The Definition of The Body

The transition from totally uncoordinated muscular effort to skill of the highest perfection is a process of developing the connections in the nervous system. Lee (1975)

Most people don't realise that we in fact have two bodies – the physical body and the "body of attention" – an idea that has been expressed in many different teachings throughout the ages. The physical body is rooted in the present moment and it cannot bend the laws of time and space, whilst our body of attention can enter into the present moment but also has the ability to project into the future and the past, in other words it can daydream about past or future experiences. An example of the body of attention and the physical body coming apart is when you have seen somebody or felt yourself ‘staring off into space’, eyes glazed over, looking at something in the ‘mind’s eye’, not hearing when your name is called, and so on. The practice of defining the body aims to bring the body of attention into the same shape as that of the physical body, melding them together into a balanced whole. For this to happen we must bring the body of attention into the present moment and to do this we must understand the mechanics of attention.

As you sit here reading, your attention is being used for the task – a certain amount of bioelectricity is being used to make the necessary connections for the writing on the page to be received by the senses and translated into thought. This process of reading was developed at an early age and is now so well ‘embodied’ that you do not have to think about it, all you need to do is to direct your attention towards the page. You then have to continue to ‘pay’ attention to the page in order to comprehend the words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters smoothly. So first there is an intention to do something and then a maintaining of attention in order to stay the distance and complete the task. This presupposes the fact that we have a degree of control over what we call our attention and it is here that things become extremely relevant for someone wishing to transform fear, for the body of attention is the single most important factor in developing awareness and presence. In order to illustrate this further try this simple exercise: 

 1 Gain a sense of how you are now, whatever that means to you.

 2 Direct your attention to your left foot.

 3 Without losing the awareness of your left foot, sense the right foot.

 4 Next, become aware of your tongue.

 5 Return to your original sense of yourself but include the deeper impressions of the two feet and the tongue. 

From this simple exercise we can see something that is actually quite profound. By directing our attention towards a certain part of our body we can then receive a more detailed impression of that area – there is a connection via our attention originating from an intention from the mind. In other words, you read my instructions and hopefully followed them by directing your attention to where I asked. In return, you received a more detailed impression of your body as it was in that moment. The body of attention at that moment was slightly closer to the shape of your physical body, they were slightly more ‘together’ and perhaps you had at that moment a stronger individuality or ‘indivisible-duality’. As a further experiment try to hold this connection with your feet and tongue as you read.