Nourishment

The soul and body, being of two different constitutions, are enlivened by separate nourishment.

The nutrition proper for a hungry body are various tastes of natural foodstuffs, suitably digestible, and appropriate for the constitution of that body. Call this body - material, being made up of earth, water, air, fire, and ether (space by which all other elements are contained). Various mixtures of said material elements in the body require various mixtures of foodstuffs properly ingested into the organism to allow the vehicle to endure through such sustenance. This absorption and dispersal of material elements provide the cycle of birth, growth, reproduction, dwindling, disease, and death.

Within the said body, a driver exists. This person proper (soul) is a witness to the countless and constant changes of the body throughout its existence. Whilst the soul cannot mix with material elements, nor even absorb them, through identification it experiences the vicissitudes as though they were in fact within the very fabric of themselves. This identification counts for constant happiness and distress, hope and disappointment, within the restless soul’s existence and, try as it might, such life cannot be dispelled and must endure.

As said soul cannot mix with the material ingredients [nor can said material ingredients mix with the soul], its sustenance is quite different from that of the body. The mind of the body engages in accepting and rejecting the various tastes, and the intelligence, when engaged, determines the relative qualities of such tastes or the avenues of acquiring such tastes. This organic pursuit engages many souls indefinitely and constantly in striving for nourishment, taste, and satisfaction abortively. Whilst petroleum may sustain an automobile, it cannot sustain an organic driver and would prove most detrimental if taken. Similarly, the food for the body cannot sustain the soul, and the constant pursuit of trying to feed the soul materially only succeeds in starving the soul.

Malnourished and in great need of remedy, the soul is overcome by weakness, dominated by material surrounds, and perpetually remains so. Such hungry and weakened souls being misguided will endure death of the body only to obtain another in a vain attempt to feed their voracious appetite. Just as a starving man will not discriminate what he eats upon opportunity, a starving soul will accept any organic vehicle in order to attempt satisfaction, whether that be a pig eating stool or a blood-sucking insect. Condemned as such, the soul, conditioned to mistake matter as sustenance, lingers perpetually in a state of starvation.

Being of a different make-up to the material elements, the soul requires sustenance of its related constitution. The soul proper cannot touch, grasp, ingest nor mingle, even for a moment, with matter. All interaction with material elements is conducted through the five material senses, being ear for hearing, eye for seeing, tongue for tasting, skin for feeling, and nostrils for smelling. The consciousness of the living entity, permeating the material senses, does not directly smell, hear, see, taste, or feel. It perceives the sensations through the filter of the three subtle senses, namely the mind, intelligence, and the false identification of being material.

The more the soul identifies with matter, the greater the perception of material happiness and distress the soul experiences. A simile is to a person watching a film; the more the person absorbs one’s senses in the film and gives over to the belief that what is being portrayed is real, the more that person feels the effects of the play’s portrayal. Just as sitting on a couch crying over a sad story is purely associative, so is the soul’s experience of pleasure and pain in this material phantasmagoria.

As such the various tastes of this world may leave a hint of satisfaction if successfully acquired in the struggling pursuit of the soul’s natural tendency to seek joy; however, such intimation cannot mollify the ever-burning desire for nourishment, any more than watching an actor eat gratify the grumblings of a hungry stomach.

In sober contemplation, one can understand the limitations of interacting directly with matter. It is not that we touch the keyboard to type a letter, rather we utilise the dynamic of will to direct the machinery viz. hand and fingers to make the necessary adjustments. In fact, all our interaction with matter is performed through will upon the machine. Just as the driver’s interaction with the car directs its maneuvers so does the soul’s will direct the material body in which it inhabits. Like a well-fitted suit mimics the body’s movement within, so the body mimics the desiring will of the soul. [This is a gross analogy and does not apply directly to all functions of the machinery just as pushing the foot on the accelerator of a car is direct action; fuel burning, acceleration, wheel spin, etc.... are indirect actions. The inhabitation of the body by the soul allows for direct will upon the activities of the body, arrangements like digestion, blood flow, etc.… are indirectly involved.]

This design of matter runs deeper still when considering the influences of the various bodies upon the soul’s consciousness. The relative qualities of the vehicle and its forbearance upon the soul reflect the various tastes throughout the wide-ranging experience within this morbid world. Ranging from grossly ignorant, through passionate and qualitatively good, the living entity can sojourn, and has since time immemorial, in 8,400,000 species of life; and further through the magnitude of fluxes within each species.

The ensuing confusion of the soul incarnate cannot be cleared by the same element causing the misperception. Utilising the materially conditioned senses, mind, and intellect, under the misconception of false identity, cannot relieve the soul from the enduring impacts such matter bears upon the soul. Only through clear influence by the (spiritual) anti-material, undefined by matter, can the soul properly see its existential position separate from the limited substance.

At this point one, materially conditioned, may question how anti-matter communicates with the considerably inured on the misguided assumption, generated from fallible faculties, that anti-matter is unsubstantiated, bereft of personality and sensory form. As though matter itself were the generator of personality, the soul is bewildered by such fantastical ideas, whilst in every moment living intimately, inescapably with their own personality; unchanged by the vicissitudes of matter whirling about them.

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