The foundation of Meditation - a pure body

This article deals with the foundation of Meditation – the Body.

The body is the tool for meditation and all our efforts to know the Truth. If your body is impure, it will not be helpful. The body is not the enemy, not is it something of a lower sphere. You are not your body; it is a wonderful tool given to you. Care for it and it will help in your practice.

The first thing to know about the body is that there are many impurities or blockages in it. And what are the blockages – simply, they are the energies that we have repressed and not given expression to. Suppose at work the boss says something to you and you feel angry. You cannot shout back at the boss, although you very much want to because you are feeling angry. This energy of your anger has arisen but it cannot be expressed. This energy will then find it's way to the body and reside there and because it has been repressed – cause a blockage.

Many a time when you look at yourself in the mirror, you find yourself making faces at yourself. You may stick your tongue out, pull at your ears, grit your teeth and such like. You may also find yourself humming a tune to yourself, and whatever you do you do not seem to be able to stop the tune from playing itself in your head. These are all caused by blockages in the body.

These blockages also explain two well-known phenomena observed at the time of war. One is that there are less number of suicides and murders. The second is that that there is much less incidence of mental illness. This is because the news of the war leads people to release some of the blockages in their bodies. The people feel angry with the enemy – and at the time of feeling anger were able to release the blockages stored in the Body.

Bertrand Russell, the famous philosopher, examining the subject to war and persecution, once observed that in his view Man is physically suited to a life of hard labour. In prehistoric days, when Man was hunting for his food, he found a ready expression for his energies in hunting. Even today, aristocrat and rich men enjoy the sport of hunting. These are the sort of energies that are stored in the body and for most of us do not find a ready outlet.

The solution to this problem lies as follows –

1) Take some form of regular exercise. By doing so you will release the blockages and your body will feel lighter. 2) Another solution is to learn Tai Chi – the Chinese Martial Art. In the standing meditation posture of Tai Chi we are taught how to move the attention systematically through the body and dissolve the blockages within it. Also it is a very helpful form of meditation in action. 3) A third method advocated by Osho Rajneesh is to lock yourself in a room for half an hour once every week. Then allow your body to roam free, to do whatever it feels like doing. Your body may feel like throwing all its clothes off, do so. You may make faces at yourself, grit your teeth, stab at an imaginary person with a knife, shout, scream, laugh or cry. All these are the methods of the body releasing itself of its blockages. Osho Rajneesh says that within a couple of months of your starting this practice you will feel a sense of quiet descending on you. The body will feel lighter and released.

These then are the methods of purifying the body as an aid to meditation. Even if you have no interest in meditation undertaking these practices will definitely generate a sense of well being in your life.

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