The True Master.

[davem]

I can't help but think of the folktale of the Giant's Heart. The Giant places his heart in an object, puts it in a safe place & can go about his nefarious business in the knowledge that he cannot be killed.

Of course, Sauron negates this advantage by keeping the Ring on his person. Having said that, he does ensure that the Ring is all but impossible to destroy, both physically (it has to be thrown into the Fires of the Sammath Naur) &, if you will psychologically/spiritually (it will corrupt anyone who tries to take it to the Fire).

Actually, its a pretty good strategy - its as near impossible to destroy the Ring as it can be. The mistake Sauron makes is to think 'nearly impossible' is the same thing as impossible.

In one sense Sauron & the Ring are 'one', in another they are seperate entities, because Sauron has effectively split himself in two - Sauron is in Barad Dur, the Ring is with the Ring-bearers. The Ring, for instance, cannot physically kill Frodo, Sauron, if he got his hands on him, could - or worse.

Originally Posted by Farael

Well, first of all he would have to use a part of his will to mantain his physical shape, as it is not his "natural" state and therefore he has to spend at least some of his will not to go back to his abstract form. Also by having a body you are more susceptible to other kinds of temptations which could corrode your will... even innocent stuff like food and drink can afect it, yet while he was just a creature of will he had no need for such thing.

In Osanwe Kenta (published in Vinyar Tengwar 39) Tolkien writes:

The Incarnates have by the nature of sama ('mind') the same faculties (ie Osanwe or 'thought transmission')*; but their perception is dimmed by the hroa ('body'), for their fea ('spirit') is united to their hroa & its normal procedure is through the hroa, which is itself part of Ea, without thought.The dimming is indeed double; for thought has to pass one manle of hroa & penetrate another. For this reason in Incarnates transmission of thought requires strengthening to be effective...

Lastly tengwesta ('spoken language') has also become an impediment. It is in Incarnates clearer & more precise than their direct reception of thought. By it also they can communicate easily with others, when no strength is added to their thought: as, for example, when strangers first meet. And, as we have seen, the use of 'language' soon becomes habitual, so that the practiceof osanwe (interchange of thought) is neglected & becomes more difficult. Thus we see that the Incarnate tend more & more to use or to endevour to useosanwe only in great need & emergency, & especially when lambe ('tongue-movement' ie speech) is unavailing.
* as the non-Incarnate

So, to incarnate makes a Valar/Maiar physically more powerful - they can slap you around for instance, but it also isolates the individual form other beings, & makes them dependant on the physical - from a need for food, clothing, shelter to having increasingly to rely on physical forms of communication (writing: the Ring verse, & speech).

The creation (or should we say 'manufacture' of the Ring is kind of the ultimate form of incarnation: rather than incarnating his fea in a living body, Sauron incarnates a part of it at least in an object: Sauron is pushing 'incarnation' to its extreme.