How do body and spirit experience life together?
To answer this let’s think about what makes our experience of life meaningful.
According to Frankl there are three ways you can experience life as meaningful.
- You can contribute and make your mark on the world.
- You can receive gifts from the world and feel gratitude for it.
- You can choose a positive attitude when you have no control over a situation.
Frankl calls these creative, experiential and attitudinal values.
You experience each of these differently depending on the body-spirit relationship.
In experiencing pain attitudinal values are made possible. The body is afflicted and weakened. ‘Attitude’ is the only recourse. In such a situation one can show immense courage, moral conviction and humility. The spiritual aspects come to the fore. As Frankl says, suffering can be a ‘human achievement.’
The body is beaten into submission. Against its will it cooperates with the aims of the spirit. Transcendence of mind over matter expresses the spiritual transcending the material. Since spirit and body are inseparable, the paradoxical result of spiritual transcendence is physical healing. The spiritual growth I achieve strengthens my body and makes me well.
Although no one chooses to suffer, attitudinal values provide the greatest opportunity for meaning. Spirit leads the way.
In experiencing pleasure experiential values are made possible. The body is gratified. This is an opportunity for cooperation between body and spirit yet it is also a challenge. When body and spirit are engaged in open or clandestine warfare, it is unfortunately easy for the body to grab all it can get. We see this every day when people exploit nature. Examples abound: destruction of the rain forests, killing off endangered species and addictive behavior to name just a few.
To the extent that the relationship between body and spirit are cooperative and to the extent that spirit takes the lead and not vice-versa, the body and spirit take pleasure in life together.
However, there is another consideration. Pleasure is missing something when we don’t feel safe. This is a different kind of challenge than the first one. For those who believe in revival of the dead, this will be a time when we’re living in a safe world. Body and spirit will rejoice together and burst out in song. For now we can only get glimpses of complete pleasure.
Like a loving parent, the spirit has the task of listening and taking care of the body’s needs. As leader, the spirit feels joy in the body’s joy, as long as it feels they are partners.
In contributing to the world through creative values, the spirit feels its importance. It has come into the world only for this, to become a unit with the body. When you do things that go against your tasks and your mission in life, your spirit is jarred by it. Alienation from society is also felt as ‘spirit’ alienated from ‘body.’
When body and spirit are in tune, the spirit knows which tasks the body needs to do. The body gets to a point where it doesn’t even require the spirit’s guidance but knows and acts independently of the spirit.
When the body does its given tasks we can say that beyond a relationship of transcendence or participation, body is itself transformed into spirit. Life becomes meaningful when body marries spirit.