TRANSFORMATION THROUGH THE BODY

 

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.