Chapter 4 “Flesh and Spirit”

Walking with God, in the way of Truth and Love often feels like a battle, or perhaps better stated, a war with several battles we face on our spiritual journey.  All battles by definition require the existence of opposing sides, or there would be no battle.  This begs the question of what the opposing sides are in this spiritual battle.  Within traditional Christianity, it is often spoken of a conflict between good versus evil, God and Satan, or the flesh and the spirit.  Evil, Satan, and flesh are on the negative side of the equation, while God, good, and spirit are on the positive side.  In examining the creation story in Genesis, we learn we evolved into beings capable of making choices due to our intelligence of measurement, which opened the doors to the whole problem of “good” versus “evil.”  As we discover from the Genesis creation story, this is a uniquely human problem, as animals do not have this spiritual conflict since they live on pure instinct, unlike humanity, who live on instinct and knowledge of God’s way, Truth and Love, and ego’s way, the “devil’s” way of fear.  The responsibility to either choose the way of God, Love, or the way of Satan, fear is the human conflict. 

That being said, I disagree with the notion there must necessarily be a conflict between the flesh and the spirit.  The flesh exists for a purpose, or it would not be here.  As all comes from God, Truth, and Truth always liberates and exalts, then matter, the flesh must exist to glorify that from which it came.  The caveat is the only way flesh can do glory to God is by self-recognition it is not the Truth, but rather a manifestation of God, Truth.  Flesh must recognize its place, and not make itself a god.  Almost nobody does this, which is the whole problem.  While I find some aspects of Gnosticism appealing, I disagree with the notion of the material world, the flesh being a “mistake,” as if it was some “mishap” or blunder from a perfect God, devoid of any inherent value in itself.  Like belief and prejudice, ego, and the flesh, all of which could be described as one in the same, it is not these things in themselves which are the problem, but rather our identification with them that is the issue.  Clearly, almost every human being identifies with the flesh, that is, our body, our beliefs and prejudices, all which define life within mortal flesh and the limits of time on Earth.  This is the issue, not the fact these things exist.  They exist for the glory of God, but cannot do glory to God as long as that which inhabits the flesh is lost in delusional self-identity with it.  The beginning and end of sin is simply that.  The reason Christ is said to be without sin is because He identifies with the Truth, not the ego. Whenever we do not identify with Truth, and instead identify with ego, we sin.  True peace on Earth, the true Kindgom of Heaven is one in which everyone identifies with Truth, God, and not ego, self.  What the Gnostics got right was the notion of the flesh not being humanity’s true origin, and that it is God, the spirit which is our True nature.  What the Gnostics missed, and perhaps this is due to language limitations or incorrect translations of ancient scriptures, is the fact it is not the material world, the flesh itself which is the issue, but our identification and attachment to it.

What has prompted these thoughts within me has been my own feelings on the flesh and spirit and observations of others’ views on these things.  The usual stand we must be on the side of “spirit” and not the “flesh” only creates more conflict because we really cannot deny either, as we are both.  The name “Jesus Christ” is an expression of the fact of our dual natures, both human and Divine.  The human side is expressed in the name “Jesus,” with the Godly, Divine nature named “Christ.”  The true meaning of the name of Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the spirit and flesh in one whole being.  Jesus Christ is not the person, the ego Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus Christ is the fully realized potential each of us can reach if we sacrifice all for God, Love, Truth, as Jesus of Nazareth did.  We must put to death, to crucify our identification and attachment with our ego, the flesh, as He did.  This is what it means to be “born again,” to realize our true family and identity is with the Truth, God, as our Father, not with our flesh and ego.  Jesus Christ is Truth, but it is not a person.  It is the condition of the fully realized human and divine One – the One who knows who they are as a child of God, of Truth, identifying with that, not ego.  This was manifest in Jesus of Nazareth, and can be possible in all of us if we surrender to the will of the One from which all comes, as He did.  That which is of God is whole, not divided and constantly battling between one side or the other.  We have been put to sleep in the illusions of the dualistic world and its games through identification with the material world instead of seeing it for what it is – a means to an end – a tool for God, Love, Truth’s glory.  Death to this identification is the birth of true freedom, as all else is enslavement by the illusions of our own making.

It is amazing to me how both the religious, “God-fearing” people and atheistic, “non-believing” scientific minded people have the exact same problem – identification with the flesh and with it, their beliefs and prejudices.  Both are materialistic in that they identify with the material, the flesh, and are not aware of their True origins.  One could say the “religious” are aware, while the atheists are not, but since both are subservient to their beliefs about existence and not the Truth of existence, they are both enslaved by the flesh and its prejudicial limitations.

Such talk within the context of almost anyone would certainly get me kicked out of any church, and possibly stoned or burned as a heretic, even in the 21^st century.  Still, Truth is Truth. If it hurts, it is only because of our denial of it and unwillingness to look at ourselves beyond the veil of our conditioning.  As Jesus is recorded as saying in the Gospel of Thomas, 5:1, “Know what it in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you.” I asked myself a very profound question this morning while driving in my car…”Do you know who I am?”  The answer brought tears to my eyes as in this revelation I realized the truth of who Jesus Christ is – the realization of the Truth, the One in human form – the perfect manifestation of the Divine and the human in One flesh.  What made the realization all the more profound was being aware of the fact my true identity – everyone’s true identity is Jesus Christ.  We are all at different levels of realizing our Jesus Christ within us, as we are all at different stages of spiritual development.  Contrary to popular belief, Jesus Christ is not exclusive to Jesus of Nazareth.  Any fully realized human being who surrenders all attachment to their ego and serves Truth, God, Love with all of their being is Jesus Christ.  As Jesus is recorded as saying in Thomas 108: 1-3, “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him.” Jesus speaks to fact again, in the Secret Book of James, 6:7, “Be eager to be saved without being urged.  Instead, become zealous on your own and, if possible, surpass even me…” None of this is found in the four Gospels of the New Testament because that would contradict traditional Christianity’s belief Jesus Christ is exclusive only to the person Jesus of Nazareth.  

Other religious traditions speak of those who have attained this full spiritual realization, such as Gautama Siddhartha, who upon enlightenment became known as Gautama Buddha. Like Jesus Christ, the name Gautama Buddha is a combination of both the human and Divine names which show the perfect integration of both aspects realized into One Being.  Jesus and Gautama is the human name.  Christ and Buddha is the Divine name.  Christ means “the anointed one.”  Buddha means “the enlightened one.”  Both names mean essentially the same thing – they are identified with their True family – with God, Truth, Love.  This is what we are all called to do – to identify with our Divine natures, not our human ego natures.  It is interesting how Buddhism speaks of the illusions of the self, the ego, and I have written at length the fact of this profound truth no matter what religious tradition one comes from.  Personally, I don’t care where truth comes from, and from which tradition.  Truth does not discriminate.  Truth is truth, and I find it in many different religious traditions as well as secular poetry, literature, art and film, although I am most intimately familiar with the Christian tradition since I was raised Catholic.

I have heard several preachers scoff at the idea Ghandi spoke of that all religions can lead to God, to Truth.  It would make sense they would scoff at this since their jobs as ministers for a particular faith depend on one believing their faith is the “right religion,” with all others being “wrong.”  This fight for job security is really a fight for ego-security and the defense of one’s beliefs.  Since ego is the only thing one can defend, then it is clear these preachers are serving themselves, and are about ego, not about God.  The fight over which religion is the “right” one is like an argument over what kind and which color of cup carries the water.  Does it really matter?  Are not all cups which carry the life-giving water valuable?  Why do we fight over which cup carries the water?  Is the cup more valuable than the water?  If you were dying of thirst, would you really care about the cup in which water was carried, or would you drink that same life-giving water no matter what cup carried it?  The obvious answer to this question exposes the silliness of fighting over which religion is “right.” The desire to have the “right cup” is the same as fighting over the “right belief.” Truth transcends this entire game of “right and wrong,” and to find it, we must look beyond this game…to the only place where Truth resides – beyond our beliefs and prejudices.  And the fight is futile anyways because the truth is – there is no “right” cup.  All can carry the life-giving water, just as all can fall short of carrying that water.

In every religious tradition, there are all kinds of lies about God, as well as truth. No religion can claim they are “perfect” in their conception of God because ultimately, all human attempts to measure and describe the immeasurable are failures.  No human conception can ever do justice to the All of Life, Love, God.  When this is firmly understood within every aspect of one’s being, then the fighting stops and true peace and acceptance can take place.  God obviously values variety or He would not have created so much of it on Earth.  We have thousands of different languages.  Which one is “right?”  Which one is “wrong?”  None, as they simply speak to different cultures through different means, as do different religions. So, when faced with the fact God created so much variety, why then would He be so petty and exclusive as to make only one religion “right” and to have only “one” messenger of Truth?  It is inconsistent with the inclusive and Universal ways of God, Truth.  The particulars of these traditions and what they believe do not matter, as all beliefs are not Truth since they are all conclusions based on limited, incomplete information.  What matters is the only Reality to which they point – Love, Truth, God.

What is really at issue here is the foundation of what governs each person.  No matter what religious tradition one identifies with, as long as one is governed by belief and not Love, God, Truth, then it really doesn’t matter what one believes, as all belief leads to the same wordly, un-Godly path – ego.  I have already stated previously the fact that all beliefs are ultimately not Truth because a belief is always a conclusion based on limited information.  All beliefs are therefore lies, which is why fighting over “right belief” is futile.  It is a fight over which lie is best.  A lie is a lie.  What is incomplete is incomplete.  Why not simply witness to the truth and not be so concerned about what one believes?  Belief is a construct of the ego, and any identification with it will only perpetuate the dualistic game of good versus evil, right and wrong, reward and punishment, etc.

Love is not a game.  True Life is not a game.  But we cannot know this until we know it – which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind…