The touch of the soul can paint the brightest colour even in the dingiest places; it can cast a fragrance over the vilest thing; it can make the wicked divine-and all enmity, all selfishness is effaced. The less the thought of the body, the better. For it is the body that drags us down. It is attachment, identification, which makes us miserable. That is the secret: To think that I am the spirit and not the body, and that the whole of this universe with all its relations, with all its good and all its evil, is but a series of paintings-scenes on canvas-of which I am the witness.
Vivekananda, page 17
We are not the body, be it the physical, mental, or emotional body. We are the soul, here to experience Life and the body, mind, and heart are simply tools we have been gifted to help us do that.
Do you believe that you are the spirit and not the body? Do you see yourself as a witness of an amazing painting?
I don't know about you, but the painting I find myself looking at is not always pretty and the artist doesn't really seem to have the right equipment. I see this way when I am lost in human drama, when I see myself as the body.
It is not the body, mind, or heart, as Vivekananda says above, that makes us miserable but our attachment and identification with it that does. Singer takes that farther by telling us, it is how we use these things that make us miserable. Hmm!
I was thinking a lot of my body, heart ( both the physical and nonphysical one), and mind over the last few days and weeks. All seemed to be very noisy as I have expressed in long rampages on this site :) So it was both ironic and comforting to hear Michael A. Singer , in the below linked podcast, address these things.
Making Body, Mind, and Heart Sick
What I got from Thursday's podcast ( I am finally catching up) is this image in my head of all being very similar in one way. They are similar not in what they are, so much, but how we use them. They are things...(if I use the word "thing" I am referring to something that is form...and form is not necessarily visible but made up of patterns of vibrations that may or may manifest into matter)...that we tend to stuff our past experiences of life in until they are sick.
We use these vehicles, often with disrespect by constantly stuffing things in them that are toxic and unwholesome. And when they react, in order to survive so they can continue doing what they are here to do for us, we judge them and blame them, seeing what they carry as defective. We blame them for making us sick, when we are actually making them sick! Like my body was physically sick earlier this week because of what I was stuffing in it in the form of substances and viruses, and then attempting to purge itself of that which was making it sick, our hearts and mind do the same. They just want to be able to do the job of making our life experience here as amazing as possible and in order to do that they need to be clean and pure inside so the world can pass right through us. They will constantly try to throw up or throw out what is blocking this flow, making them less than healthy.
Body
Let's look firstly, at the amazing body we are in. And, yes, we are "in" our body ( will use the dualistic term "in" so we understand). We are not our bodies, just like you are not the car you drive. We are driving the body. We are responsible for its maintenance and upkeep so it can do its job. It is a gift we have been given. The body is a vehichle that serves an important purpose. It houses the senses and the senses allow us to experience this amazing world, this Life. All systems of the body, excluding the reproductive system, are there to support the sensory system, the sensory experience of living. ( Singer, 2024) Yet, most of us treat these bodies we have been gifted with great disrespect and even contempt. We are constantly stuffing stuff into them and often that stuff is toxic to this amazing vessel. What happens? We get sick. The body will then try to purge itself of these noxious substances ( a smoker coughs up what is in the lungs, an overdrinker or over eater may vomit etc) ...and if it cannot do so the body will be permanently damaged by them.
How does that apply to the mind and heart, crazy lady?
We...and I mean who we really are...have also been gifted mental and emotional bodies to use while we trample around on this planet. We have been given minds and hearts, minds for processing, creating, experiencing, thinking and hearts for expereincing all the waves of emotions we humans get to expereince.
And what do we do with these mental and emotional bodies? We keep stuffing stuff in them. We stuff the pleasant emotions and thoughts from experiences we want to repeat and we stuff the unpleasant emotions and thoughts we did not want to experience from the past. These bodies get sick.
Disturbed
If you store in your mind everything that ever disturbed you, what will your mind be like? Disturbed
The mind is disturbed and the heart is disturbed in most of us. The heart and mind want to do their job so they naturally try to throw up and throw out what is making them sick. They want to be pure. We, the drivers of the heart and mind, however, do not want to feel that inner disturbance again. We spend our lives trying to manipulate the world out there so it doesn't induce that tendency for that stuff to come back up. No one really likes throwing up do they? We use suppression, repression, numbing, and distraction like Gravol to prevent the vomiting. We then spend the rest of our lives trying to manipulate the future so things in it don't trigger that reflex like Syrup of Ipecac would. The effort it takes to do that is exhausting.
The mind is not the problem...how we use it is. We use the mind to stuff and store and we use the mind as an anti-emetic to prevent that stored stuff from coming back up. All a while, we continue to stuff our hearts and minds to the brim with stuff from life we cannot handle.
Cannot handle? What does that mean?
All of Life is meant to come in through our senses and out again. It is not supposed to get stuffed or stuck inside us. The insides of body, mind, and heart are meant to be open, pure, clean, and spacious so we can experience Life and so it can pour right through us. Shakti, then is able to rise up bringing our experience of Life with it. Yet, our insides are so cluttered by what we stuffed that life experiences get stuck inside us and Shakti gets blocked from flowing. Body, mind, and heart become sick. They want to purge but too often our life energy is spent on not letting them do what they are naturally inclined to do. We resist and we are not clean, healthy, and truly fulfilled as a result.
What do we do then?
Allow for the vomiting. See every challeng or problem not just as the nectar of life but as the syrup of Ipecac of Life. It will help us to purge...to get rid of that which is holding us back. Without that stuff stuck inside we will be able to handle life.
If you get rid of the stuff that is in there, it won't be there...and reality can pass right through. Michael A. Singer
The body, mind, and heart are amazing tools we have been given in order to better experience this life...but we do need to keep them clean. Stop stuffing more in and get rid of the stuff that is already in the way.Why? So we can enjoy the amazing scenes on this canvas as the witness.
All is well.
Michael A. Singer/Temple of Universe ( March 21, 2024) Respecting the Gift of Body, Mind and Heart. https://tou.org/talks/
Swami Vivekananda (2019) Meditation and Its Methods. Kindle Edition.
No comments:
Post a Comment