I’d like to come into a new relationship with my body. Last week I mused about manifestation. I’m still chewing on the notion of seeing my physical self as a tool with which to manifest.
All my adult life I have heard Gurdjieff’s belief that the “sense and purpose” of our existence as human beings on this planet is to transform energies. Consciously. That is what I believe I have been doing in the privacy of my own practice.
Physical Body as Tool
A whole lot of theory, practices, and experiences later, it suddenly seems like a new idea to me that my physical body can itself be a tool. In fact, is supposed to be a tool. Not just a “transforming station” per In Search of the Miraculous, but a tool that manifests physically in service.
Yes, with work on myself, I am a transforming station for lower energies to turn into higher. But my physical acts? What does this body do during the day to serve with its hands and feet? That is the new relationship I am talking about. How “I” can use my body.
First, I need to come in contact with my “I” in a more concrete way than the vague awareness that there is something growing in me that is not “me.”
We are often told to work “as if” we had a real I. Perhaps that is a place to start. To focus on my body as a tool for service and my “I” as the master craftsman of this tool. How does that shift my considerations?
A Good Craftsman
A good craftsman takes good care of his tools. He keeps them to be ready for work, not just to look impressive hanging on the wall. What is my relationship with my body? Am I taking care of it to look good or to be ready to take on a task?
I believe I am being called to work as a volunteer to sit with people who want to die consciously. To serve, I may need to ask my body to lose sleep, or to miss a meal, or to give up what it would rather be doing. This seems like an opportunity to forge a new relationship with my body, strengthening the higher part of myself as the master.
Of course, showing up physically is only part of the new relationship. Having the emotions come on board is just as important. In the end, I see the key is willingness.
Something in me must engage willingly with the task at hand but already have direction over the body and the feelings. This new relationship involves my attitude, and my ability to say “yes” with the whole of myself to what is being asked.