A physician and I were talking today about the biochemistry of diabetes. He specifically referred to the gate system by which insulin acts to bring sugar into our cells.
The cell membrane contains insulin receptors that are unlocked, so to speak, by the presence of insulin, allowing sugar to flow into a cell.
In Type II Diabetes, insulin does not act efficiently and sugar builds up in the bloodstream with unwelcome consequences.
In treating diabetes, even 30 minutes of brisk walking per day gives great benefit. Cardiovascular exercise increases the number of insulin receptors on the exterior of cell membranes. As a result, less insulin goes a longer way and is better used by the body.
I left our conversation intrigued by the analogous way in which Spirit acts on the psyche. We need the daily exercises to build up our “receptors” to the Divine Light. As we increase receptivity, the Light all around us gets through to our core, and so we are better able to experience authentic illumination.
As mind and body are one, there is no reason to expect that soul acts in contrary ways. I fully believe they mirror each other. Receptor chemistry offers an interesting perspective in analogical thinking about our state of readiness to receive the grace and love that is ever-present and freely given.
I am in awe of the exquisite configurations of our life-space from morphology and physiology to the sacred echo of such schema in Mind and Spirit.
© Brother Anton and The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
The Harried Mystic 
There have been various attempts at bypassing the hard work of regular meditation and spiritual practice by simuating the brain rhythmns using certain Cds, which work for a short time and then stop working so you need to buy the next one. I’ve never tried them , being a suspicious sort, but I suspect they don’t work because to keep the brain wave pattern, the brain needs to build the neural pathways the hard way first rather than be forced into an artifical template, that is never built up into the neurons of the brain matter.
there is no easy way to enlightenment; and if there were, i’d be suspicious of the value of what it achieved!
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Exactly my point Viv. Only by persistence in daily meditation can we ever really hope to experience the full force of the Presence. There are no short cuts, no pills, no external set of stimulants, nor adequate amounts of discursive prayer that will build sustainable “receptors” to open the flood gates of Divine Light. You put your finger on the pulse point of a central malady of our times: the thirst for instant everything. Thank you.
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“God grant me Patience- but make it quick!”
Actually, I have a copy of St.John of the Cross’s prayer for Patience propped up against my printer, next to my Icon of Lady Julian of Norwich.
I went to Quaker Meeting this morning and was glad I had; made a new friend, an elderly Jewish lady who fled the Nazis during the War and who may be able to help me with my German if I help her with her computer skills! I also saw a massive energy form: a shimmering pillar of barely-there light, eight feet high, that appeared as Meeting began and slowly vanished two minutes before the end. No idea what it was but it felt good!
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great blog i love your style and how you brought something complex down to the ability for someone like me to understand it. i’ll be always at work to be an open receptor to such grace. 🙂
kameron
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Thank you Kameron. Appreciate your stopping by my place.
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