IV. The Despisers of the Body

“Body am I, and soul”—so saith the child. And why should one not speak like children? But the awakened one, the knowing one, saith: “Body am I entirely, and nothing more; and soul is only the name of something in the…

Zarathustra contrasts the child's 'body and soul' with the awakened one's 'body entirely.' He calls the body a plurality with one sense, and spirit its little instrument. The body does not say 'ego' but acts.

The body is a big sagacity, a plurality with one sense, a war and a peace, a flock and a shepherd.

The body is described as a many-sided unity of opposites.

What the sense feeleth, what the spirit discerneth, hath never its end in itself. But sense and spirit would fain persuade thee that they are the end of all things: so vain are they. Instruments and playthings are sense…

Sense and spirit are mere playthings, and behind them stands the Self, 'an unknown sage' that is the body. The Self laughs at the ego and sets it to think by commanding pain and pleasure.

To the despisers of the body will I speak a word. That they despise is caused by their esteem. What is it that created esteeming and despising and worth and will? The creating Self created for itself esteeming and…

Zarathustra asks what created esteeming, despising, worth and will. His answer is that the creating Self and body did so, and made spirit as an instrument.

Even in your folly and despising ye each serve your Self, ye despisers of the body. I tell you, your very Self wanteth to die, and turneth away from life. No longer can your Self do that which it desireth most:—create…

Even the despisers serve their Self, which wants to die because it can no longer create beyond itself. Their contempt for life and the earth hides unconscious envy.

I go not your way, ye despisers of the body! Ye are no bridges for me to the Superman!—

Zarathustra rejects the despisers' way and denies they can be bridges.