The body function is all about the senses being able to sense....
I didn't teach Anatomy and Physiology like this in all the years I taught it, but Singer and other yogis tell us the primary system in the body is the sensory system. Why? Because we are in this body to experience Life. How do we experience Life? Through what we pick up through our senses. Hmm? What about the musculoskeletal system? Well that system holds us up erect so we can point the senses to the world around us. Hmm! (In yoga meditation..it is all about being erect). The muscles help us to move from place to place so we can see, hear, touch, taste, smell different things.
What about the nervous system? Well that intreprets all that information we pick up. And the endocrine system? Well that helps us with the hormones so we can respond to what we pick up and which allows us to experience more deeply. And the digestive system? Well you need energy to keep the body alive so you can experience...the digestive system breaks down food into energy so you can absorb it. What about the cardiac and respiratory systems? These too help us to get much needed oxygen into cells...so we can keep the body alive so we can experience life? Get it?
We are here to experience Life. We are in bodies that are equipped with atennas (to help us do that). Like the skin system...the body is porous meant to allow Life to come in and allow Life to go out. We are not the body...we are that which is using the body. The body is like a semi-permeable spacesuit we are wearing. All of Life is just meant to come in through the senses and pass right through. Why? So we get to experience it all.
The mind is the control switch that helps us move around in this body. Too often we misuse the controls. We use the mind to select experiences. We stay open to certain things we deem as "pleasant" and shut down to certain things the senses pick up that we deem as "unpleasant". We cling to certain sensory experiences. We resist certain experiences. We use this spacesuit to create a world that makes us feel good inside....instead of for what it is here to do...allow us to experience it all.
Reminds me of a poem I wrote a while ago...
Space Walker
Navigating around this place,
in this suit of many layers,
reptilian scales
and mammalian glands,
I follow,
the robotic directions,
a woman's
monotone voice,
not my own.
The voice echoes from within
a hidden circuit
of programmed instructions,
"Take a left
as I make my way
to the flag before me.
I am told when
to fight, to flee, to freeze
with each zap of current that
courses through me
from the exposed
and tender roots
of the electrical network,
humming on the outer layer
of this suit I think I am.
This entangled wiring,
with its preprogrammed function
to warn and protect,
makes the fleshy portion
of me within
jump and retreat
like a skittish fawn
with each bump,
each misstep.
I walk carefully,
slowly,
feeling the weight
of mechanical
and social gravity.
Each foot I lift
is heavy and slow,
precisely calculated
to be acceptable,
just like those
of the walkers before me,
leaving a deep
irreversible imprint
on the ground beneath me.
I reach out my hungry
telescopic limbs
to grab what is valuable ,
collecting the moon rocks
and galaxial gems
that will make
this journey worthwhile,
placing them in the suit's
many storage compartments,
feeling somehow lighter,
the heavier the container
and I become.
I decorate my suit
in the beads of star dust
that fall around me,
making myself,
even in this heavy garment,
as attractive and unique
as I possibly can.
I display my hard earned titles
and initials on a well lit placard
that dangles around my neck,
making sure it is especially visible
as the light around me fades.
I am told by this robotic voice
that I must stand out
amongst the other walkers
and
at the same time
I must blend in.
I hear my breath
panting and heaving
within the confines of my suit
as I make my way
to the center of my Life.
I do my best
to heed the directions,
to avoid the zaps of pain,
to make my imprint known,
to take what I can,
and be as noticeable
and recognizable,
yet as similar
and unobtrusive
as a separate walker
can be...
But the suit is so heavy,
and the programming
so restrictive,
and the flag
that does not move
in the windless air
seems to get farther away
with each step
I take toward it.
Something within me,
some little voice
beneath the programming
and the installed
external reactivity
whispers..."stop".
I do.
I stop in my tracks
and remove the helmet.
I breathe
for the first time
without the need
of external support.
I remove my heavy garment
and feel the weightlessness
of unlimited space
as I rise untethered
into emptiness.
I watch from
an elevated distance
as the rocks and gems
that were once
tucked within the suit's
many pockets
roll away.
I am free.
This poem is about pratyhara...the fifth limb of yoga which involves getting past our senses and what they bring in. Prior to that step we must recognize who we are within this sense ridden body and see its purpose as being there to help us experience all of Life.
Our aspiration in Life should be about learning to allow it all in so we can experience it all...then allowing it all to go out. Our purpose is to recognize who is in there wearing that spacesuit, experiencing it all. We are not the spacesuits we are in. We are not the mental control switch...we are that which is watching and experiencing and we are the One with their formless hands on the switches. Hmm!
All is well
Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( March, 2025) Your Highest Aspiration: Finding Your True Self. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A_t1NEskq8&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=2
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