The Physical Body is a Cloak or Garment Worn by the Soul (Spirit)

The Physical Body is a Cloak or Garment Worn by the Soul (Spirit)

The understanding that the body and subtle bodies are garments the soul wears is so central to the mystic path. His disciples said, “When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?” Jesus said, “When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the Son of the Living One, and you will not be afraid.” [Gospel of Thomas 37]  "When the Beloved would exalt the lover, He strips from him the garments collected from all the worlds, and clothes him in the robe of His own attributes." (Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi, Divine Flashes)

As I wrote in my article on Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi and Sufism... Mysticism teaches that there are many layers of reality, that there are other garments that will eventually be shed during journeys of ascension. These garments or subtle bodies have been given names in Hebrew, Greek, Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, and other languages. In addition to the “garment” of the physical body, each soul is wearing several other garments or bodies, other sheaths that surround the soul, allowing the soul to connect to the various regions of creation.

Thus meditation is prescribed as the means to make the body with its five outwardly directed senses and subtle bodies still so the soul can know itself and the timeless realm it is part of.

"'Man is a little world made cunningly of elements and an angelic spirit' (John Donne). He is a composite entity that unites in himself the physical, the subtle and the causal principles: the body, the mind, the supermind and the soul, one behind the other, the last one being the source of all life, the very life principle enlivening everything that lives." (Kirpal Singh, Naam Or Word)

"There is a silence of the tongue.
There is a silence of the whole body.
There is a silence of the soul.
There is a silence of the mind,
 and there is a silence of the spirit."
(Abraham of Nathpar, Syriac Mystic)

"Go deeper
Past thoughts into silence.
Past silence into stillness.
Past stillness into the heart.
Let love consume all that is left of you." (Kabir)

“There was within me a stillness of silence,
and I heard the Blessedness whereby
I knew my real self.” (Allogenes, Nag Hammadi Library)