Spirit can be embodied but it cannot be contained. It can be touched, danced, sung, played, lived, but it cannot be regulated. Spirit enthralls, captivates, mystifies, awes, and yet it cannot be subjected. In our lives, many times we are shown Spirit, but many times we turn away from it, because it appears fickle and unreliable. And yet, Spirit is our nature. Somewhere deep inside us we know that Spirit is our normalcy, our very essence.

The moment we die, we go back into Spirit and Love, but while we are here, in the body, in three dimensions, in the world, in our lives, we think and fear that we must protect ourselves and deny Spirit. When we deny Spirit, we deny our Being. We allow ourselves to get swept into the "ways" of the world; the angers and the violences; the hates and the bigotries; the meannesses and the sheep-like behaviors; and our apparent un-connectedness, as though these escapes are really true and justifiable and the only possibilities. We lose touch completely with our Oneness, our Love-ness, our journey, and our dance together through life in form. It gives us the excuse to fight and hate and kill, as though such behaviors could ever be appropriate. It denies us the very thing for which the Earth is so special : our Human-ness, our retrieval from what can be described as our Animal - or our Reptilian - nature.

Spirit is found living close to a wave, and the wave is what we know as the emotional wave, the wave generating from our Solar Plexus, our feelings. When we are in touch with our feelings we are given the possibility to be close to our Spirit. When we are true to our feelings, we are true to our Spirit.

In Design, the emotional waves ripple through many circuits within the body graph, and in particular through what we know as the Individual Circuit. Thus it is possible to map the energetic connection relating to Spirit, from the Emotional Center throughout our Being.

In this article, we examine "Spirituality" from the (humble) point of view of Design. In the closing part of the article, we look at the Design of His Holiness Dalai Lama 14th.

Who is Spiritual?

Over the ages, we have dreamt up many descriptions for who might be seen as "spiritual" and who as "worldly." For who is the saint and who is the sinner. For who is in touch with Existence and who is lost. Since this world is a duality of left and right, day and night, right and wrong, young and old, we tend to rely so much on our abilities to divide and compare, as though comparison ever gets close to the truth. Since there are no two grains of sand the same in the whole Universe, there can be no two people the same either. Each of us is here to be our self, to be true to our self and to take responsibility for our self. In being true, we embrace our Spirit, and when we embrace our Spirit we are as close as anything can be to the Divine on Earth.

The true Saint is someone who is being true to himself or herself in all circumstances in life, whether they are being apparently showered with blessings, or bombarded with trials. The truly Spirited person is one who has found their integrity, they have become integrated in their life in all dimensions, worldly and otherworldly. Until we find our integration, we are, at best, partial and split Beings. Sometimes we might appear spiritual and holier-than-thou, and other times we might be nasty in our relating to the world. If you call yourself 'spiritual,' there is a good chance you might as well call yourself 'unspiritual' too. Until you find equanimity in all situations that life gives to you, both are possible, and no amount of visits to the Temple and confessions before an image of god can make a hoot of difference!

There are stories of Holy Men disappearing into caves in the Himalayas for years on end to find incredible heights of perception and 'spirituality,' who, on returning to the city to inform the world of their achievements, find themselves being treated rudely and pulled right back to the other extremes of their more vulgar nature. They have lost their tempers and their great experiences of Love through simple confrontations with 'worldly' people and their situations.

The approach to Equanimity

Life is a continuity of moments connected by spaces. It is like a strobe light, which flashes to allow us to see and experience a particular moment and then extinguishes to leave us in the dark. When the light comes back, the scenery has changed and we have changed with it! One day we are young, then another day we are middle-aged and then we are old. The experiences of a moment when we are young can affect us throughout every day of our life until our last breath. The experience of every moment, moment following moment, is our truth.

In Design, there are three centers of awareness from which we can view our life:

the Spleen Center, which takes care of our physical well-being by constantly accessing the present; the Ajna, Mental awareness Center, which categorizes past situations in preparation for future situations; and the Emotional Center, which takes us for a ride through the "highs and lows" of life.

The Spleen is alert for patterns, attunes to harmonies and disharmonies, and applies a benchmark of "taste," "pattern," and "worth" for the world.

The Ajna takes a few moments to be apprised of any situation and then cogitates until it finds correlations in its "library of facts, beliefs and knowings," which it then seeks to apply into the world as the "reality."

The Solar Plexus Center is constantly in flux, with a wave gyrating back and forth, from ecstasy to agony, from pain to delight and from success to failure and back again. It is a wild ride, and most people, especially those with undefined Emotional Centers in their Design, try to get off this ride early in their life because they get bumped and bruised through trying to hold on to a part, or parts, of their experiences on the ride. There is a simple fact with emotions : they keep moving between extremes! A physical reality or a thought form can stay with you, but emotions apparently keep rolling along. You cannot hold onto a feeling, just as you cannot hold on to Spirit! "Got it!"… "Lost it!"… "Got it again!" Emotions keep moving, cycling back and forth, from high to low... and our greatest lesson is to let go with the flow of feelings so we can go with the flow of Spirit.

The Defined Emotional Being

Wave or waves are constantly emanating from someone with a defined Emotional, Solar Plexus Center. Wherever someone with defined emotion goes, they emit an emotional wave frequency aligned to their own feelings. Emotionally defined people will often be described as being in "low" or "high" spirits. Many people with defined Emotional Centers are oblivious to the fact that they are affecting the emotional environment around them wherever they go. If they are in a good mood, they find that everyone around them is in a good mood too. If they are in a bad mood, they wonder why everyone is getting upset around and at them, especially when fingers are pointed and the accusation flies at them: "It is all your fault!"

There are many scenarios in which a grumpy person (with a defined Emotional Center ) controls everything around them because no one is willing to risk getting them upset. Everyone tiptoes around them. There is also the scenario of someone who acknowledges and accepts their (defined) emotional nature creating a delightful ride for others. It all comes down to the Emotional Center and everyone taking responsibility for their moods, feelings and, ultimately, their acknowledgment of Spirit.

When someone is conscious of their feelings and emotions, immediately there is a sensation of ease. Even if they are in a low space in their emotional wave, there is a sense of responsibility and attunement with some of the deepest experiences available in the world. Through the deepest experiences we can have the clearest glimpses of our reality.

The Undefined Emotional Being

Undefined Centers in Design are where we have a variety of possibilities. The energies relating to those centers come and go with the people in our lives. Any center which is undefined in our Design is sensitive to the influx of energy from defined centers in other people's Designs. Undefined centers are areas where we can be very clear, because we can see, feel, and experience the effects that other people bring into our life. Conversely, undefined centers are where we can be wholly conditioned by what we think, feel, or fear we should control, because this is what "other" people seem to think, feel, or fear is important.

Someone who has an undefined Emotional Center is naturally sensitive to the emotions, both expressed and unexpressed, emanating from other people. With clarity and awareness, a person with an undefined Emotional Center can adjust to and mirror someone else's emotions, and ride their waves. They can know within themselves whether it is healthy for them to interact with a person with defined emotions in a particular instance or not, or whether they are likely to get overwhelmed and emotionally fraught.

The Emotional Responsibility

The Emotional Center attunes us and gives us access to all levels of earthly and unearthly experiences. It is the center of breath, food, sex, romance, sensuality, desire, rapture, bliss and, of course, guilt. It is the Center of Enlightenment and it is the Center of the Dark Night of the Soul. Many of the old religions insist that their adherents avoid emotions altogether because of associations to emotionally related experiences, as though we can cut out a piece of our Being and ignore it. Consequently, we are living in a time of insanity.

We tell ourselves that sex is bad and the world fills up with Aids. We deny our emotions and we deny our breath, polluting the air we breathe with noxious fumes as though it is okay to do so. We deny touching each other beyond an insipid handshake, and perversion follows. We shut down our ecstasy and wonder why Prozac is so prolific in our culture.

Someone with a defined Emotional Center must be responsible for their emotions. Someone with an undefined Emotional Center must have a clear idea of their emotional sensitivity.

If you have a Design with an undefined Emotional Center it is your responsibility to experience all aspects of emotions and to mirror them into the world around you, rather than be submerged in and drown in the emotional waves emanating from others. If you dread emotion, you are limiting the possibility of Spirit in your life, and you will very possibly lean towards substitutes for emotion, like food, drugs and alcohol. If you allow emotion responsibly, you have the merriest dance! There are many, many waves, and many, many delights.

His Holiness Dalai Lama

The 14th Dalai Lama was born as Lhamo Dhondrub on July 6, 1935 in Tibet. He is born in an incarnation to provide and live in tension. Just as a musical instrument cannot play fine music without its strings being taut, neither can the precious aspects in life be empowered without the necessary depth of pitch and control.

The Dalai Lama, in Design terms, is a Generator with a Projector aspect. Generators are powerhouses of life force energy who, by Design, need to wait to respond to whatever life puts before them. Projectors are the guides and helms people in this world, who, by Design, need to wait for recognition before they can steer the energies involved.

Dalai Lama is an Emotional, Feeling Being in that his Emotional, Solar Plexus Center is defined through the channel 37-40, the Community Channel, of "A Part Seeking the Whole." The meditation for all emotional Beings in this life is patience: patience to ride out their emotional waves, the highs and lows of expectations and denials, successes and failures, delights and disasters before they can find clarity through their feelings. The key for any emotionally defined person is to see that destinations, and the expectations attached to them, will always come and go; it is the journey itself that is the point of life. When an emotionally defined person allows and aligns with their emotional clarity, they align with their Spirit clarity. When we align with our Spirit clarity, we align Heaven and Earth through our own natures.

As a generator, Dalai Lama brings Life Force energy to any location. He comes with a big "yes!" which quite often takes people aback, since it cuts through formality, red tape and hesitation. He provokes at every turn. He provokes everyone to realize that life requires individual dignity, and he provokes the awareness that life requires Spirit, terrifying those who align themselves to mass-movements. What he will have found over the years is that, having the patience to wait for the right people to recognize him and to be provoked by his stance, makes his life complete. The right people and allies include those individuals who can stand up for themselves and maintain their dignity and individuality, regardless of circumstances. Of course, average politicians and so-called religious dignitaries would rarely be included here.

Dalai Lama is thoroughly individual, and thus romantic, insightful, acoustically oriented, and innovative. He is attuned as few are through his unconscious Moon placement to the beauty of Existence realized exclusively by humans. Although he can never tell where Existence will take him next, or what part it will require him to play, he will always encourage and exhibit a creative approach to life and aim others to their highest appreciation of this world.

With an undefined Self Center, Dalai Lama is all things to all people. He cannot be held into one possibility any more than another. He has an undefined Spleen Center which means that he feels the pains of the world. He might always be concerned about the contribution he can make and whether things might improve for his people over time, only to realize that he has his own part to play ,and that timing is always in the hands of Existence.

An undefined Throat Center, when accessed in response, gives the possibility of great eloquence, and with Pluto and his South Node both in gate 62, Dalai Lama has realized the essential quality of relating relevant facts in any speaking situation. He also has Mercury in gate 12 with the 4th line, which is the line of the Prophet, "the one who can see change and the opportunity of transformation coming." But the Prophet very often is ignored because people think they will feel content if change does not affect their lives too much. As a Generator with a defined Emotional Center, Dalai Lama can only wait to find in his own clarity that someone is ready to hear him on some level. One thing that he will always realize is that everyone will hear what they want to hear from him, regardless of what he may feel he has been talking about.

Open minded, with an undefined mind, Dalai Lama consistently amazes people by his grasp of life, and, as he grows older, astounds everyone he meets with his natural brilliance.

The underlying feature of his life is that it is a life of change and often dramatic transformation, both for him and for those who are close with him.

In conclusion.

We are entering the "Age of Aquarius." Aquarius has two symbols: One is the Water-bearer who symbolically carries consciousness wherever he goes; the other is two waves, running in parallel. The coming age calls us to consciousness, and harmony through Spirit, with each other. We are in the doorway to an age of consciousness and the key to the door is our acceptance, alignment, and rejoicing in our emotional nature.

Next month: Decision making by Design.

Life is not about the things we learn, but the decisions we make!

© Chetan Parkyn, October 2001