Book Two The Spiritual / Corporeal Handshake

Book Two

The Spiritual / Corporeal Handshake

ONE

Dualities

Mirror Images - our world reflects the spiritual realm. If our world is a satellite of the spiritual realm, then we who seek the truth must learn to reason in reverse. In the analogy of a hand, ring upon the third finger, inserted into a white glove, the solid hand cannot represent the corporeal world as we know it, nor can the seemingly more ethereal glove be emblematic of the spiritual realm; the hand must count as the more substantial spiritual realm while the glove is seen to be the corporeal veneer. The shape of the hand as seen through the glove, as well as the indication of the ring, points to what we may know of spiritual matters through physical, empirical research. The Bible tells us that we may know of spiritual things by what we see in our ‘real’ world. Just as the ‘Tabernacle’ is a shadow, or reflection, of the heavenly, so too are there many more ‘mirror images’ to be studied in the scriptures.

If one wished to put forth that God has a great desire, as a spiritual being, to be known by physical man, to what might he turn for support of his assertion? Familiarity with the Old Testament points to a multitude of instances where God says He will do a thing that is toward a singular end: “that they may know that I am the Lord.” There are also multitudes of: “and you will know that I am the Lord.” There was the 'knowing' that it was God who did or said a particular thing - for a particular cause. There was, for example, the Exodus: its purpose being that Israel should know that it was God the Lord who brought them out with a “strong hand and a stretched out arm.”

Therefore, I must necessarily begin the second book of this study with a question. What kind of

‘knowing’ do we investigate? There are many kinds, from simple and casual recognition to the 'knowing' of a familial relationship - as with a husband and wife, or, between friends. In light of the fact that this study investigates concomitant states between the corporeal and spiritual realms, one may well put a name to that interface that connects them: knowledge is that interface.

A duality exists; it is life as we know it. It might be said that the human body best represents duality; the arms and legs are on opposing sides, yet they mirror one another: they are similar. One cannot have a duality without similarities. But we seekers must confess: we’ve yet to find our right hand. By that, I mean that there is much of the other side we just can’t see. Like a Helen Keller feeling the face of an unseen friend, we must use those tools we have at our disposal.

We have our minds; we have comparative thought. Great as these tools are, however, they are meager when held up against the task at hand. The mind’s eye stares out into a moonless night. Invisibilities move unseen upon larger invisibilities; mysteries move within other mysteries. Ignorance is the

impenetrable blackness our mind’s eye must somehow pierce. What we need are night vision goggles, a way to delineate one mystery from the other.

Those goggles will be a ‘spiritual understanding’, for things spiritual may only be understood

spiritually. When I try to understand the Latin languages through the filter of my English-speaking

mind, it is all gibberish and rapid machine gun fire. When man looks at spiritual issues through

the filter of his corporeal understanding,  to him it is all only foolishness. What regimen, what

discipline do we require, then, to see the invisible, to know the unknowable, to achieve the impossible? We must for the time being resort to our primitive tools, such as comparison, but we trust that someday we will trade in stone for polished steel.

So, we begin. We make connections; we make inroads; we make comparisons. We focus on

similarities such as Romans 8:5, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh;

but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

Here, the word ‘after’ is roughly equal to the word ‘like’. Our primitive stone tool defines this simply as: if you are like the spiritual you are like the spiritual; but if you are like the corporeal you are like the corporeal. A left hand has left fingers and a right hand has right fingers, but both are satellites of the mind that moves them. Am I comparing apples to oranges? No. The above verse, in the strictest sense, contrasts spiritual and worldly as one might contrast his left from his right. But, while our two hands may work independently of each other, the final result is that they have worked in unanimity.

We have compared the spiritual with the spiritual, and the corporeal with the corporeal. Our

conclusion is that the two may work as one. In opening a bottle, one hand will twist in one direction

while the other twists in the opposing direction. In my case, being right-handed, I hold the bottle with

my left hand for that is the subservient task. My mind gives the commanding action to the right hand.

In comparing spiritual to corporeal, having once stated that the spiritual half leads in the dance of

existence, we find that the two may be in accord when the corporeal follows suit with the spiritual.

Just as when my right hand reached out to open a bottle and the left hand followed suit, the spiritual

may say to the corporeal, ‘do this because I do it’.

Case in point: Exodus 13:6, “Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.” In Sabbaths and feasts, God instructs, “thou shalt.” Why? Perhaps it is a joint task, an activity in concert with God.