The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak
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The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak
It seems that institutionalised or organised religions, as well as many forms of traditional and or new religious and spiritual movements, are at best ambiguous if not contradictory or patently dismissive when it comes to their relationship with the physical body.
To a certain extent the body may be seen as useful to access form, discipline or set free the spirit; to create alleged states of expanded consciousness or practise particular exercises, rituals or techniques for specific purposes, but rarely is the body fully recognised for its unique, autonomous capacity and purpose to establish, sustain and advance our connection with the divine.
And many if not most of those practices that claim and are strongly believed to honour the body as pathway to the divine fail to bring forth a tangible, vivid and true way of living that gives testimony to being the expression of divinity in its true energetic and universal meaning.
Since the beginning of our human history, The Ageless Wisdom and its representation in our modern times by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, always have made it very clear that we need to know, understand and fully realise the fact of two different energy sources being available for us to align to and draw from to give us the type of energy and consciousness that then will govern the activity and expression of the human body, and therefore the way of living as a human being here on earth.
. . . the flesh is weak
'The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak‘ is a proverb many will be familiar with and might have even used in the past. It stems from the bible, Matthew Ch. 26:41, and reads as complete sentence: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Wiktionary, the free online dictionary interprets it as: “For much as one wishes to achieve something, the frailties of the human body often make it impossible.” Or Merriam-Webster explains: “Used to say that a person wants to do something but cannot from lack of strength or energy; often used humorously, "I try to get up early and exercise, though sometimes the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
Somehow the understanding or belief that the body is frail and traitorous – thereby undermining the spirit or will – has been adopted as a general fact, probably based on the common experience by many of having a thought or intent to do a certain thing but then not carrying it out due to a resistance or sloth (one of the seven deadly sins) ascribed to the body. The body has often been judged for the alleged weaknesses of the human nature and thus is seen as being less than the mind, spirit or what we assume to be free will.
This consciousness has shaped our relationship with the body and thus with being human; it has left a mark not just on our body (literally at times) but on our psyche and spirit, that even when we consider ourselves today to not be religious in any way, we are influenced by it in many ways.
To mention only some of these imprints and their impact:
We are sinners – therefore we:
- are forever guilty
- will never be good enough
- always have to better ourselves
- neglect ourselves and disregard body and being
- suffer from low self-esteem
- need to seek forgiveness
- establish false charity organisations trying to do good but forever failing to be truthful
- fight wars against those who don´t seek salvation and forgiveness in our way
Women are:
- less than men in work life, as seen in lower salary and imbalanced management hierarchy
- over-represented in human trafficking
- the vast majority of the sex trade
- victims of genital mutilation
- lacking the same political, social and religious rights in many cultures
In many religious traditions, rituals and procedures to purify the body from its imperfections and or to break its alleged hold over the spirit have been practised, some obviously extreme and vile like the flagellants during the Dark Ages, others less obvious and well accepted still today. We may wonder what true good can come of hours of sitting in unsupportive postures or extreme stretching and headstand exercises, as in many common meditation or yoga practices?
And what of the extensive hype for sport and fitness that often blatantly ignores the wellbeing of the body, as well as the plethora of dieting regimes, idealised health programs and products, all in the name of increasing our fitness and wellbeing without any true sense of health – are these not all influenced?
We may question and explore our relationship with the body and with being human first before we accept such practices and concepts unchecked, and when we do so we may wonder with how much disregard or even contempt we are actually treating our body, due to the lack of true self-love and tender care. But who makes the choice to either treat the body and thereby oneself with or without regard? As it cannot be the body itself, which is designed to forever seek harmony, scientifically termed homeostasis, and personally known by our sensitivity, which clearly recognises the difference between harm and harmlessness.
We may need to ask if we do the body justice when we consider it to be weak and if we really understand its inherent divinity based on the fact that it is made up of the same particles that make up the whole universe.
The spirit is willing . . .
Just this fact – that the body is made up of the same particles as the whole universe – already shows the religiousness of everything there is.
When we look at the word religion in its original meaning, it means to re-connect and re-bind. This testifies to the equalness of the essence of everything and the inevitable interconnectedness and interdependence of every part with the whole – a whole we are part of and need to return back to from the state of separation we have long since chosen.
Living in separation to the all simply means to identify oneself as individual and thus different from the equalness that is our universal making. The path back to the oneness we originate from means to practise religion, a way of living as a human being in accordance to and in harmony with the universal laws that make the universe a living whole.
In order to either separate from or return back to the oneness, a choice needs to be made. It is this choice, or rather alignment, that then will energise and govern the human body. Therefore it is of the utmost importance to understand that the body does not act on its own, as it is a vehicle of expression for the chosen energy and consciousness that runs through it. This choice is made by the spirit.
The only two sources we can draw our life force from are either pranic or fiery energy; pranic energy being the basic divine energy sustaining form life here on earth, and fiery energy being a higher divine vibration expressing and communicating the presence and qualities of the soul, our original divine self we are in the process of evolving back to after having separated from it to explore spiritual life and eventually life in human form.
Therefore the spirit has two options to choose from: it can hold onto its separated state of being, thereby mis-using pranic energy to fuel its individuated expression through emotions, ideals and beliefs, or it can re-align to the fiery energy of the Soul and thus initiate the process of re-connection and re-binding . . . religion via the inner-most or inner-heart, the place within where the Soul resides.
"The inner-most is the esoteric or 'inner-heart' and it is this that is developed so that the physical human being knows he and she are more than just their bodies, but that the reality of one’s body is vital in the way it is used to bring forth the Divine expressions of the inner-heart in all that we do, say and think and thus to all we interact with."
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings & Revelations, p 571
So we can rightfully say that it is the spirit that is ‘willing’, but we need to investigate what kind of will it is choosing to then receive the type of energy and consciousness that will govern itself and its body as the vehicle of expression in physical form.
In light of this revelation, especially with the understanding that the body is a receiver of energy chosen by the spirit that supplies the type of thoughts, emotions and motions, we no longer can charge the body to be weak or traitorous but that it is the spirit alone that is responsible for the playing out of everything after the made choice, even for the seeming weaknesses of the body.
In denial of its waywardness and avoidance of any accountability to sustain its separated way of being, it is no wonder that the spirit seeks to cast the blame on somebody else and who better to blame than the human form, the body which the spirit in its arrogance and ignorance holds as being less, a puppet for its personal, individuated agenda?
The body – marker of truth and messenger of divine will
It’s time to whitewash and re-establish the body’s reputation and fully recognise its inherent divine connection. As a receiver of energy, the body is subservient to the consciousness that governs it; thus the spirit can impose its will onto the body by the extensive use of pranic energy (emotions and thoughts). This explains how the human being (incarnated spirit) is the only ‘animal’ that can deliberately and consciously harm itself and its kin – a phenomenon not seen anywhere else in nature – and yet still consider itself to be the pride of creation, the pinnacle of intelligence.
It is the energetic imposition the spirit can cast over the body that suppresses the body’s natural and inherent intelligence – but to a certain point and for a limited period only – because as previously said, the body is made up of the same matter as the whole universe, hence it never ceases to be obedient to the universal rhythms and laws the particles belong to: it only can be forced or overridden by the spirit for a while before it reflects the disobedience and disharmony through its wellbeing, or rather its compromised state of wellbeing.
A sense of discomfort, little aches and pains, mishaps, illness and disease, work or relationship issues, incidents and accidents are ways the body and thereby the universe or soul communicate the spirit’s waywardness, giving us opportunity to raise our awareness for the choices we make. Equally the body recognises and reflects truth, love and harmony by a deep sense of fulfilment and settlement being confirmed by what it knows to be its inherent divine nature.
It becomes obvious that it is the body, in its unalterable alignment to the divine, is not weak, but forever ‘willing’ to only be obedient to Divine Will.
It may be imposed upon by another will, as exercised by the spirit at times, and due to its design to serve as a vehicle of expression for will, it cannot but comply, but never is it aligning to the imposter. It is the body that through reflection guides the spirit to become aware of its choices and the consequent ramifications. The body eventually holds the spirit accountable for the alignment to the type of consciousness it draws its life force from.
As it is time to bring truth back to this proverb, we may allow ourselves to suggest the evangelist Matthew 'to proclaim the good news':
“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: let the body lead the way as it is strong by Divine Will, but the spirit is weak and wayward as long as it seeks self-glorification.”
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