Your physical body is your tool for experiencing the world. It allows you to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, touch, and know your inner and outer environments. It’s also the temple for your soul. Your soul is constantly communicating with you through your body, but you’re often too busy to really hear these important messages.
The way you relate to your body is often based on what you compare your body to. For example, compared to a mouse, you’re really big, but compared to an elephant, you’re quite small. The conclusions you form actually depend upon what you judge yourself against. You know that you’re a female because you see males, and you know that you’re not one of those. You know that you’re short because you see tall people . . . and you know that you’re not one of those. You know that you’re old because you see younger people (and you know that you’re no longer one of those).
Perhaps you compare yourself to yourself. Do you say, “I used to be 20 pounds lighter”? Do you compare yourself to your teenage self, saying, “I used to be able to stay up late and not be tired the next morning”? Maybe you compare your present body with the one you had when you got married: “I used to fit in a size-10 dress.” Most people define themselves by the body they occupy, and then they define their body by contrasting it to their surroundings.
However, try this instead: Imagine that you’re floating in space. All memory of your past is gone. All recollections of the comparisons you’ve made in your life are gone. You are just a naked body drifting in the vastness of space. When there’s nothing to compare your body to, how do you define it? It’s not skinny or fat, tall or short, or young or old. All of your perceptions are a delusion - they have nothing to do with who you are. The only thing that you have is your senses . . . and the present moment. In other words, what are you seeing, sensing, smelling, feeling, and touching right now. This is the truth about your body.
