Negotiating the Soul Commons

terms in play: Body Commons, Soul Commons, Spirit Commons, psychic contentment, path of comfort, path of ease

In the Soul Commons I always maneuver for a position of comfort and ease. Comfort and ease create a space of psychic contentment where I’m not inconvenienced by the uncertainties of the world. Ironically, striving for psychic contentment suffers the inconvenience of always having to avoid being inconvenienced. In a world of constant change, being inconvenienced is inevitable, and so I have to make compromises to feel some kind of comfort and ease. These two terms, comfort and ease, can easily be idealized as having to put forth no effort and being trouble free, but it’s much more complicated than that.

At the heart of seeking comfort and ease is the sense of "I", the experiencer of comfort and ease. In our attempt to find ourselves, we all “pursue” the experiencer, “I”, through the Soul Commons, right down the two paths of comfort and ease simultaneously. But in a chase, anything can happen.

For instance, chasing “I” down the path of comfort often transforms "I" into an objectified "me", dropping my focus more into the pleasures of the body. One of the cheers on the path of comfort might be, “Bring it to me! Bring it to me! Bring it to me!” The “it” is any kind of sensory input. For example, I indulge in “comfort food” when feeling stressed out, lonely, or depressed. Entertaining my five senses to achieve psychic contentment means engaging the world of matter and form as a relationship, becoming the object of its “affections.” I make the material world my lover. In this way I drop into the the Body Commons.

Often frustrated in my pursuit of psychic contentment in the Soul Commons, I easily get diverted into the Body Commons, the world of the senses. Finding psychic contentment in the Body Commons is much easier than dealing with the unpredictability of the Other in the Soul Commons.

In contrast to the path of comfort, on the path of ease we simply stop chasing the “I” and rest in our “I-ness.” Resting in our “I-ness,” we become a follower of the Way.

"Which way is that?” you might ask. Or might not, for which in either case, I for some reason feel compelled to continue with my narrative, following my own way, as if I was Frank Sinatra singing “I Did It My Way,” which brings up an interesting point.

I’m not Frank Sinatra! I’m “me” seeking satisfaction in the arrangement of words on this page which will relieve the tension I feel between having nothing to say and something meaningful to say, thereby achieving psychic contentment.

Obviously, besides the pleasures of the senses, I seek psychic contentment in the pleasures of mind and heart, the Soul Commons. Either way involves chasing the “I” right into “me,” into the “me” that will receive the rewards of my efforts, psychic contentment.

The difference between seeking psychic contentment in the pleasures of the mind and heart as opposed to seeking it in the pleasures of the senses is this. Romping around in the Body Commons (five senses) can become an habitual pattern to avoid the existential separation from the Other. An absent minded focus on feeding the five senses, whether it’s an Ipod plugged into the ears, hours sitting in a movie theater, snacking all day, or self-pleasuring into the night, is always an escape from “me” ‘s ultimate aloneness, feeling of separateness.

That existential separation, “me” ‘s ultimate aloneness, is experienced in infinite ways, from a very subtle anxiety to a depressing despair. When singing my song in the Soul Commons, that flowering field of hearts and minds, feeling alienated from the Other is not so easily avoided. I am confronted with it over and over again. Someone misunderstands my words, intentions, or actions. The Other’s perspective completely offends me. In a moment of carelessness and cavalier behavior toward someone, I say something that alienates them from me. I demean the value of someone in my mind because I judge them to be...(usually something within me that I am unconscious of and unwittingly despise in myself).

All these obstacles, diversions, and distractions on the path of comfort leave little time to notice my co-evolving journey on the path of ease. Witness the small amount of space I have in this post dedicated to “following the Way.” Following the Way on the path of ease lacks the drama of the path of comfort. That drama is like a strange attractor in the chaos of life. I feel more alive as an experiencing “self”.

Besides the Taoist designator, the Way, for the path of ease, we could explore gnosis; Christ Consciousness; Buddha Mind; the “I” of Vedanta; or the Self of Kashmir Shaivism. In atheistic or agnostic perspectives, principles of morality and ethics would apply. They all point to a realization, an awareness, that transcends and includes psychic contentment. The teachings and practices of these various approaches to reality and their influence on culture and society constitutes the Spirit Commons.

I have very briefly and of course by no means completely delineated the Body Commons, the Soul Commons, and the Spirit Commons, which I base mostly on my reading of the three kayas in Buddhism, nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya, and dharmakaya. My intention in this blog is to continue the exploration of these three Commons as they relate to the individual body, mind, and spirit. In this respect my effort is inspired by and mirrors Wilber’s agenda as summarized by Sean Esbjorn-Hargens (2008). “In fact Wilber’s whole integral agenda can be summed up as the integration of body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature.”

Here the Spirit Commons relates to self, the Soul Commons relates to culture, and the Body Commons relates to nature. In expanding our concerns for Body, Mind, and Spirit into a corresponding concern for the Body Commons, the Soul Commons, and the Spirit Commons we can integrate our personal development with the development of the human collective. I hope the terms I have introduced have some sticky quality about them that will make them useful in the many efforts at creating an integral praxis.

References
Esbjorn-Hargens (2008), Intersubjective Musings: A Response to Christian de Quincey’s “The Promise of Integralism”, Part One: Shake the Rug, section: The Ontology of Emotions, 2nd paragraph.

Bibliography
Aboufafia, Mitchell (1986) The Mediating Self: Mead, Sartre, and Self-Determination
Gadamer, Hans-Georg (1975) Truth and Method
Hardin, Garrett (1968) Tragedy of the Commons