I am not a body. I am free.
Boy, did I need to hear this today! This really helped me change my perspective about how I've been feeling about my body.
Some of what this powerful lesson says is this:
Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself. The body is a limit. Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it can not be found. The mind can be made free when it no longer sees itself as in a body, firmly ties to it and sheltered by its presence. If this were the truth, the mind were vulnerable indeed!
The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever, in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbounded by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever it is asked.
There is a little prayer that goes along with this lesson:
I am not a body. I am free. I hear the Voice that God has given me, and it is only this my mind obeys.
I used this prayer as a mantra during my hike this evening. It was an incredibly beautiful evening here. As I hiked and climbed, I repeated this mantra over and over again. I inhaled the sea and repeated the mantra. I inhaled the intoxicating mixture of tundra, grasses, and wild flowers and repeated the mantra. I put one foot in front of the other and I repeated this mantra. It may sound crazy, but I felt more powerful with each step forward. I felt liberated from the weight of my body.
It has been a difficult concept for me to remove attachment to my body and to not be defined so much by it. However, this lesson and my attention to it really enabled me to see progress.
As I pay attention to these lessons and bring old ideas that may be new thoughts into my awareness, I see life unfolding in ways that make my heart smile. I see the grand organizing power of the universe and I believe there is a plan - a special plan for each and every one of us. We all access it in our time, and according to what we are ready to be open to and willing to see and experience.
Dr's. Chopra and Simon sum this up nicely in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga by saying this:
Just a few heartbeats back, the mention of yoga and meditation as essential components of a healthy lifestyle led to skepticism and even ridicule. But concepts that add genuine value to life eventually find their way into the light of human consciousness. Paraphrasing the great German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, every great idea goes through three phases before it is accepted. In the first it is rejected, in the second it is ridiculed, and in the third it is held to be self-evident.
Yes, I can say there was a time when much of what I am finding to be self-evident today I first rejected and then ridiculed. I am diggin' this progress!
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