i am concluding this series of posts referencing dallas willard’s work with excerpts that speak to the human spirit. it is lengthy and highly informative.
“i am a spiritual being who currently has a physical body. i occupy my body and its environs by my consciousness of it and by my capacity to will and to act with and through it. i occupy my body and its proximate space, but i am not localizable in it or around it. you cannot find me or any of my thoughts, feelings, or character traits in any part of my body. even i cannot. if you wish to find me, the last thing you should do is open my body to take a look. . . . the very unity of experiences that constitutes a human self cannot be located at any point in or around this body through which we live, not even in the brain. yet i am present as agent or cAUSAL INFLUENCE WITH AND ABOUT MY BODY AND ITS FEATURES AND MOVEMENTS. IN TURN, WHAT MY BODY UNDERGOES AND PROVIDES INFLUENCES MY LIFE AS A PERSONAL BEING [THESE DESCRIPTIONS ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF DUALIST INTERACTIONISM BETWEEN THE IMMATERIAL COMPONENTS OF THE SPIRIT AND SOUL OF HUMANS, AND OF GOD, AND THE MATERIAL COMPONENTS OF THE NEURAL SYNAPTIC NETWORKS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN AND BODY WITH COMMENTS ON THE CAUSAL EFFECTS OF THE IMMATERIAL ON THE MATERIAL]. . . . ‘SPIRITUAL’ IS NOT JUST SOMETHING WE OUGHT TO BE. IT IS SOMETHING WE ARE AND CANNOT ESCAPE, REGARDLESS OF HOW WE MAY THINK OR FEEL ABOUT IT. IT IS OUR NATURE AND OUR DESTINY. . . . IN FINDING THE SPIRITUAL NOT TO BE PHYSICAL WE DO NOT MEAN TO DENY THAT IT HAS POWER OR ENERGY. IT MOST CERTAINLY DOES. AND THIS IS A MAJOR POINT FOR THE POSITIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SPIRITUAL. SPIRIT IS A FORM OF ENERGY, FOR IT DOES WORK, AND WHATEVER DOES WORK HAS POWER. IN THE BIBLICAL VIEW IT IS, OF COURSE, THE ULTIMATE FORM OF POWER ON WHICH ALL OTHER FORMS REST. . . . BECAUSE WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS, AS JUST EXPLAINED, IT IS FOR OUR GOOD, INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, TO LIVE OUR LIVES IN INTERACTIVE [ITALICS ADDED] DEPENDENCE UPON GOD AND UNDER HIS KINGDOM RULE. . . . THUS PAUL, FROM HIS PROFOUND GRASP OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, COUNSELS US, ‘TO FILL YOUR MIND WITH THE VISIBLE, THE ‘FLESH,’ IS DEATH, BUT TO FILL YOUR MIND WITH THE SPIRIT [GUIDED BY THE INDWELLING SPIRIT OF JESUS] IS LIFE AND PEACE’ (ROM. 8:6).” WE ARE WITHIN THE KINGDOM OF GOD, BOTH NOW IN THE PRESENT AND IN THE AGE TO COME. “JESUS SAID, ‘GOD IS NOT THE GOD OF THE DEAD BUT OF THE LIVING’ (LUKE 20:38). HIS MEANING WAS THAT THOSE WHO LOVE AND ARE LOVED BY GOD ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CEASE TO EXIST, BECAUSE THEY ARE GOD’S TREASURES. HE DELIGHTS IN THEM AND INTENDS TO HOLD ONTO THEM. HE HAS EVEN PREPARED FOR THEM AN INDIVIDUALIZED ETERNAL WORK IN [HIS NEW CREATION].”