Of all the seven principles of man, the physical body is, of course, the most apparent. The one we can perceive with our senses. The one that is tangible. It is the lowest in the scale, and is the crudest manifestation of a human.
For most of my life, I have believed that I am just my body and I think for the most part, the majority of people on earth still believe that we’re just our body. And that’s only because we can easily prove it exists by using our senses. We can see it. It hurts when it’s hit, it shivers when it’s cold, it sweats when it’s hot.
Over time and with the absorption of knowledge, personal experiences, and moments of silence, I have come to question this assumption and realize that I am something more than just my body. I am something that uses and controls my body as a vehicle for experiencing life.
According to the Yogi philosophy, the body is essential for our growth in the present stage of our development. Although we are not our bodies and despite it being the lowest of the principles that make us, it should not be neglected.
Instead, we should treat our bodies as temples of our spirits and take care of them to make them the best possible instruments. Just as we would maintain and care for the house we live in.
The Yogis teach that it is our duty to train our body to the highest degree of our abilities so that it may be used to our advantage during our life. They even came up with an entire branch dedicated to the care and control of the body known as ‘Hatha Yoga.’
In this branch, they teach that the physical body is composed of cells, each containing a miniature "life" that governs its actions. These "lives" operate under the command of the mind, following orders consciously or subconsciously.
And these intelligent cells are perfectly adapted to do specific tasks. Extracting the nourishment needed from the blood, the process of digestion, the healing of wounds, rushing the cells to the points where they are most needed, and hundreds of other examples known to any medical student are demonstrations of the "life" within each atom.
Atoms combine into groups, then these groups combine to form more complex bodies that serve as vehicles for higher forms of consciousness. When death occurs, the cells separate and scatter, because the force that held them together is withdrawn, and they form new combinations. Some atoms find their way into nearby plants and eventually reemerge in the body of an animal, while others remain in the plant or in the ground. The life of an atom is in constant change, as we all learned in school.
The first step of our development consists of the mastery of the physical body and its care and attention. The steps are simple. The body should be kept in good health and condition. Fresh air, sunlight, plenty of water, nutritious food, and daily exercise. And we should train it to obey the orders of the mind, rather than to rule the mind.
This is post number 2 of a series of emails describing the composition of us humans. I will briefly write about the general nature of each of these seven principles. At the end of this email series, I will send a downloadable PDF file so that you can have them handy and continue studying them to gain a complete understanding of yourself.
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