2022-05-31 Kāya (2 of 5) The Joy Body
IInsight Meditation CenterJun 1, 2022 at 5:02 pm14min
G
00:00Gil Fronsdal
I am continuing the theme of this week: the different ways we can experience our body. Because these ways can be so dramatically different, depending on the circumstances, the state of the mind, we can almost refer to them as different bodies or, as I referred to them yesterday, the karmic body.
G
00:34Gil Fronsdal
I think that is where most people live most of the time if they are paying attention to their bodies. They are experiencing the body that is very much under the influence – under the impact – of our thinking, wanting or not wanting, our fear, all of these volitional forces that are operating. If used chronically – regularly – these forces build up a very strong feeling of the body and a strong sense of what the body is about.
G
01:11Gil Fronsdal
Meditation begins to quiet down two things. It quiets down the ongoing karmic formation, the ongoing karmic force, that shapes the experience of our life and, especially, the experience of our body. And we begin to recover from the legacy of the karmic shaping of what is going on.
G
01:36Gil Fronsdal
Very simply, if you spend your days with your shoulders up to your ears because you are tense or afraid, there is continuous fear that is the karmic force. Then, as we stop the fear, the shoulders can relax. But they might be so chronic that they do not relax all the way. Then, sitting and meditating, slowly, slowly, the shoulders might find a way to relax more and more. So the legacy of that karmic anxiety or fear begins to abate.
G
02:12Gil Fronsdal
That gets replaced, with time, not automatically, with a sense of pleasure, well-being, ease, lightness, openness, and softness in the very same shoulders. It is easy, then, to go on to the next concern and not linger and pay attention to the shoulders. But it is possible also to feel how there is a release of energy. There is a way in which the tightness and definition of the shoulders softens, and the shoulders become more porous, softer, or more in flow with the rest of the body. There is a release of energy.
G
03:00Gil Fronsdal
That release might not be noticed because, maybe, it is not much. But the opposite, staying chronically tense, is exhausting. And it can really create a lot of tiredness throughout the day, exhaustion and weariness. Without that tension, our energy is more available in a cleaner, easier way. Our body does not get so tired.
Processing audio...