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If we change our bodies and don’t have more internal
dignity and security, something is off.
There are some practices that we can do that will
help us begin to develop a sensitivity to and awareness of these
issues. Now practices are to be done, not simply thought about.
You have to do practices or you don’t have the experience. But you
can tailor the practice any way you want. The goal is not the
practice, the goal is the experience – but you can’t have the
experience without the practice.
Practice #1:
"Awakening to Body Awareness"
Here’s the first practice: In almost every tradition
in the Jewish tradition, we do it in the morning – there is a body
meditation, a set of blessings that we say, from our feet all the
way up to our heads. It takes about five or six minutes, but it
begins to sensitize us to our body as it is. For example, Jewish
wisdom suggests a blessing, but it doesn’t have to be a blessing. A
blessing is just a fancy theological way of saying: Wow! Here’s
the blessing: Thank God for my feet because with those feet I can
walk to go see my children – I can walk in the park – Thank God for
my knees or I’m so fortunate to have my knees because with my knees
I can bend down and smell a flower – Thank God for my hands because
with my hands I can caress my lover. How do we use our body as is
purposefully? Once you do that, then whatever changes you make are
from a place that is genuinely centered.
Practice #2:
"Warm Up Affirmations"
The second practice is specifically an exercise
practice. After all, having just joined a health club, I had to do
something about the health club. And this is an affirmation before
exercise. You see, it’s very bad to exercise if the reason you’re
doing it is to look like a Madison Avenue advertisement for health
clubs. You know what’s that about – actually that’s the sex show.
You have to exercise because you want to have more life yourself.
So I do different kinds of affirmations before I get on that
treadmill: May this exercise make me a more vital parent – May this
exercise make me a more alive lover – May this exercise allow me to
work more passionately.
Now if you do these kinds of practices and you keep
some of these ideas in mind, then actually what will happen is your
awareness level of your body itself will rise, which is exactly what
needs to happen when we have an explosion of capacity with body.
We’ll be able to redress the issues that we spoke about – addressing
the issue of idealization – addressing the issue of whether you are
fooling yourself or genuinely taking care of yourself – addressing
the issue of what you should eat and what you shouldn’t eat –
insuring that there’s a body/ spirit connection or insuring that
there is a spirit/body connection. Now here’s the amazing paradox –
the more capacity we have to transform our body actually means how
much more seriously we have to take our thinking about the body.
What a paradox. The more body – the more mind. The more we can do
with the body on the outside – the more we have to look inside. And
that’s “Simple Wisdom.” |
