In this first foundational teaching of the Buddha called The Four Foundations or Establishments of Mindfulness, the first of these is Mindfulness of the Body. The body’s centrality in our meditation practice is evidenced by mindfulness of breathing which is almost universally taught in Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions alike. Mindfulness of breathing is of course centered in the body and a number of variations of that practice off shoot from that - mindfulness of hands and feet or touch points or various body scans. Some of these practices have the purpose of calming and healing, stabilizing, stilling the mind and body. Some have a different purpose which is to wake us up to the realities of our bodies - that they will age, that they are vulnerable and bound to suffer sickness, and that they will ultimately die, are not permanent. Along the way we learn that the body is in the process of constant change. If there is a state we like, we can be sure that will eventually disappear. If there is a state we don’t like, we can be sure that will eventually disappear.
Last week we investigated the first of three practices designed to calm our reactions to the body - the anatomy of the body - especially skin, flesh, and bones. The purpose of the meditation was to loosen any idealization of the body, to contemplate the body as made up of anatomical parts and therefore get a little perspective on our bodies. All human bodies have skin, have flesh, have bones. We are united with other human bodies in these similarities. To reflect on this body with dispassion, with calm contemplation, allows us to see the body more objectively - with less idealization and also less denigration. The body is just the body. Some parts may be appealing but that is temporary. Some parts may be disgusting but that is an emotional reaction beyond the practical function of those parts. The body is just doing its job of keeping us alive and not all of it is pretty. This meditation allows us to let go of our fierce attachment to the body being a certain way and also let go of our aversion to the body being just the way it is.
The second investigation which we’ll do this week called "The Reflection on the Material Elements” looks at the body as made of elements - earth, water, fire, and wind. These terms may seem outdated and esoteric but are very useful ways of looking at the qualities that make up our bodies and seeing how these qualities are common to all matter. Our bodies are matter just like trees, earth, rocks, oceans, other animals. The earth element represents the qualities of hardness, that which is unyielding or tough. The bones of the body are the prime example but tough connective tissue comes to mind as well. The water element represents qualities of wetness but also qualities of cohesion. Nothing sticks together without water. The third contemplation is the fire element - qualities of temperature, of heat and cold in the body which we mostly feel through our skins. The fourth element is the wind element - the breath in the body but also movement.
This meditation helps us reflect on these qualities inside the body and outside the body - in other bodies and in all matter. The hardness of tree trunks. Wetness and water in streams and lakes, cohesion in mud. The fire element can be found in all warm-bodies animals, in rocks in the sun, but also the coldness of snow and icicles. And the wind element surrounds us in every breeze, but also the movement of grasses, birds, clouds, branches. We can begin to see our kinship as matter to all matter. We are a part of nature, of the universe.
We can also see how nature/other objects of matter outside our bodies enter our bodies and become part of them - food, water, heat, air. In fact, our dependence on these other objects of matter is complete. Without food, water, air, warmth, we would perish.
This meditation also helps us see more realistically how much control we have over our bodies. Less than we think is the answer. We have control over certain aspects of our movement and our activities but our bodies carry on the process of digestion, circulation, repair, elimination without our help. In addition, there is a whole grey area of automaticity where we think we have control but a mechanism of habitual behavior has actually taken a lot of the doing out of our hands - like walking and tying our shoes, brushing our teeth, walking up and down stairs. If we have to think about these activities and direct our bodies to do them, we’d still be telling each body part how to move in order to get dressed in the morning.
Such reflections can help us begin to see that our identification with the body as me is perhaps overstating the case. It’s not that it is anybody else’s body. It’s just that a lot of the body does itself. We aren’t directing our breathing (99.999% of the time), digestion, blood flow and oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange, etc. And when we look a little deeper, we realize we are not even directing our thoughts. Speech flies out of our mouths and we realize we didn’t actually intend to say that. We make a plan to go get the mail and end up cleaning out a closet instead. We might wonder just who is in charge around here?
This contemplation can be challenging. Reflecting on our own impermanence goes against the way most humans live. Or animals for that matter. So self-compassion is a helpful practice to remember when we feel resistance to letting go of the body (even in thought) or lessening our identification with it. These practices are meant to be done over time and incrementally. When we feel ourselves approaching a wall in our own ability to let go, we need to turn to self-care and more soothing practices, breath awareness, loving kindness and compassion, body scans which center on the experience of body in this present moment, sensations of pressure, temperature, vibration.
Forcing ourselves to look at our own impermanence can stiffen our resistance to it.
Some aspects are easier and more pleasant to contemplate such as our relationship to nature and to others. When we see that all humans have similar bodies, it can help us connect to others, to have empathy for their struggles, to be in community. And such connections can feed and energize us, can fill us with the abundance of love and kinship for all. And compassion for our own vulnerable bodies, our own pain and suffering can spill over our boundaries and radiate out to others opening us to the shared endeavor of being human with other humans.
What the Buddha discovered for himself is that attachment to and identification with the body are impediments to freedom from suffering encountered on the path. These practices are skillful means to investigate and loosen these bonds