I am not a human being on a spiritual journey,
I am a spiritual being on a human journey.
While studying my Camino de Santiago guidebook by John Brierly (the one I’m using as my primary guide for the pilgrimage the engineer and I will soon embark on), I came upon the above quote, about not being a human being on a spiritual journey but a spiritual being on a human journey.
Profound?
It sure sounded deep, spiritual, enlightening, and inspirational when I read it. But then I really started thinking about it, and I came to the conclusion that I don’t fully agree with it.
The quote is a paraphrased and personalized spiritual maxim based on a quote attributed to both Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and G. I. Gurdeiff. Well-known author Wayne Dyer popularized it and evidently uses it in his presentations. It can be considered a paraphrase of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s dictum that matter is spirit fallen into a state of self-otherness.
True, or false?
You can find a lot of psychoanalytic assessment and articles online on the idea of “otherness,” but a rough definition would be to say that it is a state of being different and alien to the self.
And that’s what hangs me up about this saying and causes me to ask myself the following questions:
- Am I mostly human, or mostly spirit?
- Is my human form less important than my spirit?
- Does my soul feel alien to my physical self, and vice versa?
- What’s God’s opinion about this view?
A few of my conclusions—
- Being mostly spirit sounds Gnostic to me.
(We’ll be covering Gnosticism in a future Meditation Monday post.) Gnostics are heavy on spirit and having an “inward knowing.”
- God created us to be both spirit and bodies.
And when He originally created humans, He intended for them to live forever, in perfect bodies that didn’t wear down, break down, get sick, or die. The ugly—sinful degradation part—came at the fall. So the original intent seemed to be a nice balance of both body and spirit.
- Body and Spirit are equally important.
Since Scripture says we’ll eventually have new bodies in which to house our incorruptible spirits (after death and our resurrection), it seems as though both body and spirit are important to Him—now and later.
- Do I have a healthy balance with both?
It seems to me that, in order to live the fullest and most fruitful life, you need to have a healthy opinion toward both your body and soul.
Food for thought—
Throughout the summer we’ll be exploring this body versus spirit idea more carefully. But for this weekend, I invite you to mediate on the following questions:
- What is your opinion about this spiritual maxim, or philosophical view?
- In your life, do you focus more on your physical body or your spirit?
- Are your decisions driven more by your physical needs than your spiritual ones?
- Which do you believe you need more work on—your body or your spirit? Or do you feel you are living a life in balance, so both the body and spirit are growing and bearing fruit?
Until next week,
Happy journeying, with both body and soul!
Andrea
May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).
Photo courtesy of Andrea A. Owan