Fire and Firewood: Why the Material and Spiritual Can’t Be Separated

You can’t separate fire from firewood, and the same applies to the material and the spiritual. People act like they’re two different worlds, but they’re not. They’re one system. The only difference is awareness—sometimes you’re more tuned in to the physical, sometimes to the spiritual.

If you want strong fire, you use good wood. If you want a solid spiritual life, you take care of your body. Neglect your physical body and your spiritual balance becomes useless. Neglect your spiritual life and you’ll abuse your body because you’ll have no internal discipline or direction. The two feed each other.

Nothing manifests in the physical without having both a material and spiritual basis. Even in the creation story, Adam was formed materially and only became alive when spirit was breathed into him. So the point is simple: you can’t acknowledge one and ignore the other. Both the material and the spiritual are required for a complete human life.