Matter versus Spirit?
Why should we want to eliminate the body and the material universe from our spiritual search? On the contrary, shouldn’t we accept it, integrate it and give it its place without confusing the planes and their natural hierarchy? Isn’t what we call ‘sin’ simply this error of judgement that gives us the impression that the ‘physical’ plane has an autonomous existence and that it is capable of dominating our Spirit?
Valuing suffering or pleasure?
In so-called ‘spiritual’ research and religion, there is a tenacious tendency to want to eliminate the body as an expression of the ‘evil’ in us. We are told about the ‘flesh’ and the ‘mortal world’, and associate them with the idea of an anti-God called ‘Satan’.
When we talk about the lives of saints, we insist above all on the suffering they endured and the sacrificial abandonment of their physical envelope. This seems to be the best way to return to the bosom of the Creator. As a result, many ascetics, even outside the Christian sphere, present mortifications of the physical body as an absolute mode of prayer, capable of freeing the soul from a body associated with sin.
Similarly, the image of Jesus crucified is statistically more highly valued in the consciousness of Christians than the “Christ of Glory”. More emphasis is placed on the human and its frailties within us than on the “divine” that is supposed to be our essence. The Sacred Heart, which is at the center of Christ’s life, is itself often depicted pierced and bleeding. This religious archetype reveals the strange way in which the human imagination looks at the weakness that limits us rather than the strength that drives us from morning to night, even when we’re asleep.
It is undoubtedly also this morbid attachment to suffering as a means of redemption that prevents us from grasping the true symbolism of the incarnation of the man Jesus, who came to bear witness to the evidence of the presence of the “Christ” in every human being.
The incarnation: path or obstacle?
If the flesh were an obstacle to the realization of Christ, we might wonder why the Creator would have chosen to manifest himself in this way through his creation. Would we dare to accuse him of perversity if we could only imagine that the God of Love of whom we are told is capable, in the same breath, of setting such a Machiavellian trap for us? Human credulity must be unfathomable for such a conception to have lasted so long and even continue to blind us so massively. Let us wake up and realize at last that it is this negative view of the incarnation that detracts from its essence.
Unfortunately, it’s not religions that are trying to wake us up, even though they claim that this is their goal, it’s science itself. And it doesn’t have to put on the masks of spirituality to do so. We have all learned that E=MC2 and yet despite knowing theoretically that everything is energy we continue to regard faith in the invisible as fanciful speculation.
Some people even claim loud and clear that they only believe what they can see, and yet they use their mobile phones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connections, radio, television, radar, drones, lasers, etc. on a daily basis. The list could go on. Do these heirs of St Thomas notice how much they refuse to understand how untenable their position is? They can talk, without any physical link, in a tiny device with a virtual interlocutor thousands of kilometers away, but they refuse to see that we are in the process of tipping over into an invisible reality.
They live in the 21st century but remain attached to the way of thinking of the stiff-necked men that the Old Testament castigated so long ago. No, they haven’t changed at all and yet they live in the midst of the obvious, proud of the rigidity of their ego. The world they call ‘visible’ may be crumbling around them, but they are still standing with both feet firmly planted in the concrete of their convictions. They don’t even notice or do not want to notice that musical or artistic emotion is also part of the invisible. Are they even capable of experiencing true love, the kind that needs neither proof nor ties to bring someone to their knees?
Scientific research and humility
And yet, a bit of humility, a simple letting-go and a certain open-mindedness could enable them to understand that we only see what we believe. But make no mistake. It is not necessary to go as far as the blind faith that consists of imagining what is not yet. All we must do is observe what is there before our eyes. It’s enough to see that in the morning, the sun comes out without us having to press a remote control, and that we haven’t been cut off from oxygen during the night despite the pollution.
Will it take a stroke to make them realize that something mysterious has been keeping the blood flowing in their brains until now? Will it take a cancer, an heart attack or some other bodily breakdown to make them finally know ilthat they are not in control.
This “illumination” is called humility… But there are some for whom vital challenges are not even enough. They do not want to read the signs; their hypertrophied ego resists and still blocks their view.
But let’s return to this world known as “matter” and take a neutral look at it. What do we see? A remarkably well-built universe whose interdependence defies human logic. In fact, this complexity is unthinkable. It is impossible to reproduce all its details with even the most sophisticated computer.
The only solution we have found is to interpret it linearly, and that is our religion. The reason is that the logical mind is digital, and the universe is not. The world around us does not answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It can say yes and no at the same time, as well as all the opposites of opposites that we can imagine.
The frontiers of logical thinking
In this sense, we need to find that we have reached the limits of our scientific way of thinking. When so-called “quantum” physics established that the observer inevitably affects the thing being observed, we reached the frontier where, failing a passport, we must accept a change of dimension.
We have practically explored the entire surface of the globe, and even some of its depths. There are no more continents left to discover “out there”. The future Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo will have to explore our inner continents by changing their methods.
The observer will have to roll up his neurons and become his own object of observation. Discovering the mystery of life will not be achieved by dissecting dead or dying bodies from outside. We must now plunge into the heart of the matter ourselves, to explore our living consciousness.
If we are to continue to evolve, it is essential that we remain fully conscious of consciousness, stripping ourselves of all the beliefs that trap us in the illusion of duality.
Only “the truth will set us free”. But what truth are we talking about? And what kind of freedom?
