The Body as a Temple?

 

Photo Credit: Marcome

The Body as a Temple?

I have written earlier on being a seeker and the path that one follows in search of the ‘truth’ – but while listening to Osho’s Ashtavakra Gita, I got a new insight which literally shook me out of my ‘spiritual stupor’ so to say! We are all in search of ‘God’ or the ‘ultimate truth’ – that is what we are seeking – then how do we go looking for something which is resident right within us! Isn’t that a contradiction?

There are two things which are relevant to being a seeker – the image or thing being sought and the seeker himself/herself. When the seeker becomes a witness then he begins to see things as they are with no attachment to the objects. If anyone asks you which is the most important part of the body, most of us will say it is the brain, others will say it is the heart. In material terms this may be true, but in spiritual terms this is not so. Which then is the most important part of the body?

When you see a rose on a plant, you are fascinated by the rose, but how did the rose get there? Did it come by itself? No, it grew because of the plant and where is the strength of the plant – it is in its roots. Similarly, where is the main part of the human body? When a child is born, it is connected to its mother for nourishment through the umbilical cord through the navel. So, the journey of a meditator is downwards - towards the roots. One has to descend from the brain to the heart, and from the heart to the navel. Only from the navel can anybody enter into the soul; before that, one can never enter it. Once you strengthen your navel chakra, the witnessing and mindfulness become easier.

The first thing to understand is that the center of man's life-energy is the navel. Only from there does the child acquire life; only from there do the branches and sub-branches of his life start spreading; only from there does he get energy; only from there does he get vitality. But our attention is never focused on that energy center - not even for a minute! Our focus is not on the system through which we get to know that energy center, that center of vitality; instead, our whole attention and our whole education is focused on the system that helps to forget it!

The body should be accepted as a temple, as a spiritual path - and as long as this is not our attitude, we are either indulgers or we are renouncers. In both cases our attitude towards the body is neither right nor balanced.