Your body is vibrating mass of energy and information. This moving force of aliveness can: take you around the world; make you a champion; be rocketed out into space; have you experience pleasure and pain, or quietly sit in consciousness. Your body is much more than a vehicle for your travels, it is filled with receptors, sensors, regulators and everything else that keeps you going and aware of your environment. A healthy cared for body can make your life a wonderful experience of joy and pleasure.
But what does this body have to do with buddhism? With greater good and better a perspective?
The physical and spiritual aspects of our lives are completely inseparable and of equal importance. One aspect can only serve limited functions without the other. The buddha himself realized this after suffering physically with the ascetics. Modern medical science is only beginning to explore the subtle interconnections between body and mind, between the physical and spiritual aspects of life.
Ultimately, Buddhism views both physical and spiritual aspects as vital manifestations of the life force that is inherent in the cosmos itself. As Nichiren wrote: “Life at each moment encompasses both body and spirit and both self and environment of all sentient beings in every condition of life, as well as non-sentient beings—plants, sky and earth, on down to the most minute particles of dust. Life at each moment permeates the universe and is revealed in all phenomena.”
Peace and Love, Jim
