The human being is a symbol, a mirror and an expression of the Perfection of Divinity. Every aspect in our being, call it psychological or substantial, reveals a Facet of the Divine Whole. How much of the Divine Perfection we reveal, each one of us decides. The process of deciding is the Spiritual Path.
Along the Spiritual Path, there are many resources for the Seeker of Truth, many ideas, doctrines, philosophies, traditions and paradigms to discover, learn and master. One of the most useful resources to learn is the use and interpretation of SYMBOLS.
The Wisdom Teachings consider the Language of Symbols as the Language of Divinity. LIGHT, SOUND, MOVEMENT and GEOMETRY are the elements of this sacred Language, and Divinity speaks and creates by combining them.
The totality of our Being is like a pyramid whose base is a square and whose sides are four equilateral triangles.
In this symbolic context and from a psychological viewpoint, we all have four sides or facets that correspond to the four sides of the pyramid.
These four sides are the physical, the feeling, the mental and the spiritual elements of our being. The top or APEX of the pyramid represents our Essence, the I Am, the Self, the Source of our being and life. And the BASE of the pyramid corresponds to everything we express in our daily life.
The Physical Side
The physical facet in our psychological structure is constituted by the sense of vitality and the instinctive reactions experienced with our physical body, plus the sense of rhythm and fulfillment that all the physical activities and habits of our daily life bring. The physical side of the human psychology is anchored in the physical body.
The purpose of the physical side of our human psychology is, therefore, to assist us in discovering our individuality, in having a focused self-awareness, and in discovering our unique gifts and talents to be shared in community.
The Feeling Side
The sentient or feeling side of our human psychological makeup is made of the feelings, aspirations, emotions and sensed attractions (that is, desires) that each one of us has. Our feeling nature uses as a means of expression a very sensitive and responsive energy field surrounding and interpenetrating our physical body. In the past this energy field was called the astral body; today, it is better known as the sentient energy field.
This sentient side helps us, therefore, to know ourselves as individuals and as community — the physical side allows us to discover “what I am”, while the sentient side allows us to discover “what we are”.
The Mental Side
The mental side of our human psychological structure refers to the mental life that each one experiences. It includes all the thoughts that we create, all the fields of knowledge that we study, all the ideas that we contemplate and ponder upon, and all the inspirations and ideas with a creative potential that come to our mind. This mental side of our human makeup is anchored in the mental energy field of our energy constitution — known before as the mental body.
It helps us, therefore, to find a meaning to our existence and to see it with order and coherence. It also allows us to discover that we are beings with creative powers and that we can use these creative powers in an intelligent and useful manner for the community in which we live.
The Spiritual Side
The spiritual side of our human psychological makeup is “the inner guidance system” that each one of us possesses. Contrary to accepted belief, this inner guidance system is not the sense of “right or wrong”. Being “right or wrong” is a cultural and social programming. Our natural inner guidance system has nothing to do with the generation of guilt or with the idea of sins and faults.
To do this, our inner guidance system makes itself felt as those intuitions that bring illumination to our minds and that guide our steps to fulfill ourselves as individuals and as community. Once we discover that beauty, harmony and perfection are truly possible, this inner guidance system awakens in us the power to transform and re-create ourselves in beauty, harmony and perfection.
The spiritual side helps us, therefore, to express in the daily life all the potential that we discover in ourselves. It helps us to act in such a way that beauty, harmony and perfection can flourish around us and in us. In other words, it helps us to find an expanding meaning for our existence, to discover the Source of our being, and to realize the natural beauty of our being.
The Apex of Our Being
Just as the pyramid has an apex, we also possess in our psychological structure an apex or point in which all the facets of our being converge. The apex of our being is THAT in us with the power to think and say, “I AM”. The apex is, therefore, that point of our individual identity known as the Self.
That point of individual identity in us called the Self can also be described as the Thinker. Analogous to the apex of the pyramid, we, the Thinker, have a direct access and simultaneous communication with each of the four sides of our human nature; this is something that cannot be achieved when one is focused only in the experiences of just one of the sides of the pyramid.
We, the Self and Thinker, have, therefore, the power to integrate the four sides of our being into a harmonious, functioning whole, as well as the power to use our creativity for the progress of the community in which we live.
The Base of the Pyramid of Our Being
In the symbolism of the pyramid, the base of our psychological structure corresponds to everything we express of the physical, sentient, mental and spiritual sides of our being during the daily life. This expression is the impact that we leave upon others, upon their lives and their environment. It is the impact that we leave in our community.
In our human psychological makeup, therefore, the base represents the sum of our individual expression as sentient, thinking and creative beings at any given moment.
We enter the Spiritual Path when we use the four facets of our psychological makeup with balance and harmony.
We enter the Spiritual Path when no side sticks out or weighs more than the others and when no side is underdeveloped.
We enter the Spiritual Path when we know the resources present in our totality and when we exercise dominion over them with intelligence and, above all, with harmony.
In other words…
Each one of us enters the Spiritual Path…
- when our physical habits are healthful and balanced,
- when love, compassion, sympathy, joy and altruism dominate our feelings,
- when in our mental life we only contemplate and create thoughts of perfection about ourselves and all other beings,
- and when in the daily life we give attention to the intuitions born in our soul.