A.P.: When we talk about “illness, health, healing”, then we also have to talk about the human being: Who is man? This means that we should include all spiritual and emotional aspects of people in our conversation. You write on your website that health is a harmonious flow of forces. Does this also refer to the soul aspects or what is it all about?
K.B.: Forces come into our system and leave; it is a constant situation of being in the flow – a flux of forces coming and going; forces that we absorb and forces we release – as referred to in the idea of “panta rhei” (Heraklit: πάντα ῥεῖ), And of course, that is true for all aspects of human existence, be it the soul or the body. The body is ultimately nothing more than a means of expression, an expression of all components of the soul.
That means, if we are one with the core of our life on the soul level, that is with the plan underlying our existence, we can speak of a harmony of the soul to which the body will react accordingly. Meaning: the body will then be an instrument to express that harmony. On the physical level, health is very relative, because the body cannot be really healthy, it is rather in a constant flux. We call it healthy when everything is flowing in a harmonious way. Only the soul can be really healthy. We refer here to the soul that goes through a great process of maturation and change and then actually becomes one with the spiritual mission which underlies the human being not only as an individual but also as a collectivity – as humanity.
The personality – an attribute of the soul
A.P.: You say that the body as such could not really be 100 percent healthy, its state of health will always be very relative. Does that have something to do with the fact that the body is not flexible enough to follow soul and spirit? Because it is denser and more inert than the soul or the spirit?
K.B.: Krishnamurti chose a very beautiful expression to describe what the body is, namely “the attribute”. So, when he was around 90 years old he said: “the attribute has soon done its job”, or something like that. That means, the body is simply a tool, our tool, to express ourselves in matter, to carry out our tasks, to stay in contact with our surroundings. The body is then, actually, an exclusive attribute of the soul. If our soul is too strongly oriented towards the physical realm, i.e. when the external, the material becomes too important, then we leave behind what is simple and things become complicated. If, on the other hand, we are oriented towards the soul, the spiritual in and around us, and our soul begins to resonate with the spiritual, then we understand and feel that the body cannot be anything other than a means of expression that comes at some point in time and at a certain point in time it has to go once again.
This is actually the healthy metabolism. It is when we become aware that the spiritual principle is behind everything and our soul begins to resonate with this spiritual principle. The spiritual principle has also an old name and that is: joy, beautiful spark of gods (taken from Friedrich Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy which Ludwig van Beethoven used in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony). And when our soul begins to turn to this divine spark saying “yes” to it, when it begins to listen to it ever more closely, then everything will regulate itself very well and very sensibly – also in the body. And above all – and now comes a very important point – we then know, we feel that all of our physical processes are nothing more than purification processes. Cleansing processes for the body as well as for the soul.
A.P.: Could one see this in such a way that one observes a common path of body and soul in both illness and healing?
K.B.: There is no other way, the soul must always go ahead. What is the soul? We may say that the soul is our consciousness. As the old axiom from the Universal Doctrine says: The state of consciousness is the state of life. This applies to everything and always. If we go into it completely, go into a “yes”, into an acceptance, then everything will also open up for us. Suddenly, we will understand why this or that is the way it is. And if we don’t understand it, we can tolerate it because we accept it. “Yes” to everything that is. And then we remember Paul’s statement: “Be thankful in everything” (1 Thess 5:18). Being thankful in everything means: thankful in everything. Gratitude is actually a very great, healing power for our soul, and how should our body react to it other than in harmony?
The doctor – your helper
A.P.: I think that leads to what for me is a very central statement from Paracelsus and which I think is also important to you: “Let the patient be his own doctor and the doctor his helper.” This is the open door to autonomy. I think that this autonomy begins with acceptance, with looking closely, with accepting what is. I can only see things really well if I accept them.
K.B.: Yes absolutely. That’s the way it is. And this is: let the patient be his own doctor, the doctor his helper. This axiom is 500 years old. Paracelsus was the pioneer of the northern renaissance. He built the bridge from Italy to the north. And even then, 500 years ago, he actually placed in front of people what only nowadays begins to be of primary importance, and not just for some but for many. Whoever really wants to recover needs to become autonomous, in other words: become his own doctor. That is essential. All teachers of humanity in the past one or two hundred years have urged people to take responsibility, for themselves as well as for their immediate and wider sphere of life and thus also for all of humanity. In this way all recovery processes can come to life in their own soul, and the body will participate as far as it can.
(to be continued in part 2)
