Spirit and Flesh

A great spiritual Teacher expressed this truth as the hour of His capture and subsequent torture approached while in the company of faithful disciples who could not even manage to stay awake with him during those last few minutes of freedom “…the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

With those few words, this Teacher effectively captured and profoundly articulated the natural and difficult tug-of-war between the soul (and its activities) and the body (human nature or programming). Let us not be discouraged by our current inability to overcome aspects of our nature that undermine the activities of the soul. Rather, let us keep striving for small incremental successes day by day, moment by moment.

As we recognize our own limitations in this regard and accept these with peace (with awareness that we are earnestly connecting with and responding to the activities of your soul), let us leverage this understanding of ourselves into an earnest effort to understand others and be at peace with their shortcomings and earnest efforts in becoming a better persons. This is a worthwhile act of love and charity.

This act of love is in line with the same act of love exhibited by the same great spiritual Teacher above when He expressed these last words as He was being put to death on the cross - "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".

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