A First Thought on the Union of Matter and Spirit.

This morning I had one of those epiphanies to which I’m occasionally subjected. It was a sudden clarification of the commonly held belief that a human being consists of two essentially independent beings acting in partnership. One is the animal that eats, breathes, thinks, and so on; the other is the higher energy spiritual entity whose primary raison d’etre is to gain experience through feeling. The one ceases to exist at death, while the other moves on to partner a new animal.

There’s nothing new here, of course, it’s a commonly held doctrine in many religions. What the clarification did, however, was to throw up certain questions, contradictions and paradoxes. Most of these I’ve yet to examine further, but the first question that presents itself is just how closely connected the two entities are.

The common view is to think of the spirit entity (I dislike the word ‘soul,’ since it carries a connotation I find shallow) as something that resides within the body, and is effectively a passenger along for the experiential ride which will – by one means or another, depending on the tradition – enable it to grow sufficiently as to effect release into some better place. I don’t think that’s right. I have a growing sense that the two are so closely intertwined that they are effectively inseparable for the course of the lifetime. This means that when I look in the mirror, I don’t just see the animal, I see the composite entity.

But here’s the big corollary. If the two entities are held so closely in partnership that they are ‘as one,’ it would explain the belief in certain religious traditions that the way in which we regard and use our bodies has a spiritual significance as well as a relatively unimportant material one. To put it simply, it makes the body sacred, and that should encourage a more circumspect attitude towards the way we view and use it than is considered normal in secular societies. And maybe this explains why I am only now coming to accept some of the deeply entrenched sensibilities I have had since as far back in childhood as I can remember.