To continue with some thoughts from The New Spiritual Exercises. The fourth Telhardian Principle is "Evolution is based primarity on spirit, not on matter."
Now, we need to try to explain what Teilhard meant by the word "spirit".
Here are some of the things he said that may help:
Spirit is the origin and term of evolution.
Spirit is the power of unity scattered throughout the fragmenst of the universe. Spirit, working in matter through the Law of Attraction-Connection-Complexity-Consciousness, is the unifying force in creation, bringing all the elements to ever-higher levels of unity or oneness.
Spirit is the force driving everything toward synthesis and sublimation, that is toward higher levels of existence. Spirit explasins why everything in the physical world is evolving.
Spirit is continually leading the universe toward some more spiritual state. Savary says that for Teilhard, Jesus is inviting us to join with him in performing his greatest miracle of all, that of transforming the world once again, this time with the evolutionary power of love.
And finally, Spirit is personal, not some abstract or impersonal force such as gravity or electromagnetism. For Teilhard, the Holy Spirit is a divine person and, as such, wants to inspire us, individually and collectively, to create a world reborn in God-consciousness.
I have really copied this half page, page 21, from the book as I want you to be able to reflect yourself on how Savary is explaining what Chardin thought when he speaks of spirit.
I struggle to grasp his thought sometimes, but I think it is worth trying to understand. Words have so much meaning and so many meanings that one needs to enter into the mind of Teilhard to appreciate him and understand his vocabulary that adds new depth of meaning to some words.
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