ISmile295 – Reclaiming the Body

As spiritual practitioners we can often misplace our awareness, focussing too heavily on one or another aspect of being. We may overcompensate both intention and awareness in subtle ways, giving too much of our attention, for example, to our thinking or we can go the other way, giving too much attention to what we are feeling. But by balancing these two directional aspects of our awareness we naturally embody the very awakening that we hope to realize. Depending on your preferred translation, the Buddha says, “In this fathom-long body and mind you’ll find the entirety of the Dharma.” Assuming that the Buddha was on to something, this is great news. We have all we need, right here, right now, in this body and mind, for awakening. But in order to uncover this gift, very often we need to give a little extra attention to what’s going on within our bodies as opposed to getting habitually lost within our minds. Meditators often fall into this trap of studying their minds without dropping more deeply into their bodies. But by practicing a simple “checking in” with our feelings and evaluating their various textures, their density and their heat, among other qualities, helps us refine our sense of our internal landscape. Doing this helps not only familiarize us with our inherent majesty, but it helps us reclaim our bodies in powerful, and often beautiful ways, that we then get to share with the world.