In the west, our culture has been very focused on individuality. This is a step up from tribal mode but, like being a teenager, should be seen as a transitional step.
We live in a very interdependent community we often take for granted. But our homes, food, roads, cars, water, power, everything has to be planned, made or grown, distributed and made available to us. It all has to be maintained too. Any yet many people live separate lives, disconnected from those around them. Connecting to a community can be very enriching although it can take time to find the right connections.
There is another level in which we’re a community. The body is composed of trillions of cells, most performing a specialized role to support their area of the body, much as humans have jobs. Our body is also host to trillions more microbes, many of which the body depends on for digesting food and so forth. Like civilization, we need balance to keep us healthy.
The only reason we experience ourselves as distinct individuals is because we experience from a point of awareness, a focal point called the soul or jiva. If this isn’t clear to us, we identify with the body-mind we’re experiencing through because this seems obvious to the senses.
There is a still further level of community most people are unaware of. There is life that coordinates all the physical and energetic activity of all those cells and organs and functions. In Sanskrit, this is devata. In consciousness, this is the process of experience which gives rise to all forms and processes, including the experience of the world and of an experiencer. They create and sustain your very experience of self.
Some of these devata have literally been asleep for a long time so they’ve been inactive in expressing life and the world. The Vedas suggest that in the dark ages, only 25% are awake. We’re now in an age where we’re rising to 50%, although there is also an awakening cycle that should speed this up. When our perception refines and we notice these finer fields, we can also contribute to waking up those sleeping principles. (Remember, this is subtler. We’re not talking about elves but impulses of intelligence and light.)
This is very much like all those cells in the body but functioning on a different level. Yet from another perspective, our body is the body of all bodies (cosmic) and the different levels are just different appearances of the same thing.
The devata also work in teams, so after they wake up, they integrate with other awake laws and add their functionality to the world. This is changing the way the world works.
As some of those devata express through very awake beings, it also evolves both. Living in awakeness the devata come to wake up themselves in the spiritual sense. As with humans, this very much enhances their experience, and that carries over into their effectiveness and the awakeness of the whole.
The spiritual awakening that’s unfolding is not about this or that guy waking up. It’s about everything progressively waking up through association with source and with other points of awakeness. This is a community affair.
Davidya
So beautiful. 🙂
Thanks, Lorey
Great! Makes sense!
Thanks for commenting, Lipa
yes beautiful I love this post, the polyrhythmic nature of reality, the intelligent collaboration of the devata within our true body, thank you!
You’re welcome, Sabrina. Especially nice to share with someone who can relate.
After hearing about the devata for years now, and always being confused (I kind of thought of them as little elves), I’m happy to be able to feel like I understand them a little better now. Thanks David!
Hi Aaron
Deva means light being and devata is a smaller, more specialized type. Put another way, a deva is a fundamental law of nature thats personalized in a form. Shiva or Quan Yin, for example. A devata is a being acting on the basis of those laws. You might think of it like management and workers/ doers.
I’m not usually very specific with the terms as most people are unfamiliar so I stay generalized. But each level of existence has various types of beings. Some are in several levels.
On the level of the devata body, they’re simply points of light. A soul without form we might say. On more manifest levels, they’re like flowing clouds of light unless they take an appearance. Closer to the physical, they have more of a form that’s more consistent but they shift out of being “light beings” somewhere in there. Elementals or nature spirits are not really devata.
People are more inclined to experience elementals first. Or people on the “other side” closer to the physical. Light beings are more subtle and take a little more refinement. But it depends on what level we’re clear as to what opens up first.
Big topic. I’ve not even tried more than general categorizations. It’s not a focus here.
As a general remark, I’ve written on the topic a number of times. Here are 2 examples:
https://davidya.ca/2018/06/11/the-appearance-of-the-doers/
and a summary of types:
https://davidya.ca/2014/05/21/on-angels-and-other-subtle-beings-part-1-of-2/
Hi David,
Regarding the line between individual and community, what is your perspective on Dissociative Identity Disorder? Are Alters genuine entities in their own right, implicating a type of “possession”?
Rather happenstance (if anything is happenstance), a young women in the local village with the condition approached me, with an intuition I might be able to offer some guidance (besides the professional medical treatments received).
Would you suspect a simple mindfulness practice (e.g. on breath, rise and fall of diaphragm) to be of benefit for her, to deal with the panic attacks and an impending dissociative process?
Could she eventually integrate the Alters or resolve/”exorcise” them?
Thanks
Hi Phil
That’s well outside my expertise but I can say that from what I’ve seen, no, it’s not possession. The drivers vary but there can be extreme forms of aversion in play. This can lead to other personality-states as an adaptation or work-around.
Remember that ego is a self-concept. Trauma can lead to ego-collapse but it can also lead to alternative ego-concepts. How whole or stable they are is a different question.
The key issue is trauma. If that’s the case, then finding a way to heal and come to a sense of OKness is key. Then there’s no need to “leave.”
I can also see how karmic drivers could be in play. But again, coming to OKness would allow the unaccepted to resolve and fade.
People can turn their fears into “forms” that can appear to be possession or haunting but are simply manifesting their emotional states.
The most effective thing I know for healing from trauma and PTSD is an effortless meditation practice. But that does require a stable enough personality to learn and do it.
A simple mindfulness practice can be a movement towards OKness but touching source is a deeper, more effective way to heal.
Life circumstances that offer some sense of security and routine would be valuable, although some balk at that.
Usually, I would refer someone like that to someone with skills. I mention a couple on my Recommendations page:
https://davidya.ca/recommended/#SU
Also, keep in mind the question of Whose Problem is It. Supporting them is valuable but don’t try to make it yours. That’s not helpful to either of you.
https://davidya.ca/2013/03/05/solving-problems/
Thanks David,
I thought of a simple mindfulness practice only perhaps to bring some focus, calm and grounding, because as you rightly point out, a stable enough personality structure is unlikely to be in place to do anything deeper.
Great advice regarding solving problems: I did say to her that I couldn’t help her, but any pointers I may give would be to help her help herself.
Thanks for the Kastrup link below also.
Great, Phil. Nice of you to be supportive.
My comments about effortless meditation are based on science. It has been found to be the most effective natural therapy for PTSD. But yes, simple techniques for becoming more conscious of how you’re using your attention and how to use it in supportive ways are very valuable. Our culture really doesn’t give people good coping skills.
This came up today and is somewhat related – a friend did an article talking about how DID can point to the nature of reality. He talks about the above from another perspective, speaking of the mechanism I described.
https://www.salon.com/2018/06/23/could-multiple-personality-disorder-explain-life-the-universe-and-everything_partner/
Very clear writing. Things are more complex than they appears to be – and simpler, and much more beautiful.
Thanks, Blanche. Well put. Always enjoy your comments.