Philosophy and Spiritual Discipline, Essay Example

The separation of the soul (body) and the spirit has often been connoted to be an existing debate of whether or not a human could be considered one against the other. In the Paradox of the written work on Philosophy and Spiritual Discipline, this particular issue has been better clarified through an indicative definition of what spirit and life as a “soul” is all about. In the line “Never Have I not existed, nor you, nor these kings: and never in the future shall we case to exist” it could be understood how a soul cannot exist without the spirit and vice versa. For many years, humans, both prominent and not have been existing on earth and they will never cease to exist nor with they begin to exist if they do not give attention to the idea of having both as a part of their proper growth into maturity. Just as the line “Just as the embodied self enters childhood, youth, and old age, so does it enter another body: this does not confound a steadfast man” imposes that spirit in a way could be considered as one’s abstract self. The process by which one establishes his or her own legacy is what makes his soul a spiritual contribution to the society whereas he is able to make a worthwhile condition that could allow him to become a useful individual not only to himself but to others as well.

On the other end, the line that reads “He who thinks this self a killer and he who thinks it killed, both fail to understand: it does not kill, nor is it killed”, indicates on how the spirit makes up a soul. The spirit of a person is described herein as a sense of a reflective matter that defines an individual. What the abstract-self makes or acts upon specifically affects the course of development that one basically takes. It is evident how the being of a person is recreated through the indication of what he does and what he does not do. With these evidences of acts and self-redefinition, a person becomes known to the society, hence receives a considerable understanding of his own worth as an individual. The spirit may not be an embodiment of one’s being, nevertheless, its existence affects the worth of the physical-self of a person.