Why have most religions condemned or denied the body? It seems
that spiritual seekers have always regarded the body as a hindrance
or even as sinful.
Why have so few seekers become finders?
On the level of the body, humans are very close to animals. All the
basic bodily functions — pleasure, pain, breathing, eating, drinking,
defecating, sleeping, the drive to find a mate and procreate, and of
course birth and death — we share with the animals. A long time after
their fall from a state of grace and oneness into illusion, humans
suddenly woke up in what seemed to be an animal body — and they
found this very disturbing. “Don’t fool yourself. You are no more than
an animal.” This seemed to be the truth that was staring them in the
face. But it was too disturbing a truth to tolerate. Adam and Eve saw
that they were naked, and they became afraid. Unconscious denial of
their animal nature set in very quickly. The threat that they might be
taken over by powerful instinctual drives and revert back to complete
unconsciousness was indeed a very real one. Shame and taboos
appeared around certain parts of the body and bodily functions,
especially sexuality. The light of their consciousness was not yet
strong enough to make friends with their animal nature, to allow it to
be and even enjoy that aspect of themselves — let alone to go deeply
into it to find the divine hidden within it, the reality within the illusion.
So they did what they had to do. They began to disassociate from
their body. They now saw themselves as having a body, rather than
just being it.
When religions arose, this disassociation became even more
pronounced as the “you are not your body” belief. Countless people in
East and West throughout the ages have tried to find God, salvation,
or enlightenment through denial of the body. This took the form of
denial of sense pleasures and of sexuality in particular, fasting, and
other ascetic practices. They even inflicted pain on the body in an
attempt to weaken or punish it because they regarded it as sinful. In
Christianity, this used to be called mortification of the flesh. Others
tried to escape from the body by entering trance states or seeking
out-of-body experiences. Many still do. Even the Buddha is said to
have practiced body denial through fasting and extreme forms of
asceticism for six years, but he did not attain enlightenment until after
he had given up this practice.
The fact is that no one has ever become enlightened through denying
or fighting the body or through an out-of-body experience. Although
such an experience can be fascinating and can give you a glimpse of
the state of liberation from the material form, in the end you will
always have to return to the body, where the essential work of
transformation takes place. Transformation is through the body, not
away from it. This is why no true master has ever advocated fighting
or leaving the body, although their mind-based followers often have.
Of the ancient teachings concerning the body, only certain fragments
survive, such as Jesus’s statement that “your whole body will be filled
with light,” or they survive as myths, such as the belief that Jesus
never relinquished his body but remained one with it and ascended
into “heaven” with it. Almost no one to this day has understood those
fragments or the hidden meaning of certain myths, and the “you are
not your body” belief has prevailed universally, leading to body denial
and attempts to escape from the body. Countless seekers have thus
been prevented from attaining spiritual realization for themselves and
becoming finders.
Is it possible to recover the lost teachings on the significance of the
body or to reconstruct them from the existing fragments?
There is no need for that. All spiritual teachings originate from the
same Source. In that sense, there is and always has been only one
master, who manifests in many different forms. I am that master, and
so are you, once you are able to access the Source within. And the
way to it is through the inner body. Although all spiritual teachings
originate from the same Source, once they become verbalized and
written down they are obviously no more than collections of words —
and a word is nothing but a signpost, as we talked about earlier. All
such teachings are signposts pointing the way back to the Source.
I have already spoken of the Truth that is hidden within your body,
but I will summarize for you again the lost teachings of the masters —
so here is another signpost. Please endeavor to feel your inner body
as you read or listen.