Belly Full of Rivers of Living Water

[sky]

Originally Posted by AngelBlue

Ok, so I'm thinking we are FLUID. We have to live like water . Everything comes and goes from us, and comes and goes like the ebb and flow of the tide

It certainly does, everything is in constant flux that's why 'Attachments' cause so much pain and suffering when we try to cling to the tide and stop the ebb and flow......

[Maisy]

I don't think a true sense of self comes from an ego. My understanding is a sense of self is innate to being a self or spirit, a soul, conscious awareness, a perceiver, that which is aware it is, exists, or perceives. That which continues on after this human life. I think the word and concept "awareness" itself implies that which is aware. I don't think the word "awareness" without the implied "self" or "one" that is aware makes sense. Some-thing is aware. I don't think immortal awareness with it's innate sense of self has dependence on a temporary body and it's temporary brain and mind.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 New International Version

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

[Maisy]

I think a soul can and usually does identify with the body and it's mind as the self (ego) but then one day we leave this body and it's brain/mind and go back to experience without these things. An interesting question to me is what does carry forward after we leave this body and physical plane and return to the energy based world?

The Christian idea of being saved or not, of reaping what we sow after we pass on, judgment day, and even the Eastern ideas of future karma based on what we did and were here, implies the soul carries more than we may assume from this human life.

Can spirit, soul, what we are, carry attachments to certain negative energies in this physical plane into the next plane of existence? Can it even carry these negative energies from one plane to the next? Seems to me it is possible as what else could explain differences in experience after we leave this world?

If all souls or conscious awareness instantly returned to their pristine perfect state upon leaving the body why would there be differences in where we go or what we experience after the life is over? So I think the soul itself can have "flaws" or imperfections associated with it that it carries into the spirit realm.

Matthew 18:18 "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

The Beatles song "In The End"
… And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make

Seems to me the "soul" or truly what we are, is even more complex than this physical body and it's brain. I think it too is or has a "mind." The mind of the body is not the only "mind" we experience. I think we are mind of a sort ourselves.

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by Maisy

I don't think a true sense of self comes from an ego. it.

Maisy,

I totally agree. The ego with its focus on self poses a limitation on awareness. With these blinders comes limited awareness. I like to interpret “love your neighbor as your self” in this way: “Love your neighbor as being yourself”. In reality we are composite beings. To some unquantifiable extent I am my mother, father, brother, sister, grandparent, neighbor, teacher, coach….ad infinitude. Every positive and every negative influence are learning experiences that form me and give life to my true self……and I have not even mentioned this Spirit whose potential to form me is without limit…..

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by Maisy

Can spirit, soul, what we are, carry attachments to certain negative energies in this physical plane into the next plane of existence? Can it even carry these negative energies from one plane to the next? Seems to me it is possible as what else could explain differences in experience after we leave this world?

.

Maisy,

The spirit coming from God is incorruptible IMO. It can carry no negative energies. It is not the same for the soul. 1 Peter 1:22….”Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love…”(KJV). This indicates that the soul has negative energies without the intervention of the Spirit. The Spirit being incorruptible has the power of purification. Interestingly the NIV uses ‘yourselves’ instead of ‘souls’. Interesting to me because ‘self’ and ‘soul’ can possibly be understood as being synonymous.

This is also interesting because many Christians understand soul and Spirit as being synonymous…..which I believe to be erroneous. The Church itself is responsible for this…..going back to one of the Counsels of Constantinople.

Another interesting scripture is Isaiah 53:12…in part…speaking of Jesus….”because he has poured out his soul unto death…”(KJV)…..NIV uses ‘life’ instead of ‘soul’. Throughout the OT the word ‘soul’ is derived from nephesh…..basically anything with blood is a living soul….animals included. Blood=life……the absence of blood signifies death. Now we can understand that symbolically Jesus poured out his blood, life and soul. But in reference to above the soul that Jesus poured out was purified…..thus containing life. I can understand this scripture as meaning that in the pouring out of His life that, in effect, he annointed the earth with life.

This ‘anointing’ was positive energy. Very interesting to me because I recently got interested in ‘earthing’ or ‘grounding’. In short that is a health practice of making physical contact with the ground. It benefits because of the positive energy that comes from the earth…….

[pixiedust]

Wonderful posts yet again, Molearner and Maisy...

Gratitude,

pixiedust