In my previous Post I asked my Readers a question regarding the use of antonym's and synonym's to evaluate a series of quotes from well known Authors and determine if they were using the language of eternal matters or temporal matters. the answer is - each one of the quotes used what seems to be eternal language, but can only have temporal meanings. This same issue occurs in religion through Speakers, Writings, and Doctrines. One can only imagine the confusion created over the years by countless repetition of many of these same teachings.
If wellness of the body, the mind, and the spirit are to be understood and applied to our lives we must sift through the vernacular, the articulation, the doublespeak, the gibberish, the lingua franca, the synonyms and the antonyms to get to the facts.
Every living human being has a spirit. Every living human being has a soul. At the point of conception a living spirit was created with eternal life associated within it. Also at the point of conception a living soul was created, which is also eternal in nature. The soul is at the very center of our being. When the human spirit and the soul are combined they form what is described as the heart. The soul is developed through our life experiences - good and bad. Over years of training we become soulish people, that is to say "ruled by the soul". It is the soulish nature that has control over our actions. How we think, and how we act out is determined by vears of soul conditioning. There in is the problem - as the soul grew in authority the spirit failed to thrive. It is the immature spirit that suffers the consequences.
Soul life is the result of life experiences which in turn will determine our reaction to those experiences. We continue to build upon those experiences until our reaction become automatic. When the soul becomes the controlling factor of our actions (or lack of actions) we have become soulish in nature. On the other hand we have a spirit. When the spirit is suppressed or overwhelmed by the soul it will render the spirit to an almost anemic state. Starving for input the spirit suffers from a lack of nutrition while the soul consumes everything that comes its way. Therefore the statement, "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak", becomes just the opposite of our true condition which is - "The body is willing, but the spirit is weak". The soul has become the controlling force of the action or lack of action of the body. With the soul constantly seeking gratification through the body we are in a controlled state, controlled wholly by the soul.
Controlled by the soul the body, the mind, and the spirit have no reason to exist other than to gratify the selfish and sometimes destructive desires of the soul. The concept of total body wellness is foreign to its very existence and thus it will fight the spirit for control. Total body wellness requires that the spirit (as weakened as it is) take control back from the soul with a sense of urgency. A fully charged spirit can and will take control of the soul. The soul that is controlled by the spirit will desire wellness as a way of life for the body, the mind, and the spirit itself.