Unity in the material is black. Unity in light waves is white. I commit to both. I commit to the intermingling and mixing of many colors to form the all-encompassing blackness. I commit to these same colors striving for a union that draws my soul in light. I commit to living life out loud, and seeking out the silence. I commit to Love. I commit to Will.
Lifting steel and iron is an act of prayer. Slicing a tomato is an act of sex. Sitting in meditation is an act of love. Kissing a beloved is an act of will. What will it take for me to realize this fully, in every cell of my Being?
Full embodiment is the mandate of the magician. Embracing the physical is a spiritual act. I know, I’ve written about this sort of thing many times before, but the lessons continue to unfold.
Last week, my trainer challenged me yet again. She asked me to examine what importance I placed on my physical work versus my other work. This brought me up short. Knowing I teach that the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual are one to me, and knowing that I strive to integrate all, and that, as an intellectual, I have worked my ass off to be physical and emotional… I still, deep inside, fail to fully embrace my body. Workouts are still something I “make time for” rather than seeing as simply another necessary part of my spiritual life, my Great Work, and my practice. I can still think that going to the gym is something I do before the rest of my day starts, and that sometimes doing so makes my day feel crunched. How will I fit my work in? How will I not? It is all my Work.
This challenge was good fodder, and the reason why I often say we all need teachers. Good teachers catch those blind spots we so assiduously avoid.
While striving to listen to my body as I listen to emotions, mind, Contact, guides, and soul, I still can default into “I should work out” because deep down, it is not my first impulse, so I know I need to engage will, and know I need to fight against sloth. But that is not the relationship I seek. I seek to listen and ask my body what it truly needs. I do this around food. I can do this on the road when my body really wants some sit-ups, jumping jacks, crunches and triceps dips in my room because sitting in airports and airplanes the day before makes the body crave movement. Putting movement into my classes is second nature, as is riding my bike and walking. Yet, not listening happens when habit takes over, and sometimes will becomes force. Sometimes rest is what is necessary. So listening becomes the practice once again.
I ask a lot of myself, and a lot of my students and clients. I want to ask even more: for fuller awareness that the separation we enact is false. That going to the gym is just like listening to my guides, or meditating, or writing, or talking with clients, or planning classes, or making good food. It is not something to be fit in. It is simply another part of my physical spiritual life.
Magic makes each moment. Magic is in matter and in aether. Light and dark are glorious in my sight.
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Very well said!
I am struggling with this sort of thing myself. Too often, my daily exercise routine feels like something that I am forcing myself to do because I think that I ought to do it, rather than something that I am doing because I really want to do it. I am an intellectual as well, and exercising is not something that comes to me naturally; I am more likely to just sit around and read or write. Ideally my exercise routine would become an integral part of my spiritual practice, but I am not at that stage yet. Thanks for this post – it was a good reminder for me.
I especially appreciate these thoughts today, because both doing the right things for my physical body and finding ways to make change that aren’t based on fear and force are really on my mind right now. Thanks!
Good post! But, incidentally, EXCELLENT recent podcast–not just your own statements, but those of all the panel, and Jason’s brilliant moderation and questions, were all fantastic and very thought-provoking. However, your own statements were particularly useful and inspiring for me in some of my own difficulties at present. So, thank you for that, and your ongoing work in that regard!
I’ve spent the last few years doing a lot of work integrating the bodies and found an amazing thing. For a long time my work outs were work. The effort to go do what I SHOULD do really was tedious. Then I added another work out to my week (making it, at the time 5). When I did that I suddenly went from making myself go work out to often anticipating when in my day I would get to go work out. A fairly shocking change. Now, longer into it and more like 6 workouts a week I’ve found that both my work outs and my daily practice have disappeared in my mind. They’re no longer things I have to do, or even things I do. They’ve become they way I live. I really don’t know how or when that happened. But, when I traveled for several weeks last winter it really hit me. I couldn’t make travel plans without including in them ways to get at least a bare minimum of space in my plans to exercise, meditate and pray. To live in the way that allows me to be whole and healthy.
Inspiring, Sandy! I also have to make sure I get enough exercise during travel, as well as meditation time. It makes all the difference.
I have always found this to be true. What one does as exercise for the body must be something that integrates easily into one’s life. If you don’t love being a gym rat, you will likely not continue working out at a gym. Instead, find ways to be physical that you *want* to do. For me, that was martial arts for many years, and now it is odd forms of dance (aerial and contact improv). I dabbled with parkour but really don’t enjoy running so instead I bring that desire with me to contact improv. Now I think about doing parkour-like moves as a part of my CI practice by re-framing it in my head as “site specific contact improv”. I’m in my late 40′s and feeling great. I *love* the physical ability of my body. I observe it changing as I age and acknowledge that I have to do some things differently than I might have done them at 20, or even 30.
Thanks for blogging, Thorn!