The trikona in the fifth chakra, the downward pointing triangle, represents the Beloved reaching down for us, to help bring us Home.  Sada-Siva  means the everpresent Siva.  Since there is only One, Spirit is always there and ready to help if we only ask.  Probably the most important zhikr in Sufism is La ilaha il’allah hu.  La ilaha il’allah means there is only one god.  Hu means the omnipresent oneness or Presence.  God is always there.

Since we are talking about integration and wholeness, this unit will be organized around the various parts of ourselves that need healing and integrating.  So we will look at the body, mind, ego, emotions, soul and relationships, note a few common disorders and what is required to heal them.  Following that, we will see what wholeness in each of these parts looks like and, finally, what a fully liberated person might resemble.

   On the path of practice, we adopt the belief that disease happens from within, and
    so must any cure.  We decide that any lack of peace or dis-ease or illness becomes
    an occasion to go deeper into ourselves, to examine where we must make changes
    in order to heal our bodies, feelings, or lives.  We accept that our ailment is an
    assignment, and that to complete it satisfactorily, we must do research into it and
    into ourselves.  Each of us is unique; no one else can complete our assignment for us.  
    –Bri. Maya Tiwari (2000, p. 2-3).

We usually think of wholeness in terms of body, mind and spirit.  In this context, we will let soul stand in for spirit because it is the aspect that is most likely to be injured as a result of living in the world.  Spirit is impregnable.

Body

Most disorders in the body show up as illness, disease or some sort of malfunctioning.  As we saw in an earlier guidebook, the model of a person resembles a series of concentric circles (Figure II-1) that interpenetrate each other.  We also learned that difficulties at higher levels of the person, if not dealt with at that level, filter down to lower levels until finally manifesting in the body.  What this means is that a spiritual or mental problem can show up as an emotional or physical disorder if it is not confronted and resolved at the level at which it originated.  Or an emotional issue can be expressed in the body.  Most of the bodywork disciplines and therapies help the body to release what is stored in the cells and muscles, so the individual can recognize and address the problem.  

Another source of difficulty in the body is aging.  As a result of time and wear and tear, the body begins to degenerate and its functions slow down or begin to malfunction.  Reaction time slows and everything takes longer.  Muscles and joints tend to stiffen, arthritis may set in.  If during the lifetime the body has been abused by overeating, drug and alcohol abuse, smoking, lack of exercise, stress and lack of moderation and reasonable care, more lethal forms of degeneration such as cancer, strokes, diabetes, and heart attacks may occur.

There are numerous ways to prevent or cope with these problems.  However, keep in mind that it takes seven years for the body to completely replace itself, so don’t expect miracles if you have let it go unattended.  However, with determination and care over time, most of the body’s health can be recaptured.

Nutrition is critical.  The body can only use what is put into it as fuel.  So, if you do not eat properly, whatever nutrients are lacking will skew your health.  Using chemical drugs to try to correct dis-ease tends to compound the problem because the body can become  poisoned by the chemicals.  There is a wealth of information now on the market about how to care for your body, what nutrients are related to the various systems of the body and how to use them to best advantage.  Optimal wellness by Ralph Golan (1995) and Nutrition almanac by Kirschmann and Dunne (1973) are two good ones to use as source information.  Optimal wellness describes the major systems of the body and what they need for optimal performance.  The Nutrition almanac describes the nutrients the body needs and how to use them.  Both of these books are probably out in newer editions than mine.  Supplements and herbs are particularly useful in staving off the effects of aging.  My impression is that assimilation of the vitamins and minerals that are needed by the body slows down in older age, so adding them to the diet really helps.

If you can handle a vegetarian diet, you may feel better and be in less danger from cardiovascular disorders.  However, there is a body type that must have meat in order to feel right and have enough energy to function.  Usually folks of this type  have the O+ blood type.  If you fall into this category, by all means eat the meat you need.  You can still cut down on red meat which tends to be fattier, to have adrenalin and possibly hormones in it from production practices.

There are also other systemic disorders, some inherited, some created that you must see a doctor about, but once the problem is identified and if it is not critical, do some research and see if you can remedy it before accepting drugs.  For instance, I have a tenuous calcium/magnesium balance and my body will cramp if I do not get enough of them as well as the right ratio between them.  I am able to keep this under control by taking a calcium/magnesium supplement and vitamin D which is necessary to metabolize calcium.  Another disorder that may be hereditary is diabetes.  It is related to faulty carbohydrate metabolism as is the weight gain that usually accompanies it (Puhn, 2003).  Diabetes can be controlled with diet and supplements if you do the necessary research.  

These are just a few examples of how to care for your body by giving it the proper nutrients.  They highlight the importance of taking responsibility for your own health and for finding the cause of anything that goes wrong.  Look first at your current lifestyle to see if you are abusing or starving your body.  If not, look at other levels of your being for problems or issues that might be manifesting through the body.  Body language is very helpful here since the disorder’s location in the body is related to the issue.  I had tendonitis in my heel for two and a half  years because I was afraid to fall in love.  (I’m sure you know the story of Achilles and his heel.)  Falling in love healed it.  The phonetic similarity is no accident, of course.

Adequate exercise and sleep go without saying.  Sleep occurs in 90-minute intervals, so the only way you can get eight hours is by use of an alarm clock.  However, it is possible to teach your body to awake at a specified time if you take the 90-minute intervals into consideration.  Obviously you have to get enough sleep or inner timing won’t work,  so aim for 7 ½ or 9 hours/night.

Hatha Yoga is ideal exercise plus it prepares your bodymind for meditation.  Done, correctly, Yoga will stretch and condition every muscle in your body to say nothing of harnessing the breath.  Pranayama can go in tandem with Hatha Yoga as breath training.  Both practices are subsets of Raja Yoga or meditation.

It is important to learn how to deal with your sexuality, to find an appropriate way to express it.  A committed relationship is the best context as it allows relaxation and safety.  If you are celibate or not in a relationship, sexual energy can be transmuted through specific practices that have already been covered in previous guidebooks (see last page of Unit VI).

Stress takes enormous tolls on the body, so it is wise to learn how to reduce it and keep it under manageable control.  Exercise helps relieve it.  So does bodywork.  In this domain, your attitude is critical.  The Type A personality that is hard-driving and ambitious is particularly prone to stress-related illnesses.  It would be better for your body to focus attention on acceptance of what is as we noted before.

Lastly, a positive attitude toward life, one that is optimistic, outgoing, kind and friendly toward others tends to allow the body to relax and release its tensions.  A sense of humor is a gift from God.  If you don’t have one, it can be cultivated.  Perhaps you take yourself too seriously.  If you cannot laugh at yourself and your foibles, you are in serious trouble.

Exercise: Physical health

1.  Read  The heart of healing (Institute of Noetic Sciences & Poole, W., 1993) or use one of the books mentioned above.  Do some research on your own to help you understand how your body works, so you can take charge of its condition.

2.  If you are not already engaged in one of the spiritual disciplines that works on the body such as Yoga, Tai Chi, Aikido or Qi Gong, experiment with a few classes and see if you can find one that inspires you to continue.  Look for how the discipline connects you to your spiritual aspirations.


Mind

It is probably only necessary to mention disorders of the mind as so much attention has already been paid to them.  Psychopathology comes to mind first and needs professional attention when it occurs.  This category would include neurosis, psychosis, and other forms of mental illness that are clinically recognized.  Aside from mental illness, the problem that is most invasive and resistant to change is discursive thinking, the run-on background chatter in the mind that we all experience.  With persistance, this responds  to meditation; that is, those forms of meditation that do not entertain you as does music, visualization, working in the garden, sports or exercising.  Vipassana meditation is the most effective I know of.  You just sit there without any stimulation: alive and awake, watching.

Inability to concentrate is another problem.  Mindfulness training or concentration forms of meditation address this issue satisfactorily.

Allowing the senses to dominate your life is another problem that is not so obvious because our materialistic society blesses and advertises it.  However, the senses feed the mind, so allowing them to go unchecked means the mind will soon follow.  The basic senses need to be refined into higher level feelings that can inform the spiritual journey.  This will result in the development of intuition and the buddhi mind.  Discipline is essential, so the mind does not run amok.

Discontentment is allied to repression as well as to a busy mind.  When there are memories and energies that are tied up in repression, the mind becomes irritated and restless.  Working through purification exercises and practices (cf. Return to Spirit, Books I-III) as well as meditation will enable subconscious issues to surface so you can deal with them.  Eventually, contentment and harmony will be the result.

Thoughts are one of the components of attitudes (emotion is the other), so it is important to learn how to govern our thinking processes if we want to shift our attitudes to more favorable outlooks on life.  Sometimes negative attitudes are simply habitual.  When that is the case, systematic work on them can usually turn them around.  Chronic irritability, complaining, whining, criticizing and temper tantrums are signs of negative attitudes.  Affirmations can help in this regard as can pinpointing and removing the negative thoughts behind them.

Emotions

You will, by now, be familiar with the distinctions between emotions and feelings.  Usually the emotions that prove troublesome are negative ones such as fear, anger, mistrust, hatred, spitefulness, jealousy, envy, etc.  Most of these can be dealt with by changing our thinking or our interpretations of what is happening.  Examining expectations and assumptions is also productive.  

The most recalcitrant emotion is fear, and fear is very likely the basis for many of the other emotions.  The reason it is difficult to deal with is that it is grounded in survival instincts.  In addition, it gets attached to other ego control mechanisms, so it manifests in a myriad of different forms.

Emotions are healed by disarming them, finding and deleting the thoughts, habits  and energies that are sustaining them.  Sometimes it is necessary to go back into the past and unearth repressed traumas or memories.  This is an example of how mental activity can influence emotions and even the body.  Therapy may be necessary if the emotional stress is too intense.  Otherwise, the purification practices we have been using will likely do the job.

Renunciation, detachment, acceptance and surrender are spiritual practices that work on cleansing and subduing tempestuous emotions.  Attempting to cultivate contentment, trust, empathy and compassion will help substitute more favorable attitudes.  Emotion is the other factor that creates an attitude, so a two-pronged approach of investigation into thoughts and emotions can yield information about and promote change in attitudes.

Soul

Soul emerges as an important player in the higher level chakras because it is the character that mediates between Spirit and the egomind.  It is partly divine and partly human, so it has a foot in both courts.  However, this also means that it can be torn between two allegiances.  As a result of socialization practices and repression, we become disconnected from the Source and spend the rest of our lives yearning for our spiritual Home.   Loss of soul causes wounds that never heal because they are repressed and cut off from consciousness.  Hence they cannot be addressed and healed but simmer continually below the surface with unrequited energies.  Also, as a result of repression and the necessity for conformity, the soul becomes overpowered by the egomind whose primary wish is to keep painful issues out of sight and mind.

Healing the soul is a matter of reversing the patterns that created the wounds.  In order to do that, they must be unearthed, recognized, and lovingly confronted with  forgiveness, empathy and compassion.  This is never easy because there is so much pain involved.  Purification work clears the decks, but then we must go deeper.  Dream work can offer a gateway to the unconscious as does visualization, doing artwork, listening to music, daydreaming and ritual.  It is important to check out your boundaries and make sure they are appropriate - neither too stringent nor too lax.  It is really important to recognize that those relationships which caused the wounding have now changed and are no longer powerful forces in our lives.  Finding ways to forgive those who hurt us is essential; but, in order to do so, we may need to discover the motivation behind whatever they did.  On the other hand, the culprit may turn out to be our own minds and how we interpreted the situation at the time.  Or we may have misunderstood the reasons for what happened due to our immaturity at the time.  In cases of outright abuse, we remove ourselves from the scene and examine the ignorance and pain of the abuser to see if we can reconstrue what happened.  In any case, events from the past can be reframed in the light of what we now know so as to remove their traumatic charges.

Breathwork is often helpful in healing the soul because it connects the body and mind, and also because it aids relaxation.  Breath can be used to open the chakras and as a support for chanting and mantra.  It can be used to bring healing light into specific parts of the body and mind.  It is also used in Tong Len to help remove traumatic negative energies.  For more instruction in how to use Light in healing, consult Hands of Light by Barbara Brennan (1988) or one of her later books.

Love is the most powerful medicine in the world.  Even if you have no one else to love you at the moment, you can generate love for yourself, or for your inner child.  Rick Phillips’ (1996, 1997) books deal with such techniques as does much of contemporary transpersonal psychotherapy practice and bodywork.  But, most important, is the love of Spirit or the Beloved which is omnipresent and unchanging, totally reliable once we learn how to tune in to it.  This is done through meditation and devotional practices as well as mantra and zhikr.  Sacred dance, if you have access to it, is also helpful.  Finally, the love of a favorite animal can temporarily substitute for other sources of love in the interim.  There is something deeply satisfying about the purring of a cat on your lap or the snoring of a beloved dog at your feet in the evening.  Horses, birds, dolphins and other animals have their own forms of loving that are equally advantageous.  There are times in everyone’s life where this kind of love may be the only thing available; and, it seems to me, that our pets are thus surely gifts from God.

Relationships

Problems in our own psycho-spiritual dynamics almost inevitably spill over into relationships with others whether it be family, friends, coworkers or just acquaintances.  We have already discussed projection which is a primary cause of poor relations, but there are numerous others.  Almost all are due to ego’s efforts at control.  Some power issues show up as suspicion, dominance, rape, enslavement, engulfment, conflict, patriarchy and argumentive discord.  The inner judge manifests as criticism, comparisons, competition, put-downs, pride, authority and all forms of non-egalitarianism.  Insecurity and jealousy may lead to betrayal, possessiveness or excessive dependencies.  These are just a few examples.  You can come up with others from your own experience.

Healing relationships begins at home, with healing ourselves.  We need to undo projections and reclaim responsibility for our own woundedness.  The judge must be cut down to size and put in the service of the Higher Self.    The inner child must be acknowledged and protected in its vulnerability.  We have to learn how to set and protect our boundaries and to keep them flexible.  All of this is basic self-maintenance.  Beyond that come the spiritual practices to develop patience, tolerance, forbearance, forgiveness, gratitude, kindness, compassion, sensitivity, courtesy, consideration and empathy.  All of these characteristics also serve to define and describe the enlightened being.

Now let us look at what the healed individual would be like.

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