mind & body

These two aspects of our being are what we ordinarily consider ourself to be. When we are focused on the physical body, we are thinking in rather material terms, and when we are focused on the mind, we are thinking psychologically. And these two form a dualistic pair: the mind and the body.

Scientists may assert that the mind arises from the physical body, that consciousness arises as a result of electrical activity in the brain. With this description, science bypasses any difficult questions about consciousness. It is seen as some secondary phenomenon, not of any real importance in the material description of the world.

Of course our own personal experience is exactly the opposite. Our enjoyment of life and our suffering is psychological, it is in the mind. And the physical body is actually felt in an indirect way, through our mind, through our nervous system and our senses.

So depending on which of these perspectives we take, either the mind or the body may be felt as primary, and the other as secondary. But the two are not disconnected. Through our senses, the mind is feeling the body, and of course through our motor control, the mind is moving the body. And if there is a problem in the mind, it is usually reflected by physical symptoms in the body as well. And conversely, a physical problem in the body usually has a psychological component too.

So the mind and the body are rather intimately linked. But whilst we are feeling them to be essentially different, then we are still living with a dualistic perspective, and this is not the final understanding or perspective of the spiritual journey. With the spiritual quest we are seeking the truth about ourself, and we are exploring our inner being. And eventually, we can reach a space within ourself, where the very feel of the body and of mental activity in the mind is the same. There is no real distinction left between the two.

And going beyond this duality allows us to touch that space within us which is absolute, which can no longer be labelled as mind or body, not even as consciousness. That absolute source of life: we can find that within ourself, the un-manifest, but only once this duality of mind and body has somehow melted away, and the two have become one.