A Body Divorced from Mind
A letter to the pandemic that disconnects are realities.
‘Imagine if you could listen & learn the movements of your diaphragm, the same way you let yourself fall in love’
Good Morning Floating Lotus Family,
I hope this letter finds you warm this morning, wrapped around the aroma of a hot beverage. I have a contemplation for you to play with today, so please sit down and enjoy this letter whenever you have time to spare x
This month I want to share a curious thought I’ve been having, something that’s been churning in my mind. I always like to acknowledge that we are powerful, successful creatures with a great capacity for intellect and evolutionary agency. But in the West, it’s becoming increasingly evident that we are embedded in an intellectual landscape. A dictatorship run by manomaya kosha (the mental sheath of our existence), significantly divorced from the visceral body. We are, sadly, unappreciative of the annamaya kosha (the physical body) and largely unaware of pranamaya kosha (the energetic body).
We’ve constructed a culture and social reality that enriches the growing mind. We spend far more time admiring the brain over the wisdom of body. We study, examine and pick things apart, building industries of skills and knowledge. And while this specialisation and separation of skill enable us to progress our specific interests (e.g. studying what you enjoy rather than learning how to fix your plumbing), it can also delineate internal autonomy.
We don’t tend to teach people how to identify with their bodies or how to feel and read their own systems. Typically, we reserve anatomical information for people with a vested interest - scholars who want to STUDY physiology and health. But a part of me wonders if this is helpful or hurtful, adding a gatekeeper to an inner sense of unity. Would things pan out differently if we collectively campaigned to teach children about proprioception? Guiding them to embodiment and developing their inner skills to sense the rhythmic movements of the body.
From a young age, we are taught how to identify with our thoughts and guided to create an inner dialogue. This inner narrative develops as we age and eventually, becomes the ego voice or sense of ‘self’. But I wonder how much time and energy is spent on mapping the inner signals of the system. How to perceive and plug into the animal body and to listen to the physical structure of our reality. Imagine if you could feel and understand your digestion like you understand the shapes of sadness. Or you could listen and learn from the movements of your diaphragm, the same way you let yourself fall in love.
This tragic disconnect isn’t entirely our fault but is a byproduct of Western ideology. In Western science, we have laboratized the body and caged it as something to be studied, treating it like a machine with parts and pieces. But imagine trying to scoop water from a flowing river or stream and taking it away in a bucket. As soon as you capture the water, it ceases to be a river; it is removed from the natural rhythm of the stream. The water becomes still (and stale, if neglected), and the Tao can no longer move the water downstream. So what if, by doing this, we’ve subtracted annamaya kosha from the culture within which it exists? And by analysing the body, like the water in the bucket, we’re viewing something removed from its nature. The body becomes exiled and lonely.
There is a curious parallel here from quantum mechanics that says, ‘the act of observing a subject influences the subject being observed’, and I can’t help but wonder if this applies. If by observing the body independent of the mind, are we disconnecting from the essence of our experience? Are we forging a divide and expanding the distance between the observer and the subject being observed? Would it be more beneficial to consider the two entities as animals that form a pack and alliance?
Perhaps we should work on softening the manomaya kosha and focus on the subtle yearnings of annamaya. Strengthening the vital signals that bind these sheaths together, giving them purpose, relationship and resolve. Can we reassemble the marriage that has been rudely interrupted and let the body be experienced again?
I like to consider the distance between my knowledge and wisdom mirrors the distance between my thoughts (mind) and instincts (body). Where knowledge might shape the evolution of your thoughts, wisdom can weave the fabric of your experience. And through your yoga practice, you sow the unique tapestry that tells the ultimate story of your life. You bond the intricate layers of your spiritual existence and let the koshas feel each other as equals.
I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this topic, so please feel welcome to share and discuss.
With deep love and gratitude,
Namaste x
