As simple as possible but no simpler*

Possibly the simplest conceptual model [0] of spirituality.

Start from what is self-evident - the physical body and things in the space outside it. Science and spirituality [1] have no quarrel thus far.

Now consider the complicated world of consciousness, mind, intellect, five-fold sheaths, three-fold bodies, layers, and what-have-you. Stripped down to its barest essentials, it is something that is not the physical body, but has definite relationships with it. [2] Science agrees, but considers the non-physical part to be created from or by the physical body.

Spiritual paths generally agree that there is something beyond this non-physical part, beyond the mind and intellect - infinite, un-graspable/unknowable, beyond time and space. It can yet be experienced - in a limited way - inwardly. Those who have experienced the Unknown have given some descriptions or analogies [3], especially using a series of increasingly subtler physical ones, and then negating or transcending each one. E.g., from earth/solidity to water/liquidity and so on to space/immanent and transcendent.

 The simple model looks something like this:

UNKNOWABLE/INFINITE/DIVINE

======================

NON-PHYSICAL PART

==============

PHYSICAL BODY

===========

OUTSIDE

One explanation for the non-physical part is that it is an interface between the Unknowable and our physical body. [4] The interface has two sides, one adjacent to the Unknowable, and the other next to the physical body. Limited and contextual descriptions of the Unknowable say that it is pure, simple, and subtle or light. Naturally, the interface should also have similar qualities on that side. The physical body's qualities normally appear in stark contrast to those of the Unknowable and such is also the interface next to it.

A naive idea would be that the interface is very thin. But usually, there is a gradient from pure, simple, and subtle to impure, complex, and gross, as one's mind or non-physical part (NPP) "moves" from the Unknowable to the physical body. Put differently, from the "inside" to the "outside".

The simplest explanation for our present state is that the focus of this interface has become weighted towards the outside. So it ignores or is unable to receive, let alone process, impulses or signals from the inside correctly. All spiritual practice is about moving the focus inward for longer times and with greater stability until the interface is permanently weighted towards the inside. Paradoxically, this needs less effort than going outward because purity, simplicity, and subtlety were the original and natural states. [5] Yet another paradox is that the inward journey of each individual's NPP is reported as commonality and unity, even transcendence, [5] while the outward journey leads to differentiation and separativeness, competitiveness and groupism.

Much spiritual jargon comes from complicated, incomplete, and inconsistent explanations of spiritual experiences or reports thereof. I have not considered the focus or movement of the NPP laterally, across human beings. But such focusing may be done more effectively once the inward focus is settled and it becomes easier to see patterns, or in other words, keeping in mind the forest while dealing with individual trees.

NOTES

* Ascribed to Einstein, Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler
gives a detailed history.

[0] A more "structural" details of model in Two bodies or what do we really know?

[1] Some spiritual paths consider the objective or material world outside to be unreal or at least unimportant.

[2] E.g., reading these words requires you to process them physically as well as non-physically. Understanding, vocabulary, memory, intellectual processing, etc. uses physical energy and time, as well as abstract or non-physical processing.

[3] Given the differing times and cultures, these descriptions have differed. Garbled and misunderstood communication of the descriptions caused further confusion.

[4] See Mind Sandwich for a similar perspective.

[5] According to spirituality. Since science has no measurable proof of the Unknowable, and considers the NPP to have originated from the body, it logically considers numinous or transcendental states to be later developments of the NPP.

[6] Trying to describe something that is simultaneously immanent and transcendent is a major preoccupation of the early Upanishads.