Becoming the Bridge: The Body and the Self
We have been taught to experience the world through our sensation receptors; sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. This knowledge brings us to understandings about our surroundings and is the basis of how we interact with the physical realm. ‘The Ultimate Machine’ as Sadhguru describes in his novel Inner Engineering; the Body as an instrument of the highest intelligence on the planet. In most cases, our senses are our channels of information and understanding of the world; placing us within a conscious boundary of perception and human capability. They provide us a stable baseline of ‘reality’ and roots us into a physical and psychological moment in space and time; satisfying our evolutionary urge for stability and understanding.
In some ways, living within the senses can be fulfilling and essential, but ultimately creates a barrier between humanity and all else. When a cool rain falls on your skin, you are not experiencing the droplet itself; but are internally unfolding a series of biochemical reactions that paint the experience of the moment. The senses are only perceiving in relation to something else. The rain feels cold because you are warm, it feels wet because you are dry. To live inwardly is to apply this simple principle to your whole life; your true Being is the one experiencing the outer world from the most inward space; the Self.
If you are seeking more than survival in this life, the senses alone will not serve you on your journey. They keep us tied to the outward world, painting an illusionary way of living that negates the realms of existence that are super-human. We as a species tend to jump from container to container; relationships, jobs, responsibilities and expectations, etc. Minimizing the human experience to a series of compulsions pulling our energy from pole to pole; exhausting the spirit to the point of abandon. Living a compulsory life destroys the internal ecosystem of our bodies and has us operating at a fraction of our capacity for life. We have learned that action-based living is superior to a response-based life. We must exercise our knowing that we are not a sum of what we do, who we know, what we own; but are truly the one experiencing life from the clear bead at the center. The Self is the internal source of experience itself, in contrast with our perception which deems life as completely external. When we live life outside of ourselves, we are denying our bodies of the vast and expansive dimensions of the Inner Being.
When you close your eyes to the outside world, the internal one begins to see.
Thinking, reading, expressing the Self is not the objective, this has only become clear to me in the recent weeks. I felt like I knew myself so deeply because I had no trouble expressing myself or identifying my wants and needs; I felt ‘concluded’ with my search for the Self. I realize now that knowing myself and BEING myself are entirely different journeys. One is the Source and the other is only the collection of the outpourings. The journey I am on now is one with no endpoint, it is one of becoming and becoming again.
The Body is the Bridge, the instinctually intelligent vessel that allows all life to root and take form. It is the moment of perfection that allows us all the gift of survival. This vessel will survive for us as long as we feed it; we become morsels of life as we ingest the Earth’s offerings. The Self is the ultimate gift for every living being, our very own centripetal force that can never forget its own existence and purpose. The path inward is consciously transforming the cyclical hum of survival into the spiral of all creation. With this knowing we move collectively into a deeper space of awareness, finding the seat at the center of all creation.
With Purpose and Gratitude,
