You are your body or not?
You are your body.
You are NOT your body.
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Which of these two affirmations are true?
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I want to say BOTH.
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However depending on the sacred tradition one follows, the answer to this question could likely vary.
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Some (more dualistic) Yoga traditions would bring emphasis on «not being a body». In fact, in Yoga circles we often hear then that we are not our body, our breathe, our thoughts, the « material » you in other words. In this interpretation, Pure Consciousness & «Divine Self» are beyond the layers of the skin & what we call in Yoga the « Koshas » (five layers to the Self, Atma, your auspicious soul). In this perspective, what is not Atma is somehow of an illusion, like your body for example. Moreover, we are invited to not identify oneself with anything that is emerging from our body.
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While this seems immensely true, this interpretation never felt as « final » to me, as if something was missing.
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There is another perspective in the Mystery that is offered by the Tantra wisdom (particularly Kashmir Shaivism which lineage I study most) that deeply honours the Body as viewed as one of the manifestations of Pure Consciousness (or The Divine). The body is then perceived as the key vessel towards « self » realisations. Our explorations (of all kinds) can only happen in a body...nowhere else...where else could it happen anyway? 🙄
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Even the greatest avatars of this world have awakened from a place of the Physical matter as it always starts from there, at least in the experience of being human. In this view, we are then invited not to bypass the mindfulness experience of being in a body, yours for now.
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Through the body, we awaken. Through mindful embodiment, we reveal ourselves.
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We bow to what you are as much as to what you are not because both are pathways to self realisations.
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This view resonates powerfully in the cells of the physical me & in the texture of I call « me ».
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Next time be curious about some of these sacred interpretations? I am obviously offering only one interpretation and at the end, this is such a personal (and subjective?) journey.
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The body is an illusion (maya) as much at it is not.
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You are a 🦄 as much as you are not a 🦄....Okay okay, smiling with you. 😁
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YOU ARE NOT YOUR BODY AS MUCH AS YOU ARE ALSO YOUR BODY. ✌️👤
So learn to listen and connect to the wisdom of your body as it is as much you as it it not.
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Everything that is «YOU» is portal to small or large awakenings...
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Lovingly yours, 🌬🤍🕊
Maeva 🦄
