They can be enemies. As I just remarked to elnigma, the key to making the two work together seems to be discipline. This is something common to all of the pursuits and traditions brought up in the course of this conversation -- yoga, martial arts, qigong, and BDSM. I'm beginning to suspect that the cultivation of discipline is the largest link between them all, in enabling positive rather than negative "cooperative dissonace" between spirit and flesh.

There are no short-cuts for discipline.

For me the spirit/flesh dissonance/harmony is a subject of constant inspection because I am transgendered. From the very start I felt at least partially alien to my own flesh, perhaps moreso than the average person.