Four Bodies
THE BODIES OF MANKIND
We have seen that we have three minds. Next, we need to know that each mind resides in a different body. First, we have a physical body, which provides physical support for the three other bodies that house the three minds. The Emotional Body (in the Western system also called the Astral Body) houses the Unconscious Mind. The Mental Body houses the Conscious Mind. The Spiritual Body houses the Higher Conscious Mind. Each of the minds controls the body in which it resides.
The three minds & four bodies
This completes the picture of the minds and bodies of mankind. Next, how do we as an individual evolve according to the ancient Hawaiian system…
THE EVOLUTION OF MANKIND: The great Kahuna, Daddy Bray said that moving from Unconscious Mind to Conscious Mind to Higher Conscious Mind is the lesson of life, and moving from Higher Conscious Mind to Conscious Mind to Unconscious Mind is the lesson of Kahuna Mastery. What did he mean by this? What are the implications of this kind of thinking?
Let’s see from our own experience how this is true. We all know people who only experience or pay attention to the physical body. We expect that this type of person is not very evolved since his concerns are very often just about physical or material issues.
Some people only experience the physical and emotional bodies together. This person will be more in touch with their emotions, yet not very intellectually developed.
Some people experience just the Physical and the Mental Body, but not the Emotional. This person will likely be dissociated from their feelings.
And if someone was without the development of one or more of the bodies, then they would be unable to perform a function relating to that body. So for example, someone not having the emotional body fully developed would be unable to feel or express tender affections, being incapable of feeling them personally or understanding them in other people.
Worldwide, in the average man, the physical body is the only body that has fully evolved. In some people in the developed parts of the world, we find that the emotional body has matured, and the mental body has grown up to be capable of functioning subjectively. Often in this person, the mental body is not mature enough to carry the ability of abstract thought. It is even more rare to find the progression of thought including true spiritual nature and not just emotional ideals. The great thinkers and healers of our time would, of course, have all four bodies functioning.
Of course, we could go on and on with examples of different combinations, but we would ultimately have to say that spiritual evolution in the Huna system involves maturing the bodies (and the functions of each body). In Huna, the means of an individual’s spiritual growth is to create the development of fully integrated functioning in each of the bodies, as they develop and mature. Since each body matures fully at a different age, all are not available for development at the same time. But as a person matures, then each body becomes available to be developed and integrated:
THE PHYSICAL BODY: Is made up of flesh and blood. It is of the material world and is ready to be developed (although it is not fully developed) at birth.
THE EMOTIONAL BODY: This body resides on the Astral or Psychic Plane, and is sometimes in Eastern esoteric schools called the Desire Body. As the Emotional Body comes into maturity, the instincts, passions, and the desire to attract or possess also begin to mature. The development of this body begins when the person is born. It is half-way mature at puberty, and as that happens we begin to notice an increase in emotions, response to attraction, the beginnings of picture consciousness, and the desire for union. Now, it becomes possible for the individual to express tender affections — his or her emotional side. The maturity of this body can be complete in the teenage years.
THE MENTAL BODY: The Mental Body (located on the Mental Plane) comes into play, and concrete thought begins to be possible. The individual begins to experience finiteness, boundaries & limits. The Mental Body can be roughly half-way mature by the mid- to late-twenties. As the maturing process continues the mind now begins to develop the ability to appreciate abstract qualities. Both deductive and inductive thinking processes can now begin to be developed. The Mental Body can be fully mature in the mid-thirties.
Halfway through the maturity of the Mental Body, the spiritual nature of the individual quickens — the individual may now feel an urgency to get on with “something,” usually spiritual. This development of increasing maturity can bring about a spiritual awakening where the individual reevaluates his entire life’s path and direction. In Western society, this awakening, which can come between the ages of 28 and 32, is often viewed as a crisis instead of a natural development of the Mental Body. In Western astrology, this corresponds to the Saturn return.
THE SPIRITUAL BODY: To complete the evolutionary cycle, the being must return to spirit. Although the maturity of the Spiritual Body is possible to develop beginning after the development of the Mental Body in the mid-thirties, an individual may not even be aware of their Spiritual Body in a single lifetime. The Spiritual Body can be half-way matured in the late forties, and complete in the fifties. If it does, spiritual pursuits may become all-important, all-consuming.
Half-way through the maturity of the Spiritual Body or sometimes even later, the spiritual nature of the individual really begins to assert itself, and if the earlier spiritual message was attended to in the late ’20s, then this quickening will likely not be disruptive. If the spiritual awakening was not fully attended to in the late twenties, there can be another reevaluation at this time, and this may also be mistakenly viewed as a crisis. In Western astrology, this time corresponds to the Uranus opposition and may bring a mid-life crisis.
It is important to remember that, while the various bodies are available to mature at these ages, individuals develop at different speeds, so someone may develop spiritually very early on, while another may develop late in life, or may not develop spiritually at all. The Kahuna of ancient Hawaii was adept at discovering which children would develop quickly and which ones would not. Uncle George (our mentor in the ancient Hawaiian chants, George Naope) was selected at a very young age to learn the ancient chants by his grandmother.
BALANCE DURING GROWTH: Balancing of the functions of each of the bodies is especially important when it comes to processes that speed up our evolution, such as bringing down the spirit. Each of the bodies needs to be balanced so that the person remains balanced. The ancient saying is, “Noa first then Noho”
Noa: Freed from taboo, constantly burning, of fire, or the cleansing through the fire of spirit.
Noho: Bringing spirit down inside the physical body
One process by which we do this, then, is breathing. Since Mana, the life force energy is the fourth element in our transformational equation, and since the word for four is “Ha,” also meaning breath, the way is through the breathing. (See Meditation “Ha” Breathing https://www.enteryourmind.com/ha-breathing-meditation )