Understanding Our Dual Nature
This article is part of my ongoing series on Soul Awareness.
The experience of being human is an amazing blend of seemingly contradictory factors.
Let us take a moment to consider the diverse parts of the human being that must be integrated every day of our lives. Understanding this better may help you understand the different aspects of your human nature that are often challenging.
A dear spiritual friend of mine calls this duality, but I feel that term may not capture the full depth and breadth of the dynamics of what it means to be a human being in incarnation, especially at this exciting time in human evolution.
Since the dawn of creation, when human beings first drew in the breath of life, we as human beings have been a unique creation. We are told in the scriptures, that man was created in the image of God, the relationship between the part of ourselves that is the animal man and the part of ourselves that is Divine created in the image of the creator, has been a source of many questions. It is that concept on which I wish to expand.
Let us take a minute to consider the meaning of the dual nature of man. This is a subject that I have long pondered and studied. Within the understanding of that dual nature are many factors that are important to consider.
Divine Observations
The most ancient religions across the planet, even when they differ dramatically in dogma seem to have observed certain essential truths. One of these truths is that a human being has within them something that is both Divine and eternal.
This truth is acknowledged by the ancient greeting “Namaste.” The meaning of the ancient Sanskrit phrase Namaste is that you honor and recognize this Divinity in another. This recognition happens in a deep pre-conscious part of your being. It is both a deep truth and a profound mystery about the human condition.
There are some things that help to consider this dual nature of your being. Some of these are common sense observations of reality. Others are more abstract. Yet, even the most abstract of these seem to be a part of your collective understanding, and archetypal awareness of what it means to be a human being, a unique and amazing blending of what is material and what is spiritual.
As you delve into this mystery, there are many beliefs that may have been taught to you throughout all of our life that come into play. When we talk about these issues, these beliefs can be a great support in your understanding or a great hindrance because what I am saying is being judged to match up with the dogma of those beliefs.
What Resonates For You As The Truth
As I write to you today I try, to my best ability, to discuss and explain these issues in a way that have a practical implication upon your life, the decisions you make and how to best take advantage of this miracle of life with which you have been blessed. As you read this, I am going to ask you to calm your mind and open your heart. I am going to ask you to consider these words from a place deep within you that resonates and is recognized by you when you hear the truth.
I am going to ask you today to read my words and only judge them by what resonates for you as the truth. If anything that I write, today or ever does not live up to that standard, I request that you dismiss it. I am a human being on the same path to being more enlightened in my awareness as you and every other human being who walks the earth.
Nothing I have ever said or will ever say should be given greater authority than the truth.
– Genevieve Gerard
Inner Sense of Truth and Knowing
Amazingly, each of us has within us a deep sense of truth when we are open to receive it. The common phrase, “that has the ring of truth to it” describes this experience of considering the truth in what you are hearing or reading. There is a phrase I have often considered and pondered on along my own path, “no religion is higher than the truth.” Therefore, it is to this inner sense of truth and knowing that I direct you as we explore this fully human and Divine aspect of your human nature.
As we consider these truths, I also ask you to consider how these truths relate to the practical daily decisions you make in your life. In my own meditations lately, when I connect to my Soul, my own spark of Divine Light to grow and understand my life and my work, I have been pondering upon a phrase, “practical spirituality.” Indeed, if being spiritual has a purpose in life it must be to help us live life more abundantly and more joyfully.
The more that I have come to know and understand the spiritual part of my being, the more solutions I have found to the multifaceted and myriad of life’s challenges. Meditation has been the portal through which I make contact with the Divine spark in me, my Soul, and it is through the vast and unconditional love that is available to me when I touch my Soul, that I am granted both understanding and wisdom to solve life’s problems.
I have, to the very best of my ability, tried to capture these solutions to share with you in my guided meditations and my writings. From my own very human challenges in life and from my many years helping others resolve life challenges I have created many meditations. My husband jokes that my epitaph will be “I have a meditation for that.” It is my experience that my relationship with my Soul is both immensely practical and life-enhancing.
It is from the perspective of my own awareness of my dual nature as a Soul or Spiritual being that I must integrate the needs of my body, my emotions, my thought with the directing of my Soul. I shall strive to describe the practical applications of that dual perspective to you now.
Understanding Your Dual Nature
You Have a Physical Body
In order to have this discussion, it is important that we consider what you know to be the seeming diverse parts of your human nature. First, you know you have a physical body. That part of your human nature and your human experience is the source for many delights. The five senses of the physical body are a source for a great deal of enjoyment. It is a precious gift from the Creator. It is a bountiful blessing.
If you apply that recommended filter of truth to the preceding statement about your body, I am sure it will pass the test. There are those in the name of spiritual teaching who have taught you to deny the blessings of the body, with thoughts of shame and guilt. Nevertheless, I ask you to consider with gratitude and celebration the miracle that your body is. Open yourself to enjoy and appreciate that amazing part of the wholeness of yourself.
As it is true that the physical part of your human experience is wonderful and glorious; it is also true that you are more than a physical body. Life, your life, is multilayered and multifaceted. Yet, from your awareness of your physical nature, you know that the desires and the pleasures of the flesh can easily get out of balance and out of control.
Amazingly, it is your Higher Self, your Soul, which can help you keep your physical desires in balance. The Soul, or as addiction treatment refers to it, a Higher Power, is often the key to overcoming excess and addiction to the desires and pleasures of the flesh. This is for many a first step in calling upon their dual nature in a practical and life-changing manner. It is by calling on the Higher Self, your own personal Higher Power, that you can gain mastery and start a process of integration.
In the Ageless Wisdom, this process is referred to as an important step in human evolution, that of bringing the Soul into dominance over the physical desires and urges.
You have a body, but you are more than your body. This is powerfully demonstrated when you use the influence and strength of your Soul to transcend out of balance physical desires to move forward in your life. This is an example of calling upon the advantages of being a dual being, material and spiritual.
You Have Emotions
Likewise, you have emotions. This is one of the true challenges of our human experience. Just as dealing with the desires of the flesh can create untold challenges in the human adventure, so too can the experience of emotions present an ongoing challenge. The wildly erratic nature of emotions, from anger to joy, from hate to love, make having emotions, and especially not letting your emotions be in control in your life, a major focus of the practical application of spirituality.
There is no doubt that coping with and managing the desires of the flesh is an important part of life. We have all seen the disastrous results of lives where desire and pleasure were allowed to be out of balance in life decisions. Likewise, the rampant expressions of the volatility of emotions do not lead to a happy or fulfilling life. This is the conclusion of a thinking man.
You Have A Thinking Mind
Truly, the mind is an equally powerful part of the wholeness of your being. Through the power of your mind, you are able to understand that you, in your human experience are more than a body. And, by observing life you know that you are more than the sum total of your rollercoaster emotions.
Your mind and most importantly the content of your thoughts is essential to understanding what I call your spiritual anatomy. How these diverse parts of the human nature of physical, emotional and mental combine and work together is truly amazing. The integration and blending of these concurrently diverse forces of the self is the function of the personality.
You Are A Soul
Although the personality does a great job of striving to balance the parts of the self, the real dynamic power of one’s dual nature resides in the Soul. The Soul, that spark of Divine Light that is so rarely even considered in many people’s daily life, is where the real magic of the human experience resides. However, as we consider the magnificent multifaceted parts of “being” a human being it is important to understand the different nature of the Soul from your personality.
The Ageless Wisdom teaches that the Soul, your Soul, is available to help you live the full breadth and the full joy of your life. This is a power you can engage and activate in ways that help you conquer the challenges of the desires of the flesh.
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
– Swami Vivekananda
The Soul offers the support to transcend fears and one’s more unpleasant and painful emotions. Your Soul provides the ignition to the mind to serve in a co-creator relationship with the Divine. With the empowering of your thoughts through the spiritual principles of the Law of Attraction and the energetic dynamics that “energy follows thought,” you can create your life. Ponder on this.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Although your personality does an ok job of integrating your body and your emotions with your mind, your personality is not your Soul. Your Soul, which is a spark of Divine Light, is a part of the Creative force and eternal and evolving essence of life itself.
Your Soul, rather than your personality, can do a much more enlightened job of integrating the human nature of your body, mind, and emotions.
To touch your Soul, to open your heart and your mind to that resplendent radiance and glory is life-transforming and can take place every day. Making this distinction is important in understanding your dual nature as a human being.
As you develop, learn, and grow as a spiritual being on your quest for more enlightened awareness, it is the touch and transforming power of your Soul that will make the greatest difference.
– Genevieve Gerard
Soul-Infused Personality
Along the path of spiritual evolution, the integration of the body, the emotions and the mind with your Soul are significant achievements. The integration of each of these parts of the self with the Soul is the forerunner to integrating your personality with your Soul.
To incorporate the consciousness of your Soul with your personality, you must focus your awareness beyond your individual self, into your oneness with all of life. Throughout the day, allow your Soul to overshadow your personality and influence every action you take. This will make a powerful and profound difference in how you experience even the most mundane things in the world.
It is in the integration of your very human nature with your spiritual nature that the real majesty of being a physical being and a Soul comes into its full glory.
It is in this step in the evolution of a human being and a Soul that the full miracle of merging the physical with the spiritual can be demonstrated.
Check out any of my guided activity-based awareness meditations to have an experience of this.
I invite and encourage you to experience the many ways that your human nature can benefit from the greater perspective of your Soul’s wisdom and vast unconditional love.
This merging and integration with your Soul (and the ultimate understanding of your dual nature) is the most rewarding and exciting adventure you can undertake. I welcome your comments on understanding your dual nature below.
Namaste,
Genevieve
The Blessing of Love on all that you do!
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Last updated 8-18-2019
About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”
Read more details…
Genevieve has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Theology and a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling and for over thirty years has worked one-on-one with people who were recovering from devastating disabilities and chronic pain. Teaching the mastery of the mind-body relationship she was one of the early professionals trained in biofeedback, visualization, imagery, and meditation as essential techniques to help people heal their bodies, heal their emotions, heal their minds, and heal their lives.
Genevieve’s work demonstrates what she knows so well, “It is spiritual connectedness that triggers physical healing and emotional and mental well-being.” Helping people, like you, tap into your higher-self is the power she wields to guide you to heal and transform your life.
Now, with this understanding, she combines the effective techniques she developed over decades teaching mind-body mastery along with her extensive experience in meditation and spiritual development to create a synthesis of mind-body-spirit that delivers complete healing and opens the door to unlimited personal growth and an encounter with your Soul.
In addition to her current life guidance coaching sessions, and workshops performed around the world, Genevieve has produced more than 20+ guided meditations in the last eight years that are available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and her website.
It is her vision that through your experience with the techniques of awareness, visualization, and meditation, the love of your Soul will touch and transform your life through her writings and products. It is her sincere desire that the potential of a life of joy and celebration that seems to elude so many people can become a reality for you, now and forever.
Browse her life story and read the Touch of the Soul that changed her world. To contact Genevieve, visit her keep in touch page.
Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.
