The Body & I

My body and I woke up feeling energized and in good spirits. My body felt renewed. I bounced up out of bed and stood stiffly upright on my knock-kneed legs. As my face and mouth contorted into a wide yawn my muscles shook all of my body. My arms stretched out taut seemingly reaching out to embrace the whole of humanity. My belly fat jiggled as I shook uncontrollably. A gaping noisy yawn from my throat brought tears rolling down the sides of my cheeks, and I was happy.

After enjoying a refreshing shower my body and I got dressed. There was an awful grumbling bellowing from my stomach. My body was saying that it was time to feed itself. I felt the freshness of the air as it was passing through my mouth filling up my body’s lungs with the life elixir of oxygen. I could feel my body’s powerful heart beating in the body's chest cavity as it pumped vigorously pouring more than a gallon of blood through all its veins and arteries, awashing and sustaining all of the body’s tissues and organs. I patiently waited and watched with interest as the hands effortlessly fixed my body and I a low carb, low sugar breakfast that I thoroughly consumed with relish and gusto. My body’s brain and mind became acutely awakened after my haughty breakfast. My body and I went out into the world to start our day.

I watched as my body placed its right foot forward and then its left foot forward as it sauntered me down Center Street towards Franklin Ave headed for ShopRite. While making my way through the park on Center I started to taste the salt of sweat seeping from the pores of my body, dripping off the brow of my massive head, burrowing into my eyes, snaking its way into the nostrils and seeping over and into my tongue and gums. My legs were now stepping less stridently. My body was saying it was tiring, to sit it down. As I relented the body sagged and sat its butt down on a park bench. “Ah! Isn’t this relaxing!” I said out loud to no one in particular. My body then proceeded to flop itself down as its legs jutted out, spreading forward wildly. Its long outstretched arms flailed out as its huge strong-man hands arched across in opposite directions to grip the top of the park bench. “How sweet it is!!” my mind exclaimed loudly to itself. As I sat there lazily my eyes began to focus on a family of swans swimming on the still pond. My lips formed a curious broad furtive smile as I sat with widening eyes transfixed and wide open ears perked up. My body even tingled a little as my brain processed the scenery of a pride-filled father swan and a doting mother swan playfully fussed over their six little ones. I sat and bonded with this dad as I laughed out loud, enjoying the “The Proud Swan Family Show”.

After a good thirty minutes my body told my mind that I was now thoroughly rested and that it was time I moved on to new experiences. We, my body and I, picked ourselves up as we briskly meandered on our way towards having our ShopRite shopping experience.

At end of the day I "stand back" and contemplate about my body and I. Who is really in charge here? Is it I who am in charge of my body or does my body "simply" runs itself. I know for certain if I was given the simple task of making sure to take a regular breath every second all the time I would fail miserably at it! I am glad I don't have to worry about making my heart beat! I really appreciate my body being responsible for that!!

However, I feel strongly that I give my body meaning and purpose. Without "me/I" my body seems purposeless. What is the purpose of that thing with a roof, rooms, closet space, a stove etc? What is the purpose of that thing with four legs, a seating and a backing? A chair would not exist as such if it did not "live" to serve as a purpose and meaning for me. A house is not a home if no one lives in it. A car "achieves its destiny" only when it "lives" as transportation.

The whole universe seems to be an extension of our bodies. Without us our bodies along with the whole of existence seems purposeless. Our center of awareness, or consciousness itself, "I", it seems to me, brings existence to life.

If I exist outside of time and space then why do you see me changing and growing in space and time, you ask? Because of our nature as a duality. I strongly identify with the various changing, growing appearances of Charley that is constantly being transformed in space and time. In my apparent nature, I live in time and space. However, the more real essential you lives outside of time and space. Our constant coming into being (from a cell to a baby to the person you are now , etc) must be balanced with and contrasted to the essential nature. This center, consciousness itself, is the well spring of existence.

It is beginning to look like you, me, we, sentient beings, are that which is timeless and infinitely spacious, or conscious awareness itself.

you are THAT which is the self-projecting projector that is self-generating the timeless, infinitely spacious screen. You are THAT which is alive with the experiences called existence.

The unborn, undying essential center, consciousness itself, is THAT which brought existence into being; THAT within which the whole universe is embodied. THAT which brought cellular life into being; THAT which became THAT which I identify with as "The Body & I"

"I"

Awareness is the witness to experience. It is like a projector screen. A constant stream of changing impressions arising from your objective and subjective experiences is being projected onto this screen. These impressions of reality appear, persist and change but the subjective projector screen is always a constant; it is always being “written on”. Your awareness has the essential property of wholeness. The center of this wholeness is your consciousness. This allows you to distinguish between YOU and THINGS that are NOT YOU. Things appear, persist for awhile and go through changes. However, this center is a constant background. Conscious awareness remains essentially unchanged while it constantly watches a constantly changing scenery of changing appearances.

Consciousness is not some supernatural entity foreign to material reality. It is a phenomenon rooted in objective reality. Let us compare consciousness to the hands. Your hands are material things interacting with other material things. As the hand feels out its world, it experiences a constant stream of impressions. These “feel” imprints, or experiences, come and go but they essentially leave the hand unchanged. The hand has all these experiences without losing its “HANDNESS”. That is, it remains itself as it continues to have constantly changing experiences. Theses marks made by it and on it come and go but your hand remains your hand.

The complexity of the brains of sentient beings is, unarguably, unsurpassed. The mind is an extremely subtle “organ” rooted in the material brains of conscious beings. Impressions made on our material organs of sight, hearing, feeling , smelling and touching are transformed via complex brain processes into mental perceptions. These external stimulations are transformed into the mental impulses of the mind. There are different levels of complexity of the mental, with our thoughts being the pinnacle of this complexity.

The mind has the property of wholeness. Your mind may appear to be a separate “body” from the brain but it emerged from it and remains deeply and firmly embedded in the brain at all times. Just as your hand “witnesses” constantly changing experiences and remains essentially unchanged by its worldly experiences, the impressions of reality coming through your material organs of sense (eyes, ears, etc) is projected onto the subjective screen that is the mind. Some of these perceptions become our thoughts. Thoughts are mind stuff. They come and go. Similarly to the hands, the mind’s center of conscious awareness witnesses these constant comings and goings but remains essentially unchanged.

Another name for your consciousness, or center of conscious awareness, is "I".