Climbing The Tree Of (Our) Life!
Last updated: 25-DEC-2001

OUR Tree-O-Life.Org SCIENCE PAGES DEAL WITH THE CREATION OF THE PHYSICAL THROUGH THE LOGICAL PROGRESSION OF THE NUMBERS FROM 1 THRU 10. HOWEVER, HERE ON THE SPIRIT PAGES WE WILL DISCUSS AND LEARN ABOUT THE DISSOLUTION OF PHYSICAL BACK TO THE WORLD OF THE NON-PHYSICAL THROUGH THE (sometimes) ILLOGICAL REGRESSION OF THE NUMBERS 10 THRU 1. IN THIS MANNER, SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY ACTIVELY BALANCE EACH OTHER WITH THE NET EFFECT BEING ZERO, NOTHING, OR NIL.

1) Spirituality & Religion Are Two Completely Different Things.

2) Our Spiritual Journey Up the Tree Of Life Towards Total Unification.

3) Dissolution: The Journey From "Different" to "Same" that Opposes Creation.

4) Today's World of Science & Technology Seems to Outweigh Spirituality.

5) How do I Study TOL and use these Web Pages?

Any Religion is but a single recipe in the cuisine of Spirituality. Before we begin discussing such controversial topics as religion and spirituality, let's define the perspective that Tree-O-Life.Org assigns to each of these terms. We believe that the distinction between these two words, and the concepts behind them, is often a great source of misunderstanding when people choose to discuss them. We wish there to be no misunderstanding of how Spirituality relates to Religion as you begin to study the Tree Of Life and all it has to offer in wisdom and understanding. We should all take a good look at any and all of the organized religions of the world, and notice what they have in common. If there is one way of describing, in general terms, what the majority of organized religions offer, it could be classified as "means to become more spiritual and attain spiritual goals." Is this a fair assessment? Would someone like to offer a potentially better definition of what religious bodies offer their followers? Would there be anyone who disagrees with my general statement? If so, please write me and tell me so; however, for the purpose of argument, as well as enlightenment, let us at least agree that the variety of our world's religions offer many different forms of practicing and experiencing our inherent spiritual natures. From this stated (and possibly accepted) understanding, we can begin to investigate why religions are different, and what those differences mean to all who may, or may not, subscribe to any given religion.

There are always multiple paths from A to B. There are quite a few organized religions in the world. Many of these religions would like for you to believe that the philosophy espoused by their religious body is the ONLY means to achieve spiritual goals and commune with their definition of "The Godhead." Unfortunately, this position is about as incorrect as a statement that claims there is only ONE way to get from Los Angeles (A) to Seattle (B)! While US Interstate 5 is the fastest and most direct roadway between these two major cities, it is certainly not the ONLY route you could choose to travel. Indeed, stating that I-5 is the ONLY route automatically presumes that you only intend to travel by ground transportation. One could also traverse the distance between these cities by ocean travel, as well as air travel. Therefore, we see not only is there more than one path from A to B, but there are even a variety of CATEGORIES OF PATHS between them! Exploring our spirituality is very much like traveling between one place and another, just as in the above discussion of traveling from LA to Seattle. From the time we are born as physical beings, we are on a "spiritual road trip" of sorts. This "road trip" involves moving from the bottom of the Tree Of Life (TOL) at #10 up to and beyond the top of the TOL at #1. These pages of the Tree-O-Life.Org site are intended to provide you with information about this "spiritual road trip" that we all travel together. Knowledge of this information will allow you to envision yourself as a physical (as well as a beyond-physical) being that is engaged in your own spiritual journey!

We (our physical selves) have been plunked-down at a given place in SPACE and TIME, and bestowed with a certain type and amount of MASS (our bodies). These three elements (MASS, SPACE, and TIME) completely define our physical existence, from the day of our birth through the day of our death. So the MASS/SPACE/TIME of our birthday represents our starting point (A). Similarly, the MASS/SPACE/TIME of the day of our death will also be a fixed point in our future, let's call it (B). Our BODY, throughout the course of our physical life, travels a specific, singular, physical path between (A) and (B). However, our "UN-BODY" (our non-physical SPIRIT, SOUL, and MIND) is responsible for the CHOICES about which physical paths we travel in our lives.

Tree-O-Life.Org is about Science & Spirituality, NOT Religion! Let's get this fact clear from the start.... Tree-O-Life.Org is not here to "convert" you to our belief system, for the fact of the matter is that OUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING, just like all human belief systems have changed ever since our species first became self-aware! Our mission is to dispense knowledge and information about the physical and non-physical structures in our universe. This way, all of us (as individuals and in groups) can reformulate our belief systems in an effort to become that which we wish to become, and achieve the goals that we set for ourselves. Tree-O-Life.Org does not teach dogma, but rather provides observations about the way things appear to our limited human state of perception. We do not INSIST that ours is the only way to gain a spiritual understanding of yourself and your place in the universe. Indeed, we ENCOURAGE you to look at the subject of spirituality from VARIOUS POINTS OF VIEW! At Tree-O-Life.Org we wish to provide you with a tool that:

The Physical Leg of Our Spiritual Journey Begins at Our Moment of Birth. The gestation period of a human being is a tidy nine months long. One month for each of the first nine spheres on the TOL. Just like the upper portion of the TOL is a triad of triads, so the human gestation cycle is composed of a triad of trimesters. After the nine months of gestation have passed, we are born into this universe as a new creation....as the final, tenth sphere on the TOL. This, the moment of our birth, marks the beginning of our life's journey. Not only the journey of our physical lives, but also the journey of our spiritual lives. The journey of our physical life is the subject of Science, and it involves each of us moving forward and using our physical brains and bodies to perform acts of creation. This journey of creation is represented by the progression of paths from 1 thru 10 on the TOL, which we deal with on our companion Science web pages.

However, the pages you are now reading deal with the journey of our spiritual life, which is something totally different, and complementary, to the paths of our physical journey. Our spiritual path begins at the bottom of the TOL, at the sphere numbered 10. This sphere represents the combined manifestation of our spiritual selves within the physical shell of our bodies. If we align our non-physical selves with the concept of zero (0), and we align our physical selves with the concept of one (1), then the number 10 perfectly represents the union of these two pieces of ourselves.

Another facet of our spiritual journey is represented in the DIRECTION we travel on the TOL. When we discuss the SPIRITUAL side of ourselves, we are discussing movement UP THE TREE OF LIFE (from 10 towards 1). This is why we suggest that our life's spiritual journey is equivalent to "climbing the Tree Of (our) Life." We will discuss this journey as we progress from sphere #10 upward towards sphere #1 in the course of these SPIRIT web pages. On our Science pages, we equated the progression from 1 to 10 with the process of CREATION of any object, event, or situation in our lives. Therefore, since these pages are complementary to the Science pages, the Spirit pages are equated to the DISSOLUTION of any given creation back to its original state prior to its creation. In this manner, our spiritual journey represents the second half of the cycle of our lives, in which we seek to return to the state we were in prior to our creation. This is the quest of RE-UNITING WITH OUR CREATOR. Let's briefly examine what we can expect to learn as we travel this upward path on the TOL.

Following The Spiritual Path Dissolves the Differences Between Us.
We live in a physical universe wherein we distinguish ourselves from any and all other things in this universe. Through the tool of our self-awareness, we set ourselves apart as DIFFERENT from all other people and all other physical elements in the world around us. This is the result of our analytical (scientific) minds doing their assigned task of DIFFERENTIATION. The complement to our analytical minds can be called our synthetical minds (e.g. the opposite of analysis is synthesis). This is the realm of our spiritual journey. Whereas our analytical minds perform the task of differentiating, our synthetical minds perform the task of INTEGRATING. Let's take a look at these two terms side-by-side, because their complementary nature will help us in understanding how synthesis equates to our spiritual path:

In Y2K Our Lives Are Too Much Science, And Not Enough Spirituality.
When we examine the modern world we have created, we recognize that the advances brought about by science and technology are pervasive. We have ubiquitous electronic media (telephones, radio, TV, Internet) that help us communicate and exchange ideas with one another. We have various forms of advanced transportation (planes, trains, and automobiles) that help to bring us together. We have a plethora of new medicines, drugs, and medical treatments (with more being created each day!) that seek to ease pain, suffering, and disease. With all of these "gifts" that modern science has bestowed upon us, it is easy to understand how some people might tend to believe that SCIENCE COULD SOLVE ALL OF SOCIETY'S PROBLEMS. Unfortunately, this can never work. The reason has to do with how things manifest in the physical world.....all things come in complementary pairs of opposites (dyads). Science is but one-half of the Yin/Yang dyad of existence. So, if we wish for SCIENCE to provide a maximum benefit to our lives, then it must be tempered and balanced by its dyadic opposite, namely SPIRIT. As you study the physical world of Science (on our companion SCIENCE web pages), you will come to see that only through the BALANCE OF OPPOSING FORCES can stability (and therefore progress) be assured.

If you remember this fact, it will help you in learning to cherish each moment of NOW that you experience. Remembering that we are always living in the PRESENT, rather than the YESTERDAY or TOMORROW, is an important first step in learning how to apply the knowledge of the Tree Of Life to your own life. When you live your life and operate in the PRESENT, you are paying testament to the following truths about living your own, unique life of creation and dissolution:

1. YOU ARE ALWAYS AT THE STARTING LINE IN THE RACE OF YOUR LIFE. (Whether the race is 80 years, 80 months, 80 days, or 80 seconds long matters not. What matters is how you CHOOSE to use the time from NOW until the end of the race.)
2. YOU ALWAYS POSSESS THE ABILITY (AND RIGHT) TO CHANGE YOUR MIND. (Changing your mind is far from a sign of weakness. Rather, it is a sign of strength! Every time you change your mind, you bring yourself into alignment with some truth that you have observed to be true as a result of living through a prior experience.)
3. BY CHANGING YOUR MIND, YOU CHANGE WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU EXPECT OUT OF YOUR LIFE. (You can't change the laws of nature, but you CAN change your mind.
4. YOU EXPERIENCE NEW THINGS BY CHANGING YOUR MIND FROM A PREVIOUS BELIEF TO A NEW BELIEF. (When you change what you believe, you necessarily change how you view things in your environment. Where something may have been "negative" under an old belief, it may now gain the status of "positive" under your new belief system. What was once thought to be "bad" may now be seen as contributing some amount of "good".)
5. YOU LIVE OUT YOUR LIFE AS A SERIES OF BEING INFORMED ABOUT (passive) AND EXPERIENCING (active) VARIOUS BELIEF SYSTEMS: OLD BELIEFS, EXISTING BELIEFS, AND NEW BELIEFS. (We all absorb information and use it to make decisions. When we make decisions, we are actually CHANGING ourselves by CHANGING OUR BELIEFS. Absorbing the information is a passive act of consideration. But ACTING on the information is your means to EXPERIENCE the new belief as a truth about "real life.")
6. YOU ARE ALWAYS CLIMBING A TREE AS YOU PROGRESS FORWARD IN YOUR LIFE. YOU ALWAYS WANT TO MOVE TO HIGHER STATES OF ENERGY.

From this moment forward, you are DESTINED to learn more about yourself... both your physical self and your beyond-physical self. Whether or not you continue to study these web pages, you WILL come to know more about yourself. If you CHOOSE to continue to learn more about the TOL through these web pages and the Tree-O-Life.Org non-profit organization, you will definitely come to know more about yourself and others, both scientifically and spiritually. If you wish to learn more about our scientific selves and the world of creation we live in, we suggest you jump to our companion Science Home Page. However, if your goal is to learn more about your spiritual self and the spiritual journey you are on, we suggest you BEGIN YOUR LESSON AT SPHERE #10 HERE ON THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF Tree-O-Life.Org.

Tree-O-Life.Org (comprised of this passive website and the active, experiential seminars we deliver) has been grown to provide information, knowledge, and experiences that lead to increasing an individual's AWARENESS and WISDOM of both the physical & spiritual journey that is our lives. We hope you enjoy and benefit from this free web-based material, and we look forward to bringing further information and experiences to you in a live, classroom format! 

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