Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Sacred in Our Bodies

Jeffrey Melcher
February 3, 2008
Palo Alto, CA

Blessed Spirit of Great Mystery, present in our lives and our very bones help us remember we are always within the wonder. Amen.

I begin today with a quote from poet William Blake. Note that his usage of the word “man” and “his” includes all of humanity.

“Man has no body distinct from his soul.”

If we modernized this phrase maybe it would be:

One has no body distinct from their soul.

or

A person’s soul, mind and spirit, are not separate from their body.

However we translate it, I want to speak here today with “body/mind” as one word. Body/mind.

I also use the work “spirituality” loosely. My humanist self uses it as the idea of tapping into the mysteries and powers of the human mind/body/spirit. The word spirit coming from inspiration. Inspiration/Expiration … inspiration/expiration …

I did not write this as a standard monolog sermon. I am going to ask you to participate in a different way, if you are willing, to join me in the exercises of breath and awareness. If you want to just listen and watch, that is fine too. I encourage you to participate to the extent that you are comfortable. Notice where your boundaries are.

Let us begin with some full body breaths. filling the chest and down in the abdomen, relax and let the breath drop out. Inspiration/Expiration …

Now, with your eyes open or closed:
Let us come to awareness of our bodies right now just as they are: Bring awareness to your feet, legs, Breathe into them feel the muscles and bones. Feel your chest rise and fall with the breath. Can you feel your heart? Breath into and relax shoulders neck and jaw. All of these parts your body have information to share with each other. They are one body/mind.

When you are ready, open your eyes.

Here is the basic idea: Our body/mind is part of the Luminous Mystery of the Universe. We are always connected to the Luminous Mystery of the Universe, we are part of the interconnected web of all existence. Remember and reconnect. When in doubt breathe.

Body/mind integration allows for better personal health, better social connections, deeper intimate relationships, more of an opening for a multi-cultural community, and knowing (a heart knowing) of connection to something greater than ourselves: Humanity, community, Web of life, Luminous Mystery of the Universe.

We can learn to communicate and heal without “understanding it” in our neo-cortex cognitive model. Having now said that I am now going to ask you to use your neo-cortex as a tool to see the faulty premise of body mind duality.

The western tradition of duality teaches that the body and mind or body and spirit are distinct and separate. Western medicine is based on this model. It comes out of Platonism likely influenced by Zoroastrianiam. The architect of traditional Christian theology, St. Augustine, was influenced by his early involvement with highly dualistic Manachiism.

This dualism teaches that things of the spirit are good and things of the body are bad. It presupposes that body and mind are separate.

This dualistic model also teaches:

heavenly is good, earthly is bad;
light is good: dark is bad;
men are good, women are bad;
logic is good, emotions are womanly, thus they are bad;
intellectualism is good, sensuality belongs to women, thus is bad.
Male sexual dominance is good, males acting in ways that are sexually subordinate, like women, … you guessed it. [There you have it, the root of homophobia is really about Greek gender definition.]

We generally do not believe these polarities any more, why should we believe the presupposition that body and mind are separate?

Hear is what I say:
In our body/mind/spirit meet: the outer universe of Galaxies and Black holes intertwined with the inner universe of molecules, atoms, quarks and neutrinos. In a biological answer to entropy, life has arranged for an ordering of molecules that can know of their own existence. We are those molecules. We are some of the beings that can know of our Being-ness. We are beings that can know the miracle of our own existence. Humanist, theist or atheist we can celebrate this incredible gift of life the Universe has bestowed. We can know the dance in our blood stream, the firings of our neurons, and embrace the mystery of our thoughts, dreams, and creative muse.

It is our task to celebrate our existence, the existence of the universe.
In spite of the struggles of our daily lives? No, no precisely and especially in the struggles of our daily lives we are asked to remember the incredible impossibility of our existence and dance, touch, heal, be healed, love and be loved, grow and create more possibilities for experienced existence. This we are asked of by the Universe: Be present in our bodies, our spirit and body united.

From this place of integration we can truly have relationships of integrity and joy with ourselves, each other, and with the Luminous Essence of the Universe. From this place we can joyfully and powerfully engage with the world to resist oppression, and transform suffering.

Man has no body distinct from his soul. — William Blake

Soul as ethical body/mind of a human. The part of us responsible for guiding our path in the world. Emotions and desires inform us, our ethical body/mind/spirit must take that information and discern a path through life.

Reversing the Paradigm — body inside mind: How does this inform us?

I am going to share a story of an important teaching I received: In 1988, while studying taiji and body work with a friend who is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, she gave me a very important lesson which helped me see a different way of experiencing the body/mind. The mind is not inside the body; the body is inside the mind. In western thought we are taught to believe and experience the mind inside our bodies, usually in the brain, possibly narrowed down to our neo-cortex. Some cultures locate the mind elsewhere. Traditional hispanic cultures speak of the mind in the heart. Many of us also talk about our gut feeling. This is a body knowing, but it still locates the mind inside the body.

Are our senses part of our mind? When we hear a bird, are we not extending our awareness out to that distant bird.

Now I will ask you to use your neo-cortex and body/mind together to help visualize a different model.

 

Let’s try an awareness expanding exercise. We can do this without moving from our seats. OK Ready? Inspiration/Expiration … Bring awareness to your feet, legs, Breathe into them feel the muscles and bones. Feel your chest rise and fall with the breath. Can you feel your heart? Breath into and relax shoulders neck and jaw. …

Still solid in your body/mind in your seat, extend your perception out from your body by about a foot or two forward, back, sideways, and up. Feel and “Listen” with your body/mind.

“Your physical body is inside your body/mind.”

Your knowingness is broadening.

Breathing.

Know that you can bring your awareness closer to your body at any time. At your will you can contract your awareness closer to your physical body/mind.

Notice your sensations and feelings. What information do they contain?

When you are ready, open your eyes.

 

Emotions have information to share with us. When we block the emotions at the stem we lose the information. Some of us store up our emotions in our bodies, in the muscles, in the connective tissue, in our organ tissue. Our body/mind holds some information for years until we are ready to process it or let it go.

Our medical culture is staring to open up to the healing process of body/mind and spirit. I have been looking into hospital chaplaincy training programs. In several Bay Area hospitals they offer spirituality, arts, massage, acupuncture, music, visualization, hypnotherapy, and ritual as healing modalities. Why? Because they work. Attending to the whole person can lead to deeper and faster healing, and reduce the rates of hospitalization.

Are these hospitals further along in spiritual body/mind healing practices than our UU congregations? I am curious to know your thoughts on this and look forward to conversation during coffee communion, … er … I mean coffee hour.

Body/Mind Listening as a Spiritual Practice

Many of you know massage is one way to access feelings and memories stored in body/mind tissue. I want to offer a perspective as a massage therapist who approaches giving massage as a chance to practice body/mind awareness and authentic experience. I practice listening with my hands and seeing with my heart experience. When I interact while being in authentic experience, this encourages and supports the “recipient” in authentic relationship with themselves,

“You can not heal anyone. You can only heal yourself to the point where your presence is healing.”

How is our healing ourselves relevant to the world? What difference does it make to see our bodies inside of mind?

For me, realizing mind is bigger than my physical boundaries connects me intimately with the interdependent web. I am neither alone nor separate.

How can we actually apply this? It applies to all things, but let us apply it to massage. Imagine you are with a massage partner. Do you have someone in mind? Breathe. Pay attention to what is happening in yourself. Bring awareness to your own body/mind. What are your feelings? What is happening for you? Pay attention to your partner. Sense with your mind/body? What is happening for them? What is happening where the two of you intersect? Be respectful and boundaried in that energetic intersection. Learn to know what is you and what is them, and what is shared.

We are all connected, interdependent, sacred and holy.

Blessed Be, Blessed Being, Blessed Being-ness. Amen.

 

Reflection by Bill Landauer