Recently I was listening to Jay Shetty’s podcast with Deepak Chopra.
During the conversation, Deepak was talking about his new book ‘Metahuman’ and said, “I am not in my body. My body is in me”.
A lightbulb went off for me. These words rang true in my soul and for me they gave a clear way of expressing the truth of who we are.
Something I say to every client I work with is, ‘we are so much bigger than our physical body’. In fact, I probably say it to most people I talk to, no matter what the context! But Deepak’s words really hit on another level for me because the fact is, I am not in my body. My body is encapsulated in the essence of my being which is so much bigger than the physical form, in fact it is completely formless.
This formless aspect of myself, made up of energy, is my spirit, my soul, my essence, my divinity, Source that filters down and informs my mind and body.
On a 10 day silent retreat I did earlier this Summer, I had an experience of this. During one of our walking meditation sessions, I was walking really, really, really, really slow. Well actually I wasn’t really walking at all, but I was hyper conscious and aware of the movements within my body and of what was happening as I was performing the action of walking.
With such focused attention, my mind was blown because I realised, I was not the one doing the walking. The sequence of movements and actions required when walking, were happening to me!
How can this be?
Well as I mentioned, as I became hyper aware and conscious of what was happening, all these movements were happening sequentially without me having to even exert any effort or even think about them. Actually once I began to observe what was happening, again my mind was blown, I was not doing anything. One sequence followed the other, seamlessly.
For example, my right heel would lift onto the ball of my foot, then onto my toes, as my thigh, hip, glute & stomach muscles (among many others) were engaged to lift and push that foot forward. As this was all happening, simultaneously my left toes, foot, leg & glute was engaged to keep me balanced as my right foot was floating through the air. As my right heel was lowering to the ground, instantly my whole body was shifting forward. Automatically my left heel was lifting off the ground, again to find stability and balance, as my right hip was moving forward and then the whole process was repeated again on the other side.
Seriously, when you are ‘forced’ to be completely mindful and present for a full 10 days, that’s what actually happens. I was so present and aware of what was happening.
I also explored with my breath as well. I tried holding my breath and surprise, surprise, I couldn’t. I could only get so far before something took over and made me take a deep inhale. I could not actually stop me from breathing because again I am not my body. In fact, my physical body is only a minuscule part of my being.
The consciousness that I am, the creation that I am, the truth of who I am, is what is living through me and through all of us! My body is just my vessel, my vehicle gifted to me for this short period in order to have this experience.
Now don’t get me wrong, this was not a new concept to me. This is something I have known and believed for a very long time. But it was having these experiences during this 10 day silent retreat that completely concreted what I ‘cognitively’ understood.
As I always say, an idea, a belief, an opinion, a thought or a theory is no substitute for an experience, and I am always curious enough to look for experiences to confirm my thoughts. But the one thing about having experiences like these, is that language is extremely limited in trying to explain them. They cannot really be explained but Deepak’s words above are the best words I’ve come across yet.
