by Milton Johanides

Created on: July 20, 2009   Last Updated: July 22, 2009

A theoretical model for existence that serves adequately to explain every known element of life as we know it is the tripartite summary of mind, body and soul. This states that there are three modes of existence: cognitive awareness (mind), materiality (body) and spirituality (soul).

Cognitive awareness - is everything that enables intellectual activity - learning processes, memory, intelligence, self-awareness (ego), sensuality (selfish love) and religious awareness. It aspires to the accumulation of knowledge, such as science, history, geography, etc. and finds ultimate fulfilment in artistic, scientific and cultural endeavours, both the practice and appreciation of. Different members of the species of man can develop their cognitive awareness to differing degrees. At the lower end of the scale are low learning capabilities with little or no control over physical cravings, at the higher end are enlightened awareness capabilities that connect via ethereal highways to the godhead.

Materiailty - is the physical world we sense all around us including our own bodies. We know this exists through our five senses, which are in accordance with those of other members of our species. It covers all the physical appetites such as hunger, thirst, and sexual reproduction. It is constrained by the time space continuum and is linked to the cycle of nature, of birth, growth and maturity. It aspires to strength, physical satisfaction and fitness for survival, but ultimately is doomed to dissatisfaction, decay through old age, and death. Control over physical appetites is achieved through development of cognitive awareness.

Spirituality - is the hardest to prove since it relies primarily on faith in the unseen. It is the connection to the immortal within us and beyond us, the eternal, the unchanging, the beginning and the end of the material experience. Spirituality aspires to faith, hope and charitable love. Charity is an altruistic motive which competes for predominance in our lives with the self-serving materialism of the body. It is known primarily through its aesthetic influences on our environment and in the perfect mechanism we know as creation.

Interdependence of the three states -There are ethereal highways which link all the modes of existence to the original source of existence and all three are in this way interrelated and interdependent. Existence is essentially a struggle between the material and spiritual needs of the individual, the battle between body and soul. The source godhead of existence, the prime mover of life, lives only in the spiritual realm of eternity where there is no such thing as a time space continuum, only a forever present, but channels of light exist between the godhead and mankind which can be accessed and enjoyed through heightened spirituality.

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