The Spirit Area: Path, Ego, and Balance

The path

We’re all walking a spiritual path, whether we realize it or not. We cannot escape our true nature, only surrender to it, or perhaps avoid it for a while. Spirit is the source of consciousness and the force that unites all things. Revealing the sacredness of our life, it gives birth to meaning and opens the door to what lies beyond the visible. Our ability to grow in awareness and encounter the unseen is both a gift and a responsibility. To know who you are is to awaken your Spirit—our connection to something far grander and infinitely more intelligent than ourselves. It guides us, if we have the courage to trust it.

Death

By developing the Spirit area, we learn to die before we die, and come to realize that there is no death. This influences our life in subtle ways, yet in time it becomes unmistakable. We become more fearless, authentic, and willing to pursue our destiny. We must learn to listen and release much of what we think we know. It’s an area of space and silence, but direct experience is certainly possible. Rumi put it this way: “Stop acting so small, you are the universe in ecstatic motion.”¹ To awaken means to die more—to let go, again, and again.

Without connection to the divine, we’re more likely to succumb to the adversities every human must face and drift from the path laid out for us. Anything that frightens the ego, whether it be criticism of one’s neighbors, hardship along the road, or fear for the ending of a relationship, can only be overcome by connecting with spirit. Without realizing what’s eternal, we get lost in trivial games of survival, power, and identity. To be bound by time is ego; to be set free by the timeless is spirit. To find meaning and peace in this lifetime is the fruit of cultivating the Spirit area.

Spirit and ego

The force of spirit is so powerful that it can easily sweep us off our feet. Yet it often moves more slowly and subtly than the mind can understand. Spirit is always present, as long as we’re alive, and so is our ego. This interplay between ego and spirit is a delicate dance, and one misstep can lead us astray. In pursuing a spiritual path, our personal reality can change so drastically that it can alienate us from our environment. Many must go through a dark night of the soul in order to awaken. It is said that “a visionary is one who can find his way by moonlight and see the dawn before the rest of the world.”² The darkness, is necessary in order for the light to get it in,

Developing our spiritual capabilities will increase our intuition and other capabilities. Our ego can utilize these gifts for the wrong ends. When the light inside us increases, the darkness has to reveal itself more and more. Awakening is a process, not a destination, and the ego will always try to enter through the back door. Trustworthy guidance in the Spirit area is rare because being a spiritual teacher is, by definition, stepping into the role of a leader. For many, the challenge of ego gratification is too great to bear, and so they ‘fall’ from grace. It’s therefore wise to always come back to one’s own connection with the divine and simplify both practice and spiritual education.

Pillars

Grounding spirituality in core pillars helps turn the Spirit area into a path of progress rather than derailment. By nature, it is ethereal and difficult to define. The core of any area differentiates per individual, and each of us must, to some extent, walk the path to unity for ourselves, however paradoxical that may seem.

Awareness

Cultivating and deepening our awareness leads to a deeper presence. There are many layers to awareness, and it can be developed through practices such as prayer, meditation, and shamanic practices. Growing our awareness, however, is not a linear pursuit, and no end goal can ever be reached.

Communion

Direct experience of the divine is the fruit of exploring the depths of your soul. We must choose to walk through the door to the inner universe. As the green emerald tablet ³ tells us: as above so below, as within so without. Whether it’s religion, sacred texts, direct encounters, or nature, choose a method that helps you cultivate communion in a sustainable way.

Devotion

A direct encounter with the sacred can give rise to devotion, and devotion can also become a way of approaching the divine. It can be cultivated through acts of reverence and dedication to the unseen, unheard, and unspoken. Bhakti yoga and Sufism are two well-known paths shaped by a devotional outlook.

Alchemy & Healing

Alchemy is the transformation of lead into gold, or inwardly, the transformation of suffering into consciousness. While alchemy is an individual process, healing is the restoration of right relationship with the seen and unseen dimensions of life.

Virtue

When we’ve realized unity, we shape more of our daily lives in line with virtue.  Without embodiment, Spirit is useless, yet this arises naturally and cannot be trained. As Lao Tze said: “if you act virtuously, this is a clear sign that virtue is absent” ⁴

Signs of balance/imbalance

When the area of Spirit is balanced, we feel connected to something larger than ourselves. We experience more joy, more space, and are willing to listen to life. We’ve realized our true nature, beyond our ego. And because we’ve transformed the desire for control into that of surrender, life becomes more peaceful. Your awareness is growing, and therefore your experience of life has changed to one of more presence. This is a central step in becoming caretakers and supporting life on the planet, of which human beings play a crucial role.⁵

An imbalance in this area will usually manifest as a shortcoming in another area. It can be categorized as a form of fear. Little things, like the scratch on your car, an airplane that’s cancelled, a spouse that’s angry, can only have a great influence on you when you haven’t realized your inner being. Ultimately, the fear of death will be ever-present in small moments in one's life. Caught up by other things, you’ll lose yourself in the game of Lila, as the yogis put it—the universe is nothing but Brahman (God) having a divine theater, and we are but actors within it.

Relationships to other areas

Spirit is in direct polarity with Matter, meaning that investment in either one of these areas takes away energy from the other. Spirit is inherently non-physical, while Matter is purely physical. Many achieve externally while remaining inwardly unfulfilled. Others cultivate inner depth but fail to build a stable life. Harmony requires us to cultivate both areas, so we don’t experience the cost of neglect. ⁶

Spirit aligns with Heart and Relationships, creating flow in our lives. Developing and investing in the spirit area can easily provide benefit to the areas of Heart and Relationships, and vice versa. It’s also important to develop those other areas succinctly because otherwise we’ll become more imbalanced. Having direct experiences of the divine can help open up our heart, and is often of great benefit for the community. That is why religions are so powerful and have more influence over people than business ever does.

The True Self

The Spirit area is a beautiful part of being human that can be both easy and very elusive to cultivate. By realizing there’s more to life than our ego self, we can realize our true Self. This Self is not bound by time, place, or a personal story. If we start taking guidance from our Self, we can expect our life to transform and take an unexpected direction. The divine does not care so much for human comfort, and a spiritual journey can thus be very challenging and demand sacrifice. Yet the fruits of having a divine experience while being alive can, in turn, support all our areas.

Footnotes

1. Often attributed to Rumi

2. The Critic of Artist, by Oscar Wilde

3. The Kybalion, by Hermes Trismegistus

4. Tao te Ching, by Lao Tze

5. A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle

6. Navigate to the Service tab here: Service area