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Integrating the Three Minds and the Four Bodies
"Be moderate in all things."
The Buddha
By
Dr. Joshua David Stone
One of the key points to becoming a self realized or God realized being is learning to balance and integrate our three minds and four bodies. Now, in actuality, we have more than three minds and more than four bodies. We have more than three minds because at the fourth initiation the soul or higher self merges back into spirit or the Monad, and the spirit and Monad become the mind or consciousness that is our guide and teacher. This happens in stages, however, so for the purpose of this discussion I am lumping the soul and the Monad into the same category since they serve similar functions.
In respect to our discussion of the four bodies, I am doing a similar thing. I am dividing the four bodies into the physical body, the emotional body, the mental body, and the spiritual body. In actuality the spiritual body can be divided into the Causal body, the Buddhic body, the Atmic body, the Monadic, the Logoic, the Light body and on and on into cosmic levels of consciousness.
We work with these higher spiritual bodies in stages as we go through the initiation process in a similar way as I described with the three minds, so for the purpose of this discussion I am also lumping all these higher spiritual bodies into what I am now going to call the spiritual body or spiritual vehicle.
Let's begin this discussion of the need for balance and integration with our three minds. Each mind is a level of mentation. Each mind being a higher level mind than the previous one, as described in a previous chapter. The ideal is that the subconscious becomes subservient to the conscious mind, and the conscious mind becomes subservient to the superconscious mind or soul.
Another way to say this is that we are meant to become the master of the subconscious mind, and the soul or Higher Self is our master teacher or guide. The Kahunas of Hawaii had a very eloquent way of explaining this. They call the Higher Self or soul the Aumakua. The aumakua is defined in Hawaiian as the "utterly trustworthy parental self". So our Higher Self and soul is our utterly trustworthy parental self, just as we, as the conscious mind are meant to be the utterly trustworthy parental self for our subconscious mind and inner child. We learn how to raise ourselves properly by following the example of how our soul and Higher Self raises us.
The Bible states very clearly that we are made in God's image. In the Bible it says that God is a Trinity, the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. In Hinduism they call this Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. In the Huna teachings of Hawaii this is termed Ku, Kane, and Kanaloa.
Just as God is a Trinity, since we are made in God's image, then we must be a trinity also, and we are. Our trinity is that of the superconscious, conscious, and subconscious mind. God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, are different levels of Divinity, however they function as one consciousness.,
The same ideal is true for us. The ideal is that our three minds function as one mind. The problem is that for most people the three minds are very disintegrated and imbalanced. A great many people don't even know they have a soul or Higher Mind guiding them, and most people let the subconscious, or lower level mind, run the conscious mind.
When the subconscious mind runs your life the negative ego becomes your director, and your emotional body and desires usually end up running your life. The first step of becoming balanced and integrated is to recognize that you have three minds.
The second step is to begin the process of learning to own your personal power and get in control of your subconscious mind and three lower vehicles as described in an earlier chapter. The third step is to begin attuning to and asking for help from your soul and Higher Self.
The three minds could be looked at like large metal rings. In the earlier stages of a person's evolution the rings are very separate. As one evolves and begins to develop self mastery and attunement to the soul, the rings begin to link up together.
At the time of the third initiation or the soul merge, these rings begin to merge together and start to function as one mind. This is because self mastery has been achieved to a great extent over the three fold personality (physical, emotional, and mental vehicles), and because the personality has become merged with soul consciousness by at least 51%.
As the stabilization of this soul merge state continues the three minds function in greater and greater harmony and balance. As the person continues to evolve, the monad or spiritual mind, as opposed to soul, begins to guide. At the fourth initiation the soul merges back into the Monad or spirit, and the Monad or Father in Heaven becomes the full director from then on in the person's evolution.
At the fifth initiation a similar integration and balancing of the three minds takes place in that the evolving person now merges completely with the Monad. At the third initiation you had soul merge, and at the fifth initiation you have Monadic merge.
The three rings in my metaphor and example have come together in an even higher union. At Ascension the Monad or Mighty I Am Presence descends completely into the evolving person on earth and into the four bodies and is transformed into light. Even the physical body merges completely with the light. One has achieved perfect integration and balance of the three minds and four bodies.
The Balancing of Your Four Bodies
To achieve the ultimate union, integration, and balance which is that of becoming an Ascended master, we must learn to balance the four bodies. Each of us has four distinct and separate bodies, each with a different and unique perspective.
Each of us has a physical body, an emotional body, a mental body, and a spiritual body. The ideal is to greatly respect and listen to all four simultaneously. What happens more often than not is that we tend to over identify with one or two to the detriment of the others. More than half the people in the world respond to life through an emotional body focus.
Some people you meet feel life as their main function. Other people you meet will think about life and are less concerned with their feelings. Others may be so involved with their spiritual body that they don't take care of their physical body, or may not even care about thinking or even feelings.
Others you meet are so involved with their physical body and physical existence they are completely cut off from their spiritual body, and possibly even intellectual pursuits or feelings. Usually I find that people tend to focus on one or two bodies and less on the other two or three.
As you are beginning now to see, a person can be over identified or under identified with each body. When this occurs the energy flowing down from the Creator does not flow properly or efficiently. This can and will ultimately manifest as poor health, or dis-ease in one of the four bodies if continued.
The physical body usually ends up being the mirror of these psychological imbalances. This is based on the Hermetic law, "As within, so without. As above, so below." By seeing where you are having health problems in your physical body you can then correlate the mental, emotional, or spiritual causation.
Most of us don't think about our four bodies until that time that some disturbance comes and we feel uncomfortable, and then we think about what is going on with our four body system.
Now the goal is to integrate the four bodies and to align their differing points of view, so as to use them all to be fully creative and to fulfill our potential and divine purpose for being here. We are all like cells in the body of God. When a cell in our body doesn't work properly and is disintegrated, this is called cancer. When we, as cells in God's body, don't work in harmony with God's divine plan, then in a sense, God has cancer. Part of the lesson of the four body system, is to get them all working for the same purpose, which is ideally spiritual growth, and God realization.
When the four bodies are balanced and integrated there is no restriction or limitation, and we are free flowing. When the four bodies are balanced we are fully able to realize God. Many people understand this with their mental body, but haven't aligned the other bodies with this truth.
The same thing happens with the balancing of the three minds very often. For example, understanding that the mind doesn't want to worry or be depressed any more, yet the subconscious mind isn't cooperating. The mental body may understand the ideal, but implementing or experiencing it fully with all four bodies may take a little more work and practice to make the ideal a living reality.
Each of the four bodies has a unique and special gift of information and guidance that it gives us. In a similar way each of the three minds gives us unique and special information. The soul or Monad may give us intuitive perceptions, and be the voice of our conscience, which gives us our morals and ethics.
The conscious mind gives us logic, reason, and deductive reasoning. The subconscious mind gives us feelings and emotional reactions to things. The physical body gives us instinctive reactions, and sensations. The Emotional body, which is connected to the subconscious mind function, again, focuses on how we feel in any given moment or situation and maybe psychic impressions.
The mental body gives us information as to perspective and logicalness of what is going on. The spiritual body or vehicle, which is intimately connected with the soul and Monad, again, gives us the intuition, conscience, and God's guidance.
When we over or under identify with one body or one mind we are losing invaluable information. It is the nature of the ego to tell you that the way that you process reality is the best. I am here to tell you that God's understanding of what is the best way to process your reality is to use all levels of guidance.
In business if people would tune into their three body and four body system when they make major decisions, I am sure that their businesses would be much more successful with less costly mistakes. Their spiritual vehicle would tell them one thing, their mind another, their feelings something else, the physical body and instincts yet another thing. We so often limit ourselves by just focusing on our feelings, or just on our reasoning, or impulsiveness, or just on fatigue, or intuition. Why not access all levels of information and guidance that God has provided for you.
As you get more and more balanced you will find your three minds and four bodies working in harmony and unison, for one purpose and one cause which is to make you successful on all levels, to realize God, and fulfill your mission and divine plan on earth.
Your Emotional Body
An emotional focus upon life can be very positive in its positive aspects. It makes one very sensitive to beauty, the arts, nature, music, and dance. An emotional body focus in its negative aspects causes the person often to be on an emotional roller coaster, being constantly tossed around by the unstableness of the emotional body.
This is remedied by learning to use your personal power and will to pull yourself out of this at a time of crisis. This can be done through attitudinal healing, because it is our thoughts that are creating our feelings and emotions. This can be difficult to do for a person who has an emotional focus, because they are so habituated to accessing just the emotional body.
A person who is too emotionally focused must learn to analyze and logically process what is going on more. A helpful visualization to use when the emotional body is in crisis is to imagine a red ladder, which is symbolic of the will. In your visualization climb the red ladder to get out of the negative feeling or emotion.
Another tool is to immediately do some affirmations, or chant the name of God and visualize His form. The need here is to use your mental faculties to balance the emotional over-identification in that moment.
Another extremely helpful tool is to imagine the golden bubble of protective light around you. This bubble allows in God's love and guidance, and the love and guidance of the Ascended Masters. It protects you, however, from negative feelings from your subconscious mind and from the negative feelings and energies from other people and the outside world.
This golden bubble is semi-permeable in that it will let in the love and positive energies, but keep out the negative ones. Now in your mind's eye, open a little hole in the bubble from the inside and push out all negative energy or feelings that may possibly still be inside the bubble. Once they have been pushed out, then close the hole again and lock it shut.
Now from above, imagine a golden white light pouring in from your soul, Monad and God filling you inside the bubble with positive energy and positive loving feelings and emotions. Start every day with this visualizing and spiritual and mental armor. I guarantee you that you will find yourself much more stable and even minded, peaceful, and joyous.
Even the earth has four bodies. Have you ever though about what the feeling body of the earth looks like? It has to do with its relationship to water, contrast a torrential rain storm, or a placid serene lake at sunrise.
Understanding your four body system can help you greatly to understand both romantic relationships and friendships. Think about your relationships with those people to whom you are closest and determine, in your mind, if they are emotionally focused, mentally focused, physically focused, spiritually focused, or a combination. By understanding this you will not try to impose your focus of identification on them.
Very often in marriages and romantic relationships, the man tends to be more mentally focused and the woman more emotionally focused. A lot of fights occur because each does not appreciate the gift you are bringing to the other. One could say that you are each disowned selves of each other.
One other fascinating continuation of the above mentioned thoughts, is the understanding that in reality it is the soul that is really learning when it is working with the four body system. What I mean by this is that the soul, as described in an early chapter, incarnates twelve personalities or soul extensions into physical incarnation.
Each of these soul extensions or personalities are experienced in simultaneous time, not in sequential time by the soul. If in one particular soul extension or personality it is trying to work out a particular emotional area and isn't succeeding, then it will work out that lesson through another of its soul extensions.
The soul may focus on a man in the Mayan civilization, and a woman in Lemuria, and another woman living in Los Angeles in the 21st century to work through this lesson. The soul learns through all twelve soul extensions simultaneously to achieve the soul realization it is looking for.
If one is having problems learning the lesson the soul is trying to learn through that personality, it will try to learn it through another. Finally through all these experiences of all twelve soul extensions, the four bodies become balanced and developed properly, so that one soul extension accepts the full expression of the soul, which is called the soul merge or third initiation.
This same process at a higher level occurs when one soul extension merges completely with the Monad at Ascension. So the soul literally uses the four bodies of each of its twelve soul extensions to learn.
To view spiritual growth from the perspective of the soul or the Monad rather than from the personality is quite an interesting process, I think you would agree. from the perspective of the soul, as mentioned earlier, we on earth as the soul extensions, are like the fingers on the soul's hand. If one isn't working properly it will just use another finger that is working. All the fingers are from the same body so it doesn't really matter which finger it uses to learn the lessons it needs to learn.
The Mental Body
Mass consciousness on earth is in the process of complete development of the mental body. This is because we are currently in the Aryan race and cycle whose focus is mental attunement. Atlantis was focused on emotional attunement, and Lemuria on physical attunement. Advanced humanity has already developed the mental body and is working already on the future Aquarian cycle with its development of the spiritual body.
The person who is identified with a mental focus very often gets so absorbed in this focus that they pay no attention to the emotional one. This can be like the stereotypical college professor who just pursues the intellectual area.
Someone who pays attention to the mental and spiritual bodies may be a highly developed occultist, but not focused enough on love and human relationships. Very often the person who is mentally focused will be less developed psychically and intuitively.
The danger of one who is over identified with the mental focus is to feel superior to the person who is emotionally focused and too immersed in this process. It is essential for the person to realize the equality of all four bodies. The same can be true for all the chakras. The higher ones are not better than the lower ones. The ideal is that all the chakras need to be balanced.
Balance and integration is the state of God realization. The person with a mental focus will seek to study everything, finding life so interesting, and always seeking greater knowledge. This is not bad, as long as it is balanced with the other four bodies.
Great scholars often forget their physical needs and cause themselves to get depleted physically because of this. The person who is over identified with the mental focus needs to use their will to shift this focus, and balance it with love and the needs of the inner child, and play and recreation time. To climb the ladder of awareness and evolve spiritually and fulfill our potential we must use all four bodies. The mental body on its own is a limited perspective.
One helpful exercise might be to let the mental and emotional bodies talk to each other, either out loud or in your journal writing, to help create a better balance. Then let the spiritual body guide the two of them with a voice also given to the physical body.
A person who is mentally focused has a million questions. They think about life and unblock it through creative intelligence. Each body needs to be instructed as to its divine role and its proper balanced relationship to the other bodies. I think you will find that all your four bodies will be happy to cooperate as long as each of them know that they have their balanced place in service of the divine plan.
When a problem or challenge arises, determine whether it is a physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual problem, or combination. See if the communication links between the four bodies is operating effectively. Try to determine how the four bodies can work together as one team to solve the problem in attunement to the soul's purpose.
In the earth's four body system the mental body of the earth might be looked at as the man made structures. For example, the pyramid, or skyscrapers and cathedrals are mental expressions of the earth. In another framework or way of looking at this, the air element is part of the mental structure of the earth, as water is for the emotional body of the earth.
The Physical Body
The physical body is the part of self that functions here on earth. This vehicle, as with other bodies, only performs as well as it is cared for. If we don't feed it proper food and give it physical exercise, sunshine, fresh air, and recreation, it will begin to have problems.
Another thing the physical body needs is love. Very often we take the physical body for granted and do not recognize it as the divine being that it is. We do not thank it enough for the wonderful service it performs for us.
Many people choose to experience their spiritual lessons in life through the physical body in the form of illnesses and other types of dysfunctions. When this happens it is a gift and a teaching that is trying to tell us that we are out of balance in some way.
As mentioned earlier the physical body is a reflector or mirror of the state of functioning of our other bodies. If we have stomach problems this usually has to do with some emotional imbalance. If we have feet problems this has to do with our understanding. If we have headaches, this has to do with issue of control, either being too controlling or people controlling us too much.
When we truly learn to be balanced in our four bodies and learn to be guided and merged with our soul and later our Monad, the physical body literally will live forever. An Ascended Master can live indefinitely on earth as many of the Ascended Masters have proven.
In respect to the physical body it is very important to make sure that your energy intake valve at the top of your head is always open. This can be visualized like a funnel. If this valve is closed this is the cause of tiredness and fatigue. When the four bodies aren't balanced it takes a toll on the physical body, for the proper flow of energy is not feeding it.
Very often subconscious patterns get imbedded into the physical vehicle and body itself. Just clearing your thoughts is not enough. It is often necessary to physically exercise, or receive body work also to help move the pattern. We must work on all levels to clear ourselves, not just from the spiritual or mental level.
The physical body provides a point of focus on the earth for the soul to experience through. This provides a means for the soul to enter a school, and an entire new set of lessons, which can greatly accelerate spiritual growth. When a soul is not in a physical body, spiritual growth is much slower. If you knew what a great demand there was for physical bodies in the spiritual world you would probably respect the one you have much more.
The physical body also provides a grounding place for the soul from which to explore and to integrate what is learned on other levels. A person can not go through the initiation process without being in a physical body. When your mental and emotional bodies become imbalanced and this causes you to over-eat, or over-drink and obtain adequate exercise, the physical body becomes traumatized.
We must learn to treat the physical body like the divine being, and the divine partner that it is. It has intelligence, and can actually be communicated with, and will talk back. It desires to be of service to you and the divine plan as long as you will give it the respect of making it an equal partner.
The four bodies are like musical instruments, each with a different vibration and tone. We must learn to weave these bodies together like a beautiful symphony. To always play just one instrument would be boring and monotonous. To play them all together in perfect balance and harmony, in service of the soul, and God's divine plan is something to behold and to listen to. This is what the Masters have referred to as the music of the spheres.
Many young people on this planet who are over-identified with the physical focus run and exercise, and physically play all the time. They are relating to life from a physical sense. Other people we know may spend their day physically exercising all day long, and don't spend enough time exercising their minds, emotions, or spiritual self. We must learn to seek balance and moderation in all things.
This example could be applied to sexuality. Some people over indulge in this energy and don't raise this universal energy from the second chakra to the other chakras and bodies. The lesson for us is to become whole and not fragmented, or function as an extremist.
It is ok for a short period of time to emphasize one of your four bodies in a little more focused manner (for example, writing a book, going on a vacation, going to a meditation retreat, or running and training to run in a marathon.) This is fine as long as the overall context of one's life is one of balance and integration.
Spiritual Body
The spiritual vehicle or body is the means by which we experience as an individualized portion of the Creator. It is the vehicle in which we begin our experience and then in which we are destined to complete our experience.
As we grow and evolve we ultimately drop the physical vehicle, then drop the emotional vehicle, then the mental vehicle, and eventually return to our spiritual vehicle. We drop them one by one until we return to the essence of our Self, our soul and then our Monad.
The other vehicles are our means of achieving this ultimate goal of Ascension. In order to achieve this goal the four bodies must be balanced and integrated properly in daily life on the earth plane in service of God's divine plan.
To become a master mechanic one must know how to take a car apart and put it back together almost blindfolded. We, as future co-creators with God at the highest level, must know how to take our four bodies apart and put them back together in perfect harmony and balance before we can ascend and become Masters. As we learn these lessons and this knowledge is absorbed back into the spiritual vehicle or body. We are then thrust forward into a higher level of awareness and spiritual expansion.
The spiritual vehicle, on whatever level of awareness we look at, is forever attuned to God. When we reach that level there is no more pain because there is never a point of losing focus on God. We suffer in our four bodies whenever we are out of harmony with God and God's laws on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual law.
As long as we stay in harmony with God's laws on this plane we will not suffer. When we do suffer it is just a sign that we need to seek truth, and we have broken one of God's laws. This is not a punishment, but a gift. If we don't suffer, I don't think very many people would seek God. They would be satisfied being in a rut, thinking they were happy for eternity, not realizing what they are missing.
The small amount of joy that the personality can obtain through earth life is so infinitesimally small compared to the joy and love found in God and the spiritual path. Our suffering is like a gentle kick from God keeping us on the straight and narrow path towards the realization of God and service to mankind. This is what we really want anyway. The suffering is just a safeguard keeping us moving in the right direction.
The spiritual body encompasses and encases all of our potential which we are not yet able to use. The spiritual body is like a ladder we climb that is achieved by the interacting with the other bodies. We use our other bodies to climb the ladder of awareness to our full spiritual potential.
Each time we make a realization, we lighten up our spiritual body or light body. So a person who is clairvoyant can tell at what point a person is in their evolution by looking at the amount of light they are allowing in their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies.
Ideally the three bodies work towards the goal of the spiritual body, and the soul and Monad. As the soul merges into the four body system this brings even more balance, because the soul and later the Monad are incapable of any other response. It is only the negative ego in us that causes us to be out of balance. This is why the soul merge or third initiation is such a significant achievement in the person's evolution.
It means you have balanced your four bodies enough to achieve this merger, which helps to create even greater stabilization of the four body relationship. After the soul merge there is more energy and life force present on the physical level.
Summary
This has been a fairly in depth discussion of the four body system. For those of you who would like more information and study on this I would recommend that you contact the Tibetan Foundation.
Copyright © 2004 Dr Joshua David Stone. All Rights Reserved.
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