The Body as a Vehicle
For some people, the workout is just another part of a day, fulfilling a need or personal requirement because it is on the list of right things to do. There are many, and perhaps the majority, who fall into this category. Physical exercise is a task, something repetitive and boring. This attitude toward exercise is not altogether unprofitable, because there are many businesses who depend on it, creating entertainment systems for workout rooms and personal workouts. It does fall into a kind of mindset where taking care of the body is a lot like auto repair, keeping all the systems healthy and running efficiently.
There are others, however, who have an entirely different attitude toward physical exercise. For them, the body is a vehicle, certainly, but it’s not the only vehicle. It’s one of many ways that human beings express their human experiences in the world. There are other experiences, however, and other worlds. For our purposes, this body is here now for specific reasons, and is our way of connecting not only to the immediate physical world, but as a vehicle for access to other realms. A healthy physical body, then, is able to have clear and healthy experiences in all of the worlds it might encounter. Although the idea of other realms might seem a little far-fetched in terms of speaking about physical exercise, it might be helpful to consider hatha yoga as a practice that demonstrates this beautifully. This is a system which can make enormous changes to one’s physical body and overall health, yet it is not intended as such. This might be a positive result, but the deeper purpose is to “yoke” oneself to something divine.
Ideas of the ethereal body, or astral body, or any other manifestation of this basic idea, seem to suggest that spiritual realms do reflect the physical realm, and keeping things in good working order, then, make access to any of these realms easier and much smoother. In the same way that one might pore over a pontiac repair manual online in order to keep the car running, human beings who want to deepen their spiritual experience can do so by learning more about the workings of the body. The realm that most people experience as reality is perhaps but one world, or perhaps is all that there is, but taking care of one’s health has effects that run much deeper than skin and muscle. And those who are lucky enough to enjoy their workouts just might have a secret worth knowing.
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