The World of the Flesh vs.The World of the Spirit

 
I am currently writing a book about awakening as it is explained in the New Testament. One of the puzzles of Paul’s writings is his tendency to have one foot in one world and the other foot in an entirely different world. Elaine Pagels explores this dilemma in her book, The Gnostic Paul. These two worlds that Paul speaks about are the world according to the “flesh” and the world according to the “Spirit.” What are these two worlds?

The world of the Spirit seems obvious. In us and all around us is this invisible “Kingdom” that we can’t seem to see, but the mystics of the ages have seen it plainly. The world of the flesh is very different. The Greek word that is translated as “flesh” means literally “the meat that hangs on the bones.” Paul uses this term to mean that which is superficial – those things we see on the surface or what is obvious. We are in the world of the flesh when we are taking things literally. Paul tries to explain this in Roman’s chapter 4. Paul says that if we look at Abraham according to the flesh, or in other words the standards of the external world, we see that his “works” make him a man among men. Abraham was a success by all earthly measures. What are works? In the Greek of Paul’s letters, it means labors or doing.

But Paul goes on to say that according to the world of the Spirit none of this mattered. What he did as a man was of no account. His material accomplishments were of no importance. It was his connection to Spiritual reality that made him “justified by faith.” Faith by the way does not mean convincing ourselves of something we hope. It means confidence. When we turn inward and discover the Truth of who we are, we become confident because it is knowledge that cannot be taken away since it grows out of direct experience. If you eat hot peppers you don’t need to hope they are spicy. If you never have another pepper, your faith in their spiciness will be unshaken. This is what Paul is saying about Abraham. His certainty of the world according to the Spirit set in motion the process of spiritual vindication very much like a condemned man being acquitted. I am using Paul here since it is all over my desk at the moment. But I could have referred to Ramana Maharshi, the Buddha, or any number of awakened teachers who have said the same thing using other words.

Self-realization or enlightenment or whatever it is to have the Truth revealed to us comes by Grace. Paul hammers this point. It is a gift the timing of which cannot be calculated in the world of the flesh. To prepare for the ultimate, we are told by sages for thousands of years to surrender, to give up. Only when the false self collapses will the true Self be revealed.

One of the concepts I try to get across in my counseling sessions and workshops is the idea of Presence. If we go back to our catechism or whatever religious training we may have had, we are taught that God has three characteristics: all powerful, all knowing, and Omni-present. Omni-present means infinitely present. A good way to think about this is that we, human beings, are in existence, but God is Existence Itself. The point of view of Existence Itself is the world of the Spirit that Paul talks about.

Think of it another way. Your life is a wonderful novel called “You.” But who or what is reading the story of “You?” It certainly can’t be the little “you” that you think you are. From the point of view of “you,” life is filled with ups and downs: politics, pathos, and pathology. This is the world of the flesh.

From the Reader's point of view, nothing in the novel is actually real, serious, or threatening. That is the world of the Spirit. That’s why Paul tells us that from this point of view there is no law, there is no condemnation, and there is no death. Just because the character in a novel dies, it does mean the reader dies too!
In our spiritual pursuits and practices, we constantly straddle the line between these two worlds. We need to clearly distinguish what practices are of the flesh or are focused on the external, superficial world and what practices take us deep into and closer to the world of the Spirit. Below are several comparative examples of each. My criteria for making these distinctions are simple. Is the purpose of the practice to enhance the world of the flesh or deepen one’s experience of the Spirit? 

The World of the Flesh/ The World of the Spirit
Goal setting/ Surrender
Law of Attraction/ Non-attachment
Affirmations/ Attention to what is
Hypnotism, reprogramming,
psychotherapy, mental manipulation/ Deep insight, witnessing, self-observation
Prayer, supplication/Radical acceptance
Self improvement/No-self, self-transcendence
Creating, co-creating reality/Seeing reality
Individual human potential/Oneness, Unity
New Age practices/Stillness beyond fascination
7 habits, success principles/Living in Harmony with what is
Positive thinking/Disidentification with thinking

So we need to make a decision. Are we going to live in the world of the flesh or the Spirit? The world of the flesh produces a spiritual practice based on self enhancement. In other words, the target of our spiritual practice is the betterment of the objective world of form – our life situation. But there is a hopeless truth in this. The destination is death. The story of “you” always ends with a funeral. So if you have worked diligently for a better "story," it pretty much always ends the same way.
For the Reader of the story of “you” with feet planted firmly in the world according to the Spirit, there is abundant, never ending, everlasting life. Because when the pages of the book are closed, the Reader opens another story and another in a never ending saga of Life unfolding; the Divine Expression revealing its own Self to Itself through the story of Bob, and Suzy, and Benedict Arnold, and the bird on my roof and the scorpion in the desert and the rock.
The Reader is our Natural State. It is who we really are. The world of the flesh will never satisfy. Meanwhile the world according to the Spirit is life and peace.