Quotes from Anatomy of the Spirit

Excerpts taken from Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss.

On the sensation of the individual self:
"The third chakra in particular resonates to the boundaries of the physical body. Are we physically strong or weak? Able or handicapped? Beautiful or scarred? Too tall or too short? From a spiritual perspective, any and all physical assets and limitations are illusory, mere 'life props'. Yet a person's acceptance of or resistance to them is critical to entering spiritual adulthood. From a spiritual perspective, in fact, the entire physical world is nothing more than our classroom, but the challenge to each of us in this classroom is: given your particular body, environment, and beliefs, will you make choices that enhance your spirit or those that drain your power into the physical illusion around you? Again and again, the challenges of the third chakra will cause you to evaluate your sense of power and self in relation to the external world."

On detachment:
"We achieve wisdom both through life experiences and by acquiring the discriminating perceptual ability of detachment. Symbolic sight is partly learned 'detachment' - a state of mind beyond the influences of the 'personal mind' or 'beginner's mind' that can lead to the power and insight of the 'impersonal' or open mind."

"The sacred truth of the sixth chakra is Seek Only the Truth. It compels us to search continually for the difference between truth and illusion, the two forces present at every moment. Separating truth from illusion is more a task of the mind than of the brain. The brain commands the behavior of our physical body, but the mind commands the behavior of our energy body, which is our relationship to thought of perception. The brain is the physical instrument through which thought is transferred into action, but perception - and all that is associated with perception, such as becoming conscious - is a characteristic of the mind. In becoming conscious one is able to detach from subjective perceptions and see the truth or symbolic meaning in a situation. Detachment does not mean ceasing to care. It means stilling one's fear-driven voices. One who has attained an inner posture of detachment has a sense of self so complete that external influences have no authority within his or her consciousness. Such clarity of mind and self is the essence of wisdom, one of the divine powers of the sixth chakra."

"Becoming detached and conscious means getting certain perceptions from our minds into our bodies. It means merging with perceptions that are truth and living them so that their power becomes one and the same as our own energy. Take, for instance, the truth 'Change is constant.' Mentally we can absorb that teaching with little difficulty. Yet when change occurs in our lives - when we notice we are aging, when people we love die, or when relationships shift from being intimate and loving to distant - this truth terrorizes us. We often need years to recover from some changes because we had hoped that it - whatever 'it' was - would remain the same. We knew all along that it would change, but we can't help hoping that the energy of change will pass by this one part of our lives. The promise of 'Change is constant' is that new beginnings always follow closures."

On consciousness and change:
"Consciousness is the ability to release the old and embrace the new with the awareness that all things end at the appropriate time and that all things begin at the appropriate time. This truth is difficult to learn to live with because human beings seek stability - the absence of change. Therefore becoming conscious means living fully in the present moment, knowing that no situation or person will be exactly the same tomorrow. As change does occur, we work to interpret it as a natural part of life and strive to 'flow with it', as the Tao Te Ching counsels, and not against it. Trying to make things remain the same is useless as well as impossible. Our task is to contribute the best of our energy to every situation with the understanding that we influence, but do not control, what we will experience tomorrow."