The Importance of Our Humanity in the Search for "Spirit."

People everywhere are now being told to look within. Among the many encouraging voices, you also hear mine through this Blog. But I want to bring attention today to the importance of keeping our perspective on the human element of ourselves. I think our humanity is just as critically important as our spirituality.

I remember my class on “Self-Discovery” at Unity Village, taught by Rev. Robert Brumet. In 10 hours, two hours each weekday, Brumet helped us unlock the mystery of our humanity and our personalities. One of the tools he used to do that was “The Enneagram” by Helen Palmer.

“The Enneagram” lists nine personality types that many psychologists use to profile people and also to help them understand themselves and why they make the choices and do the things that they do. Studying the Enneagram was a real eye-opener for me.

Being the youngest of nine children in my family, three boys and six girls, I was able to see...truly see...the personality of each of my other eight brothers and sisters.

We all fit into each of the different personality types: The Perfectionist
(1) The Giver (2) The Performer (3) The Tragic Romantic (4)The Observer (5) The Devil’s Advocate (6) The Epicure/Adventurer (7) The Boss(8) The Mediator (9). And each of us plays a distinct and unique role in our family.

What I appreciated most about the “Enneagram” is that it helps us to understand fully what the world looks like to that personality type. NO one personality is superior; each sees the world in a different way and operates from that view. The “Enneagram” is eerily accurate and because of this, it also helps us take corrective action, if needed, because of the tendencies in our personalities.

Another important class I took at Unity also focused on our humanity: The Twelve Powers of Man. This class, taught by Rev. John Anderson, focused on the powers that humans have within them: Faith, Imagination (Creativity), Zeal (Enthusiasm), Power, Will, Understanding (Discernment), Love, Strength, Wisdom (Judgment), Order, Elimination and Life itself!

There are several books written on The Twelve Powers. My class had only one text, but most of my classmates and I interchanged several books to get a full scope of ideas. The important thing is that at the end of the class, we understood fully how and why we may be tremendously successful in one area of life and not in another: we simply have not focused on developing that aspect of ourselves.

Most importantly, we understood why some individuals who are not in any way spiritual...don’t even know God’s name...are succeeding in material ways of which we can only dream: The Twelve Powers of Man are available to each person in the world. Each person either uses it, or, loses it! Most of the time, most of us are just using one to one-third of The Twelve Powers.

So with my training and my having lived to the age that I have, I KNOW there are several aspects to this unique being called Che’. Each part of me...and of you...is critically important to the development of the whole.

Should we focus solely on the Spiritual, our humanity, i.e. the human aspects of ourselves, including our egos, will fall short and will start clamoring for attention. To be a fully actualized person, we need to be willing and able to develop ALL aspects of ourselves and keep some in check, like our egos.

I know there are those who believe that The Presence encompasses ALL of who we are i.e. the spiritual and the human, including personality, ego and other aspects. (See Namaste Publishing’s Blog: Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, March 30. I am the first to admit that I need to get into the subject matter on a deeper level in order to understand this aspect of “Presence.” When I do, then this community will be the first to hear about my enlightenment.) For our purposes here, though, Presence or Spirit is incorruptible and is our true SELF. Our humanity includes our corruptible self and all its concommitant challenges.

I think the biggest mistake any one walking the Spiritual path can make is to neglect their humanity, focusing solely on spiritual development. I made that “mistake,” but I did so consciously, knowing that I was choosing to develop my spiritual self, which I felt was critically absent from my life at that time.

Once I reached a certain plateau, Spirit, itself, told me when to get off and back into the reality of the world, with my personality, ego, issues and all of life. But in re-entering, I was stronger and wiser, because I then had Spirit as my constant guide and companion.

Spirit cannot take care of our everyday affairs. Through meditation and focus and prayer, we are guided to living life a certain way...a truly beautiful way. But only if we pay attention, listen, discern and follow guidance.

I have seen many spiritual people, following a strictly “purist” Spiritual philosophy, struggle very badly to make ends meet day to day. As one of my friends recently wrote to me, “Most spiritual people I know are totally broke! They take NO ACTION! ”

Prayer, meditation, faith and trust in God help the inner person develop. God cannot be GOD if he cannot ACT through us. We are the channel for God’s good. So, we must follow the guidance we’re given in mediation and prayer, not wait for God to deliver us! He can’t do that; he has no hands or feet but ours.

We need to ACT when we’re given guidance to do so. We must go BOLDLY forward ; we must ACT without fear, doubt or worry about the results, knowing and feeling in our Spirit that all is well because God is in Charge! This is “Divine Order” operating in and through your life and as your life.

So taking action, paying attention to our human needs and the tendencies of our personality are also critically important to Wholeness.

The reason so many of us are now focusing on the Spiritual is that it often has been overlooked, even NEGATED, in some religious practices. I’m excited about the raised consciousness that is now unfolding EVERYWHERE.

But as we move forward into the uncovering of more and more of our Spirit, i.e. The Presence, let us not negate or neglect the human aspects of ourselves. Let us keep our feet firmly planted on the ground.

Let us use the power of WISDOM to guide us, as well as use spiritual guidance.

Let us continue to honor our humanity... our personalities and their frailties... just as diligently as we seek to find the Divine Presence within.

Namaste’,

Che’
NOTE: Later this week, I will discuss the process of "co-creating" our world with God by connecting to Spirit within.