Are You Your Body?

During the last few days my fiancee has been suffering from swine flu. All over the news there are predictions of how many people in the UK will contract the disease and how many will subsequently die. It all sounds very grim.

If you get swine flu you normally spend a few uncomfortable days in bed and then you build up an immunity which means that you will not get swine flu a second time. Because of this there have been swine parties where people want to get infected so that they can stop worrying about catching swine flu. They want to take a few days off work and get the whole thing over with.

Others have decided that they want to avoid it at all costs so try not to go outside and mix with others.

Some people try to get a sense of what non-duality is by using the ‘who am I’ method. Part of this involves asking yourself the question ‘who am I’ and going through different aspects of yourself such as your body, your thoughts and your emotions.

For example you ask  yourself the questions:
•    Who am I?
•    Am I the body?
•    Am I the body when I was seven years old or am I the body now?

By going through this process you find that you are not your body. The end product of the enquiry is to come to the conclusion that you are not a separate self but the whole of consciousness.

Often this realisation is only an intellectual one, but  it can be useful in coming to an understanding of what non-duality is.

If you have intellectually come to the conclusion that you are not the body then it is probably not much use lying in bed with all the aches, pains and chesty cough of swine flu and saying ‘I am not my body.’ At this point the body feels very real and part of who you are and you feel as though you cannot escape the suffering it is causing you.

If the sense of non-separation is as a result of a real shift in your consciousness then it is possible to approach illness in a very different way.

A few months ago I had shingles for a few weeks. I was forced to lie in bed feeling very drained of energy and with painful sores on my upper body. My relationship to the illness was very interesting. The illness was not who I was, the pain was not who I was. It was allowed to arise and was not seen as suffering or something that I wanted to go away. There was acceptance that this was just what was going on and it was temporary and would pass.

I’m not sure how I would respond to a life threatening and very painful illness such as cancer. I’d rather not find out thank you very much.

The non dual perspective on life fundamentally changes your relationship to life. There is liberation in this. But you do not become super human. Your body can experience pain and illness. Your mind can feel fear and anger. Whatever is going on in your life, good or bad, the essential nature of who you are remains unaffected. Let what arises arise. Change what needs changing. Let go of what you cannot change. Relax your mind and float downstream…