The Word (s)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  The Gospel according to John.

It's a bit of a stretch but it will be made anyway. There are, for me, fifty-five aphorisms that define how I want to live as I go about my daily activities. They are not necessarily goals, nor objectives but simply how I want to be. They are words, nothing more or less, but they have a deeper effect on me than I previously thought.

How these aphorisms are structured is important and seems to have an effect on their incorporation into my behavior.  For example, for some years there was one: Weighing less than two hundred pounds, I am thinner; it was said every day along with the others and there was no evidence that it was having an effect. Then it changed to: Eating only enough to sustain a weight of two hundred pounds, I am thinner.

Well, I have changed it again to say, "Eating only enough to sustain a weight of one-hundred-eighty pounds, I am thinner."  This is because I now weigh 184 pounds and continue to lose weight.  I have stepped the figure down five pounds at a time to get here.  (On 4/1/2020 I was at 180 pounds on my way to an ideal weight of 178 pounds.)

The same is true of other aphorisms and they are continuously examined for better syntax.  Reflecting on my behavior and comparing it to my aphorisms, not surprisingly, it can be seen that things are said and done in accordance with the aphorisms without consciously attempting to do so.

Thus the leap is made from the Gospel to this: the words that we use to guide our thoughts and actions are an important consideration.  The words are in our conscious mind, which is a physical thing, and our sub-conscious mind, which is closely tied to a spiritual world, hears them and behaves accordingly but only if the aphorism is acceptable to what the spiritual side of our being (I have named it Master) wishes.

As long as we are doing that which is conducive to the wishes of Master, that spiritual being inside, there is harmony.  When our behavior is not so, there is discord and all sorts of bad things, physically and mentally,  happen to us including sickness and even death if we don't change and get back in harmony with Master.  Master in this context is synonymous with soul; except that soul is normally thought of as an individual attribute in a body whereas in this context it is supernatural.

We are a physical being, inhabited by an entity, Master, who is evolving towards an existence that is "In Essence" or purely spiritual.  In order to attain this level of existence, Master has to "mature" through in-habitation of physical beings and overcome a variety of impediments to reach the goal.

Ps: In case you are wondering: The definition of aphorism is a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation.