The adjective mundane is used in reference to everyday and ordinary things, that is, typical of daily life. In this sense, the word mundane comes from the world.
Worldly pleasures
The concept of mundane must be understood in opposition to a higher plane, the spiritual plane. The mundane and the spiritual are antagonistic realities. Thus, if we refer to worldly pleasures, we are alluding to the enjoyment of a good meal, a pleasant walk, a friendly conversation, the reading of an interesting novel and, ultimately, the simple things in life that they provide us a satisfaction. On the other side are the pleasures that go beyond and that have a spiritual component. In this way, nirvana as a consequence of Zen meditation is a form of pleasure that is not worldly.
Another meaning of the word
The term worldly also has another meaning. In this way, when someone is fond of luxury and frequents select environments, it is said that they live a mundane life. In this sense, the so-called high society is the social class that enjoys worldly things. In these cases, the adjective mundane has a clear pejorative connotation, as it is associated with the superficiality and vanity of the refined environments of high society.
The idea of the world and the mundane
The word world is equivalent to cosmos in Greek. For the ancient Greeks the world is a place ordered by forces of nature and in another dimension there is a sinister place, the underworld. With the arrival of Christianity the idea of the world acquired a new dimension and the earthly world is understood in opposition to the heavenly world.
From the Christian perspective, the things of the world (the worldly) have a lower value than the things of the heavenly world
In the earthly world there are human imperfections and especially sin, while in the heavenly world there is perfection and absolute truth. This Christian assessment of the world caused everything worldly (for example, pleasures) to be negatively valued, as a dangerous or sinful deviation or as a temptation of the human spirit.
In Christian doctrine, earthly or worldly things (sometimes known by the expression "worldly noise") represent a vital path and proposal, but the true path is found in the heavenly world.
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