“Forgetting the body in favor of the soul is like forgetting the foundation of a house in favor of the living room; it will not hold.”
“In the paths we will explore here, spirit and body are not separate at all. Nor is spirituality a special feeling, or a trance, or a vision, although such phenomena may accompany some spiritual practices. Rather, because Being is omnipresent, the experience of spirituality is nothing more or less than a deep, rich experience of ordinary reality. Realization is simply waking up. And the body, because it is always present here and now, is both the best vehicle for doing so, on the one hand, and, on the other, how holiness expresses itself in the world.”
“As we will see, the worlds of asiyah (action), yetzirah (formation), briyah (creation), and atzilut (emanation) and the four souls of nefesh (fleshly, earth-soul), ruach (emotional, water-soul), neshamah (intellectual, air-soul), and chayah (spiritual, fire-soul) roughly map onto the familiar matrix of body, heart, mind, and spirit. But all are really a reflection of yechidah (unity). Thus the ideal is not transcendence alone, but transcendence with inclusion of the “lower” in the “higher.” Forgetting the body in favor of the soul is like forgetting the foundation of a house in favor of the living room; it will not hold.”
