We have noted in previous posts and satsangs less than ten percent of the cells that make up our body are human. More recent estimates say it’s more like forty percent of the cells that make up our body are human. Whether nine percent or forty percent, it’s trivial, either percentage should give us pause when we identify as our body.
A simple observation makes it even more evident we are not existentially our body. If we are born or become physically or developmentally challenged, lose a limb, develop a chronic disease, or are given the diagnosis of a potentially terminal disease, the quality of our life may appear different, but fundamentally, what we are remains unchanged. The immediate experience felt when we inquire, “Who or What am I?”, isn’t affected by the state of our body.
None-the-less, when chance, disease, age, life circumstances, etc., threaten the future existence of our physical body, we often experience this as threatening the existence of what we fundamentally are. Most of us do not give this much consideration until the death of our body or the body of a loved one is perceived as potentially imminent.
The common responses to a “terminal” diagnosis are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The first four of these are the direct response to a fundamental belief we are existentially our physical body. This is typically a painful process for the individual and those who love him or her.
Most of us go through life apparently oblivious to the fact that we all have a time-limited physical body with an uncertain termination date. We only acknowledge the transient reality of our physical existence when circumstances no longer allow us to ignore it. Kathleen Dowling Singh touches upon this in her book, The Grace In Aging, “Denial, anger, bargaining, and depression are part of the dynamic of chaos as it occurs within the conceptual mind of self-cherishing and self-grasping.” It’s how our emotions are biologically hardwired in our bodymind to function, but what we fundamentally are is beyond our bodies and the emotions experienced through them. Recognizing this feels very liberating.
Since it appears to be a fact none of us have an eternal physical body, humanity has turned to religion, faith, belief, and spirituality in search of that which is eternal.
In addition to this approach, while this physical body still appears to exist, we would suggest exploration with an open heart and mind into the possibility of direct recognition as our fundamentally universal and eternal nature present now. When we come to the direct recognition as This that is eternal, beyond the mind/body-imposed concepts of space and time, then the inevitable death of the physical body loses its existential threat.
In Zen, this is referred to as dying before you die. In Christianity, this may be referred to as being born again – Aramaic transliteration: “That which is born from flesh is flesh, and that which is born from The Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) In both cases, what is being described is the death of identification with the body and a recognition as Eternal.
How can we recognize our Eternal Essence? If something is eternal, then it must be—always and already—present. Our body is constantly changing, our thoughts continuously come and go, our beliefs change, our emotions change, our desires change, our hopes and fears change, so if we are Eternal Essence, then none of these things can existentially be Eternal Essence.
In previous posts, we have elucidated multiple pointers to that which never changes:
- Stop
- What am I?
- Be Still
- What you are looking for is what is looking
- Notice the gap between thoughts
- Mooji’s invitation
All these pointers are meant to produce a pause in our focus and identification with what is always changing so we may notice what is not changing and never changing, what is always and already. It is somewhat ironic we tend to identify with what is always changing rather than our unchanging Isness. All it takes to be free from identification with the ever-changing aspects of this life and physical body is an open-hearted, intuitive look at what is not changing, and noticing, “This silent Isness is not what I am experiencing, This is what I Am.”
In Wholeness as This, the existential threat to our ever-changing and time-limited physical body no longer carries the misunderstood weight of eternity. This abiding recognition does not bring peace, it is peace.
Forever and Ever, Bec and Steve