The striving toward a centered presence of the human body is necessary for those who wish to belong to themselves. There is a force in the words alone: I wish to belong to myself. Without the participation of the body, we are nothing more than thinking machines, incapable of the comprehensive understanding and genuine insight that derive from an inclusive attention. In the centered presence of the body, we come home to our true nature and a heightened sense of being.
Many spiritual teachings encourage the location of attention within the body. The discipline of sitting or walking meditation involves a relaxation of the self, a release of energy through the letting go of tension, and a redirection of energies through the centers of the body. An active stillness is sought by quieting the mind and body. The aim of this practice is growth of being toward wholeness and inner unity, where we strive to evolve into one indivisible self, opposed to our usual fragmentation and disassociation. And we endeavor to find a centered state, not only in our quiet moments, but also in the midst of movement- in the very heart of our lives. Through inward quiet and a free attention, where our energies are not locked in unnecessary tension or scrambled within our ranging thoughts, a new form of clarity may emerge: a clearing of the inner turbulence. We can begin to see what is, with a heightened clarity, and experience the moment in a deeper, cleaner, and simpler manner.
~David Ulrich
fire in the belly. water in the soul.
inquiry for today~ your time is precious….so meaningful these days….
Accepting suffering doesn’t mean that it goes away, or even that it gets better. Too often, we conflate the idea of “being spiritual” or the idea of acceptance with the New Age-y cliché that we can simply say no to suffering. We can learn to feel discomfort in a far more pure and direct way, without the additional burden of distorted thinking. But I still maintain that some things just hurt.
~Sharon Salzberg
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