect the whole to balance.
It is just so with these concepts of mental, physical, emotional.
But then why do people insist on focusing on just one way to achieve spiritual results? Are we meant to pursue one to the exclusion of others?
Well, what good is a one legged table, again? unless that one leg is more like a tree trunk and then it's not really a leg anymore at all. A truly one-legged table would fall in this reality as we know it.
There is a lot of talk about "spirituality", as if it's the one thing to which we are to strive and struggle. Often spirituality is contested as either something set aside for monks and other people who run to the top of the mountain and never have sex or drink or smoke ever again, or it is claimed by those who indulge in revelry and promiscuity. Denial or Indulgence - these two versions of spirituality do not make sense. It's only when we BALANCE these things that we become the enlightened being. Whether or not we engage in these activites AFTER we have become enlightened is up to the being, but sitting around and dreaming of become spiritual through excess OR restriction seems totally off, either creates a hyperfocus on one aspect in one direction or the other.
If I were to decide to pray extensively and give up sex and alcohol and all of those earthly things, I would then be hyperfocused on the sex, drinking, et cetera by forcing myself to avoid them. Every time I saw them or heard mention of them, my mind would run to them and condemn me for being impure. This is nearly as bad as completely caving in to desire and ingesting every bit of pleasure we can possibly squeeze in! Either way, it is a hyperfocus, and an imbalance.
And without all those things balanced, you will simply not be whole. You cant reach this state of enlightenment unless you balance. You might end up being very smart, or very strong, or sexy, or aware, or popular, and you can still be those things on your journey to being whole, and I'm sure all of those people are capable of having fulfilling lives regardless. But once you're whole everything should calm down and none of those labels of who you are will matter anymore. Because, you'll just be everything you were meant to be, and nothing you weren't!
Although the argument can certainly be made that you are that perfect being now, but I would suggest you not stop just because someone told you you're perfect just the way you are. If you were a murderer, a thief, or a rapist no one would say, "keep it up, you're doing fine". Rather I would take this idea and state that you always have the potential to be more than you are - whole, but that what you are now is IMPORTANT in getting there.
Back to the imbalance and an example of it in life:
It seems to me when we pursue only the one "leg", mental, the mind, we are unable to acknowledge and reconcile the physical or emotional and become braniac types who stay inside all day and never end up getting out and being with loved ones or being a part of a loving community or feel any higher purpose. Without physical well-being and pleasure even the smartest brain wont last long. Without loved ones and community, there is no where to share all of that brain power - you could be Einstein but without sharing no one will ever know all your great brilliance! Without purpose, you wont bother to forge your identity!
When you are at an extreme in emotional negativity and extreme on physical, you get abuse, violence, criminality or self-abuse, addiction, suicide. The brain may be smart or not, a smart man may be as criminal as a stupid one and vice versa - it is the extremes of the other two which are not matching the brain.
Now, what if we can't fully control the length of our legs? In spite of all of our efforts to control ourselves, is it really possible? What if I am born with an average mental leg, a long physical one, and a short emotional one? I will probably be a fairly vapid follower type of individual. But the question is: are we born with only so much potential? If so, what do we do?
***
Phew! That is enough, my brain is revved and I am going too far!
Suggestions, comments, questions, stories?
*These thoughts are not concrete beliefs, I simply found myself on a bend and kept going!