Being Embodied.
- clearstreamzendo
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
This week’s topic for reflection is being embodied. Yes, being embodied as a human being. Please take as much time as you can this week to recognize what it’s like to be alive as a human being in your body. Here are a few points I would like to make about this.
For example we have feelings or emotions with our body. They include sadness, fear, joy, confusion, anger, and determination among others. How often are your emotions the boss that determines your actions? Which ones are really strong and which are weaker? Try to approach your emotions with curiosity and find them interesting. When they show up as a reaction, try to see what might be behind them. It’s usually something from our past. I see emotions as indicating we are still alive.
Our bodily senses are always available when we care to notice. They include eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, a nose for smelling, a tongue for tasting, a body or skin for touching or feeling and a mind for thinking. It’s interesting that in Buddhism we include thinking in the same category as seeing or hearing. We often think of thinking as under our control but I’m not sure this is always true. Please practice not taking your senses for granted but really notice what you see or hear etc. I know a deaf person who cannot hear. What a gift it is to be able to hear sounds, music and voices.
Discover tightness in your body indicating holding on, protecting or pushing away. We are naturally relaxed, open and free and being tight or stuck is often the source of suffering. Your body is telling you there is something there that you need to discover or uncover. Noticing the tightness and seeing what’s behind it will help it lighten up and let go.
While we still have a body we have the ability to make choices and do things to change the world for good or bad. Now is our chance to make a difference.
All of our bodies change over time. There is time for growth and getting stronger. There is also a time for getting weaker and struggling to keep going as our body approaches death. It’s really not such a good idea to identify too closely with the body. Respect and take care of our body yes. Identify with the body, not so much. We are in fact interconnected with everything, everywhere which doesn’t die.
Please use this week as much as you can to fully experience life through and with your body. Sooner or later this opportunity will be lost so appreciate your amazing body and what you can experience and do with it while you can.
Please join us for morning Zoom zazen from 7:00 to 7:30 Tuesday and Thursday, and Sunday morning Zoom zazen and discussion of the topic for reflection blog from 8:00 to 9:00 Pacific Time. Here’s the Zoom link:
Meeting ID: 811 6100 3357
Passcode: 278259
Gassho,
Futai
Comments