Are we the Body?

 

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Are we the Body?

What we consider to be the body is nothing but an accumulation of impressions of what we have seen, heard, smelt, felt and eaten over several births. Each and every cell and micro cell of our body carries these impressions. Our brain then decodes this vast information as and when we need it during this life.

For instance, we could say that whatever we have had for lunch or dinner, is now part of this body, so does that mean ‘our body’ is an accumulation of food? What we call as ‘our mind’ is largely impressions accumulated over a period of time over several births. So, if we have to accumulate all these impressions and just this much body, then it stands to reason that there must be something more fundamental which is there!

We speak about thought and emotion, and invariably we end up giving a lot of importance to our thoughts. We need to realise that whatever is happening in our lives is simply happening from the limited data that we have gathered. The data that we have gathered, however big we may think it is, is miniscule in terms of the cosmos and is really not of any consequence. We are generating some thought from this miniscule data which could be useful in making our lives, creating a few things, and for enhancing our survival process. But it does not give us access to life.

Thought and emotion are nothing but psychological dramas which are taking place in our mind. We need to understand that we are not the body, not the mind, we are something that is far more infinite.

The nature of the mind is such that it is looking for something to identify with. This is because human intellect and intelligence has broken out of a certain bond which was there for every other creature, allowing them to function like an automated machine through certain instinctual processes. Through evolution, the human being has broken out of that instinctual process and there is an intelligence which has to function consciously. This means that every moment of life is an exploration which is too scary for many people. So, they identify with something that gives them a sense of what they are. This sense of what we are, based on our social and cultural backgrounds, makes sense for our survival process but not for an explorative process. It only keeps us sane and in good solace. It helps us to sleep well at night. It does not awaken a different dimension of knowing, nor does it awaken the possibility of exploring dimensions which are not yet within us. If that has to happen, the most important thing is to be able to sit still without being identified with anything.

We are by nature eternally happy and full of knowledge. The human body affords us the opportunity to perform spiritual activities that will free us from getting further material bodies, which are by nature full of suffering.

Matter is temporary, and spirit is eternal. Therefore, we eternal souls are more important than our bodies. To understand this is real knowledge.