It has been hard for me to come to terms with the realization that my body really is who I am. I’ve listened to so many messages throughout my life that split me into body and spirit, body and mind. So I have not really been alive in my body. I’ve only been partially aware of its sensation and functions. Sometimes, I think I only felt the functions I imagined were in my head, and that is where I lived.
What a joy it has been to discover not only that I have a body that extends to the tips of my fingers and toes. My body is the interface I have with reality.
Because I have this body I am able to relax into a deep awareness of the world of which I am a part. Once I settle into the full extent of my body, I can experience the joy of being aware. I practice this awareness when I take time to sit and meditate. I settle into this awareness when I experience the joy of walking from my car across a parking lot. I feel this joyful awareness when I sit and talk with a friend. My body is happy, top to bottom.
I have always been suspicious of the warnings about the “pleasures of the senses”, even while I lived by the rules. Now I know I was correct to be wary of those old men who preached sensory abstinence to me and to youths throughout the ages. I honestly don’t understand the caution about the senses. The body is what we have that allows us to experience joy.
Joy is not some abstract pleasure in my mind. It is something my whole body absorbs and radiates when I am aware.