#129 ‘I am not the body’.Really?
- Posted by SwaminiB
- Categories Podcast transcripts
- Date 6 July 2021
- Comments 0 comment
Before the wisdom of Vedanta we have to live with our body. After wisdom we still have to live with our body. The body does not disappear on enlightenment. No matter where we are in our spiritual journey our relationship with our body is an important one.
One of India ‘s greatest poets Mahakavi Kalidasa said Sharirmadyam khalu dharmasadhanam – the body is the means of fulfillment of dharma”
What is the relationship that one can have with one’s body? What does Vedanta teach us?
The relationship with one’s body is mixed because we are exposed to mixed perspectives. Science looks at your body as a machine. The emerging field of AI looks at your body as a bunch of sophisticated algorithms. The healers look at your body as a ball of energy. The advertising industry looks at your body as defective which must be improved. The diet food industry looks at your weight and fat percentage. The fitness industry has its own parameters. The ravenous vulture looks at your body as food.With all these perspectives, is it any wonder that we are conflicted and have a mixed relationship with the body.
Try looking at yourself naked in the mirror. Most of us don’t like what we see. It is likely that there will be a lot of reaction to how we look – the sagging skin, the wrinkles, the patchy appearance, the cellulite, the belly, the breasts, the genitals and so on. It makes many uncomfortable and we want to quickly stop looking. Can you just look at your body objectively without being reminded of what the advertising companies say or without thinking of what intimate partners have said?
Can you look at your naked body with objectivity, not a cold, clinical objectivity but an objectivity that sees reality, an objectivity that sees the body pervaded by Bhagavan.
We are neither elevating the body to a spiritual level nor are we escaping the marks, the gas, the bloating, the warts, the scars. We see the body as is. We don’t try to escape the truth of the body.
When we try to escape the body and its conditions we lose connection with what exists.
When we lose connection we ignore, disregard and don’t take care of the body.
And soon enough reality bites and how!
It is easy to disregard the body because of what we hear in Vedanta.
Neti neti – na iti na iti meaning ‘not this, not this’ is the beginning of the self enquiry in Vedanta.
I am not the body. Wah! It sounds wonderful, when you hear it for the first time.
You see it to be true because it is true.
This means that the problems of the body belong to the body not to you. Wow! This is getting better.
We experience relief and delight. If we keep repeating it several times we may experience dissociation and a loss of connection which will be mistaken for insight.
I am not the body does not mean that the body stops to exist.
I am not the body means I am other than the body or I am more than the body.
What that other is and what is more than the body, is still be to be enquired into and explored. We need the patience and the staying power to be with the entire enquiry.
Our language itself reveals that we are more than the body. You might say – I am tired and the other person understands you. You may also say – my body is tired. The other person still understands you. No one is confused when you speak like this because we all speak like this. We make ‘I statements’ related to the body and also ‘my body’ kind of statements referring to a subject-object relationship with it.
Reality – that which always is, is not the body because the body is changing and what is reality is changeless.
The enquiry which started with the gross body has to proceed all the way to see what the reality is, which is the limitless being. Unfortunately many can get stuck at this negation and don’t proceed to what indeed is the self.
Wisdom is seeing that you are pure being who is not free from the body but free while living with the body and free enough to have a body.
The statement – ‘I am not the body’ if not understood may lead to disconnection and dissociation from the body. This leads to a split in the person. The body and its urges to eat, drink, have sex, pleasure itself are seen as problems in the spiritual path. In the name of being spiritual, some of us behave like we have paralysis from the neck down.
How can the body be an obstacle when it is the very medium itself?.
Maybe we need to change how we view and connect with our body. The body is the medium that has been given to us for this lifetime. While it is our body it is not entirely our body. A few years ago when some of us were visiting Tiruvanamalai, we lived in Atithi ashram. As a lot of you know, Tiruvanamalai is a place in southern India which has been home to many wise masters and also recently Ramana Maharshi. The sadhu running Atithi ashram shared that they named the Ashram, Atithi ashram to remind everyone that we are all guests here on this earth. Atithi means a guest, a person who arrives without an appointed time, tithi. Our entry and exit on this earth is much like an atithi, a guest. We walk in. Everything is given to us for our sustenance. When we leave we cannot even take the body we were born with. The body which went through much use and abuse given our crazy lifestyles, the body that was a source of much pleasure and pain, the body on which were heaped judgments after judgments by oneself and others. The body that has been gone through massages, pampering and so on is left behind and no one else can take the body on rent. We leave the earth and along with it the body too at a time not scheduled by us.
We don’t know and will never entirely know how the body functions entirely. The heart beats 100,000 times a day be it rain, thunder or lightning. The kidney is busy filtering the blood of its toxins 180 times a day. Every body part has a function and each organ does its best, non-stop. The material of the body – the plasma, muscle, fat, blood, tissues, bones, bone marrow and the reproductive fluid – sapta dhatus in Ayurveda are all made of the panchamahabhutas. It is this body that is made up of panchamahabhutas, aakasha, aapah, vayu, agnih, prithivi that which has come from Brahman, the limitless being.
How can the body which is a manifestation of Brahman be an obstacle? It is sacred. Nothing more. Nothing less.
In seeing the body with objectivity one cannot help but be grateful for having such a sophisticated medium that helps you do so much.
Being spiritual is embracing the entire human experience which includes simple everyday things like walking, talking, using the toilet and so on.
In all the activities like seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing , talking, releasing, grasping, opening and closing the eyes the organs of the body are engaged with their respective objects. And yet one is free from the sense of doing.
नैव किंचित्करोमीति युक्तो मन्येत तत्त्ववित्।
पश्यन् श्रृणवन्स्पृशञ्जिघ्रन्नश्नन्गच्छन्स्वपन् श्वसन्।।5.8।।
प्रलपन्विसृजन्गृह्णन्नुन्मिषन्निमिषन्नपि।
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेषु वर्तन्त इति धारयन्।।5.9।।
Vedanta teaching is understood only if the seeming paradox is held – The body is given to me. The body is me meaning that I take temporary ownership of this structure like a trustee so that it serves me well.
I am more than the body; the body is not my identity.
When we listen to our bodies, we see the wisdom inherent in it. We feel the body ‘s need to move and also its need to rest. We can sing and dance and feel free. We can know its pleasures and limitations. We need not fear getting carried away because the body is ‘our’ sacred medium.
We need not have special experiences with the body to recognise miracles.
Having a body is a miracle enough and we honor it.
In honoring the body we honor ourselves, we honor the one that pervades the body.
One of the steps in performing a puja is Atma puja
देहो देवालयः प्रोक्तः जीवो देवस्सनातनः ।
त्यजेदज्ञाननिर्माल्यं सोऽहं भावेन पूजयेत् ॥
deho devālayaḥ proktaḥ ji̇̄vo devassanātanaḥ
tyajedajñānanirmālyaṃ so’haṃ bhavena pūjayet
The body is the temple. The ji̇̄va is the deity of this temple since the beginningless time. May one remove wilted flowers that are looked upon as ignorance and worship the Lord with an understanding that he is non-separate from oneself.
This is the understanding the Vedic tradition blesses us with.
We use the body which is a sacred medium for our pursuits, our pursuit of dharma. The framework which guides, how much pleasure, how much wealth and security, all the way, recognizing that it is this very limited medium that helps us see one’s own limitlessness.
We can enjoy the body seeking pleasure. And we do this on a daily basis – from the time you wake up to what you drink, after you wake up to your routines and habits that you like, to the kind of food that you enjoy, to the temperature in the room, to the kind of products you use for bathing, to the kind of products that you use on your skin, on your body. A lot is determined by pleasure and that’s fine, as long as it is in keeping with dharma. We are not imprisoned by the body then we can enjoy the body seeking pleasure. There’s no problem with it. The body seeks pleasure and avoid pain. And if we listen to the wisdom of the body, then we’re able to do what is required, but not be imprisoned by the conditions of the body. So called spiritual people – If we ask them, what are the things that you do on a daily basis?, there will definitely be some pleasure seeking. And there’s nothing wrong with it. As long as one sees that it is in line with Dharma, and that none of the pleasure is binding, none of the pleasure that you seek determines your mood, your identity and your reality.
The body is a moment to moment blessing that we have been given – a blessing that we get to keep, nurture and use for some time on this earth.
We bless ourselves by seeing the body as a blessing, not as an obstacle. Thus we are fortified with the courage to go through the enquiry all the way starting with I am not the body to I am pure being having a human experience.
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