Body and Soul

Hello, my earthling friends. It is not news to you, I am sure, that the spiritual path is sometimes exclusive. While generally attentive to the soul, to our spirit, to our energy, and to the non-physical realms, our bodies are sometimes left out of the conversation. This body--made of water and minerals and the stuff of mother's milk and vegetables and turkey and sourdough pizza--is really here. You are flesh on a rock-solid planet with real atmosphere that you rely upon for life. You are undeniably a body.

I'm not sure why our modern version of spirituality seems to have focused less and less on the body than our indigenous/ancient roots. The big five religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) seem to have minimal reverence, wonder, and care for the physical body [please show me where they are regarded in equal measure, if you know], and in fact have supported practices that directly deny the body, its care, and its needs. And, its wisdom.

In so doing, religions have given us free reign to deny other bodies, including the bodies of other people, animals, plants, birds, rivers, oceans, mountains, and the list goes on. The Abrahamic religions gave the human--male human--dominion over the bodies. Only recently have those of us in Western culture begun to return to a place at which we declare the earth 'sacred.' We have begun to listen to the voices of other cultures and religious and spiritual communities who celebrate the planting of the rice, honor the moon, thank the bison, and dance in the rain.

We have been stumbling. In the Christian church, babies are baptized, yet the bodies of women are not equally, spiritually recognized and ritualized. We sit in meditation, looking into our minds and the beyond, yet we seem almost absent-minded as regards the flesh we inhabit. Unless, of course, we eat certain foods or do certain mantras/prostrations, etc., in service of the spiritual life. We ask our body to work as a tool on behalf of religion or spirituality, not an equal, integral partner. And to be fair, yoga, QiGong, energy healing and many other practices lumped under the spirituality umbrella do focus a great deal on the body--undeniably. However, our proclivities seem to choose one or the other--body or soul--and then center our outlook from there. A scientist, a priest. You can guess the center from which they might look at the world.

I am writing this blog to simply say: we are both. Tending to both lands as truth.

A primary teacher for me throughout my life, but with greater intensity in these last few years, has been being in nature. Being in nature--not just nature itself. Nature IS body. Being with her is bringing my body, my presence, and dare I say 'my love,' to her. Being in nature is a recognition and mutual experience of embodiment with other creatures, other earthlings. Being in nature is also a recognition of my own physicality. I feel the air on my skin. I notice the heat of the sun or the falling rain. I hear the meadowlark and the frog. I see the blossoms and touch their softness. Further, I believe that these earthlings also experience me. Symbiosis, relationship, exchange, sharing--all words that point to the ground of physical reality.

I am also soul, as are these other earthlings. They have unexplainable life and vitality and purpose and beauty and inherent worth. They are so silent, well-versed in their embodiment, that they project wisdom and strength, like an owl or a mountain. They have worth beyond our human projections of money or use. I am these things, too--wise, strong, worthy, silent, beautiful. Somehow, when I sit by a stream or stand near a tree, I feel as though they see these things in me, just as I see them in the whole of creation.

I believe that a full spiritual life is also a full physical life. I believe that tending all the manifestations of life creates an abundant field of delights. I believe that we are both. Body and Soul. All of life is both. This is the one thing. This is the All.

[Photo credits to https://www.instagram.com/gogimama0203/ Please check out her artwork on Instagram!!]