This is totally ground-breaking! I have discovered something incredible! For everyone out there on a spiritual path, who is seeking enlightenment and ultimate union with the divine, I have an announcement that will absolutely transform your quest! Hold on to your seats. . .
Are you ready? Here it is:
Your body is part of the equation! Wow! Right!?
No. . .? Not wow?
hmm. . .
Most people who consider themselves to be on a spiritual path, understand conceptually that the body is the vehicle through which spirit expresses and experiences itself. However I commonly see “spiritual” people neglecting their physical health entirely. Western spirituality tends to be pretty heavy on the mind and spirit, but not so keen on the body. The idea that there is more to life than the physical is a hugely important wake up call, but it doesn’t negate that the physical exists! It is important to wake up from the illusion of permanence, but it doesn’t mean we kill ourselves just because we will eventually die!
I just recently did a week long Juice Feast, which basically means I went for a week without solid food or significant amounts of fiber while drinking a gallon or more of fresh juice made from garden vegetables, greens and fresh fruits each day. The health benefits of fasting are well documented and the Juice Feast in particular is a low impact form of fasting that is incredibly rejuvenating and easier to do than most other forms of fasting, because the principle is to make sure your body gets all the nutrients it wants while allowing it to rest and clean the digestive tract. I was turned on to this form of cleansing by my neighbor David Rainoshek who happens to be regarded as the Top Juice Feasting expert in the world. If you’d like to know more about it I suggest you check out his site, www.JuiceFeasting.com.
Anyway, during my juice feast, I noticed a much clearer connection when I would meditate. I had a heightened sense of peace and wellness throughout the day, that reminded me of the physical body’s importance in the mind/body/spirit equation, which is what I’d like to explore a bit deeper here.
The spirit in it’s purest form is infinite and all knowing, even your own individual soul, knows the course of all of your lives and experiences. If you wanted to express yourself as a loving being, or a creative soul, without the physical plane, it would be like playing charades by yourself. . . “I wonder if I can guess what I’m being now? Can I guess what I’m going to do next?” It would get pretty boring pretty fast. The Physical being is the vehicle of our spiritual experience because without it we would have no frame of reference for anything but spirit. It is hard to understand Up without Down or to appreciate the infinite without the finite. This is why we have the Physical playground of our reality, and our bodies are like the insanely advanced bio-tech, spiritual interface mechanism we use to explore it.
Now, if we recognize that the body is the vehicle for our spiritual experience, and we still decide to put syrup in the gas tank, we aren’t showing much respect for our spiritual experience. Think about it, if you have respect for a person, and they trust you with their car, you wouldn’t intentionally damage it would you? If you wouldn’t intentionally do things that you know are damaging to someone’s car, why would you not treat your own body with the same respect? If you were to open your cell phone and cram the inside of it with dirt and water, you wouldn’t expect it to have very good reception would you? When I see the Body as the vehicle of my spiritual experience, I want to make sure I’m giving it the right fuel. I want to warm up the engine, and drive it regularly. I want to take care of it to ensure that it is capable of getting me where I am going!
Now if you are on a deep submergence mission to explore the depths of despair, pain and anguish, by all means, disregard everything I just said and go to McDonald’s for a nice big bag of greasy diabetes and a side of depression with a cup of artificial stimulant. This should get you completely off the path I’ve been laying out here and back on a course for sickness and anguish of all kinds. Have some alcohol and cigarettes while you’re at it, because there is no better way to launch a direct attack on your liver and lungs. I know I sound sarcastic and to some extent I am being sarcastic, but if you truly feel that your purpose in life is to explore pain and sickness, there’s nothing wrong with that. Go for it! I just don’t think that’s what most of us are here for. . .
I believe, for the most part, that humanity understands suffering is something that is not necessary. Or at least that it isn’t necessary to inflict suffering on ourselves intentionally. But even if we dismiss the idea that junk food causes suffering, I can not dismiss my personal experience. What happened this past week was a steady and easily noticeable increase in my receptivity to subtle energy and awareness of state of mind. I urge every one to do an experiment like this! Try improving your physical health in some way that you can practice every day for a week. Maybe it’s exercise, perhaps it’s your diet, or even your love life! If there is something you can do everyday for a week that you know would improve your health, try it as an experiment to see how it affects your spiritual practice! I promise you, if you’ve never done it before, you’ll be amazed!
Wishing you Health and Happiness!
Michael Sunspirit!
I’d love to hear from you!
