Know the body, don’t say no to the body

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): (Reading from listener’s notebook) Be poised, rock firm that you are not the body.

You are already poised that way. And if you talk of being poised that way then you are just dealing in petty change — 10 cents, 20 cents. Then, you are not dealing in the infinite.

You must know the body; you must not say that you are not the body. This is a very important distinction, you must please appreciate this.

Know the body,

instead of entertaining yourself

with the thought that ‘I am not the body’.

If you are not the body, tell me who is thinking?

Listener (L): I have been trained for many many years to always think, it was almost like a mantra that I am not the body, I am not the mind.

AP: If you are not the body, who is thinking? Come; think this thought without the body. Show me how you’ll do it! By thinking again and again that you are not the body you are only reinforcing your sense of the body-self. There is no need to fool oneself this way.

Don’t say you are not the body, instead, know the body.

In knowing the body, obviously, it is established that you are

beyond the body.

That’s it.

What must be done in a not so direct way, in a very subtle way, cannot be achieved through a gross method.

The only way to live as the one beyond the body is to realize the body; is to see that the body is the body.

Now, that appears very close to saying the body is the body and I am not the body, but no, these are different and the difference is huge.

Just see what the body is and the body is always available for observation, so seeing it must never be a problem.

Just see what the mind is, and the mind too is always running around, you can always watch it.

See, here, there, jumping, hopping, climbing, falling, the mind is always busy with something. Is it not? That way it is always a nice object to look at, like a pet…