Corporal Acceptance

Discover your body.

In our endevours to feel our 'oneness' with all that is, how can we expect to feel the connection if we deny that which connects us to it?

The path to 'oneness' is found through our physical selves, not around them. Consider that even if we are able to escape our physical bodies, we must always return to them, at least until we are done with them, altogether.

Jesus said, "Your whole body will be filled with light," and otherwise referred to the corporate self many times throughout his teachings. There is no record of him suggesting that the human body should be considered wrong or evil in any way, and even brought his with him into heaven. Yet, in spite of this shining example, there are many who believe otherwise, even to the point of cruelly punishing themselves and others just for having a body. One has to wonder whoever it was that gifted us with these wondrous machines would consider our blatant disrespect of them.

If we are to consider a connection with the universe, God, or whatever your personal higher power IS, we MUST accept our bodies as part of it. Whereas our physical selves are not the end of our being, they play their part within our reality and accordingly should not be disregarded.

We may consider our bodies much like a map of a territory we are trying to locate. Whereas we understand 'the map is NOT the territory', as Sun Tzu suggested in The Art of War, it IS a guide that can lead us to the territory. As well, the map serves to remind us of the territory once we've returned from it, as we all must, until that day that we pass to it, permanently. Additionally, the map is our reference to the proximity of the territories of others around us.

Although we accept someday we will move to our territory and will no longer need the map to guide us, for now we must accept our physical selves as essential, and further understand that by denying our bodies we are committing a grave injustice not only to ourselves but to that power kind enough to afford us this unique experience called life. (The very fact that we can recognize life as an experience is evidence of its uniqueness.)

The more aware we become of our physical being, the more aware we become of our surroundings and our part within them. The more we become aware of our physical reality, the easier it becomes to 'see' beyond it because we learn to see it as special, not 'just there'. Once this is understood, we find it easier to accept the possibility of there being 'more'.

Just as the whole is the sum of its parts, we must accept all our parts are important to our wholeness. So, regardless of what we've been led to believe, it stands to reason there really is no separation between mind and body. Seeking awareness is about accepting ALL THAT IS, not about forsaking what is here and now for the glimpse of what might lie beyond.

Remember, as always, it's entirely up to you.

Light, love, and the strength to become more.

Michael B.