Body Metaphor

My body, the house where my spirit lives

My spirit came to my body pure and innocent, from where I do not know.
The house was already furnished, with pictures, narrow hallways that ran one way, with barriers that did not permit access.
And my spirit made my body grow, with rooms and windows it did not previously own.
But where did the evil come from, the envious thoughts, erotic fantasies, jealous hatreds, selfish idolatries?
Were they implanted in the house where the spirit lived, or was the innocent spirit already infected with that virus the whole world suffers?
My body has been my teacher. My body has been my tempter.

My body now is old, with wrinkled skin, puffy legs, with eyes that do not focus, and ears that do not hear. Still the body is clean, uninfected with disease, strong and healthy. The house had a doorway to weight lifting, leading the spirit to habits that gave strength and leaness to the body.

But soon the spirit will find it can no longer breathe within the house. And where will the spirit go then?

Keating, Thomas. _Awakenings._ Crossroad, New York. 1997.

"The spiritual senses are like external senses because of their immediacy.
They put us in touch with the reality not through the external senses, but
through the intuitive faculties that directly perceive the greater values of
the universe. These can be gradually awakened through contemplative prayer.
The awakening of the spiritual senses is the call of the gospel
to see with the eyes of faith. When the spiritual senses are activated,
then we truly hear, then we truly see; we have the receptive apparatus to
open to the heart of reality. Through faith, hope, and charity we hear the
ultimate message of the universe. The result of that awakening is
symbolized in
what the blind man did on receiving his sight: he followed him." pp.39-40.

Anguish

Merton, Thomas. _The New Man._ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1961, pg. 113,
114.

"The inner recesses of our conscience, where the image of God is branded
in the very depths of our being, ceaselessly remind us that we are born for
a higher freedom and for a far more spiritual fulfillment. Although there
is no "natural" bridge between the natural and the supernatural, the
concrete situation in which man finds himself, as a nature created for a
supernatural end, makes anguish inevitable. He cannot rest unless he rests
in God: not merely the God of nature, but the Living God, not the God that
can be objectified in a few abstract notions, but the God Who is above all
concept. Not the God of a mere notional or moral union, but the God Who
becomes One Spirit with our own soul! This alone is the reality for which
we are made. Here alone do we finally "find ourselves" - not in our natural
selves but out of ourselves in God. For our destiny is to be infinitely
greater than our own poor selves: "I said: Your are gods, all of you sons of
the Most High." [Psalm 81:6.]

The spiritual anguish of man has no cure but mysticism."