I am not ONLY this body
In certain circles, one sometimes hears repeated pronouncements like ‘I am not this body’, ‘I am not this mind’, ‘I am not this ego’.
These phrases are often derived from much more precise teachings encoded in the Sanskrit language.
Phrases like ‘I am not this body’ can be useful in helping us to open up or reconsider our perspetive, but they can also be misinterpreted.
Here I share ideas to suggest that it may be more useful to consider the teaching more like, ‘I am not ONLY this body’.
The teachings of yoga ultimately aim to integrate and unify our understanding of ourselves - I, of the other - you, and of everything between and beyond - that! Otherwise stated, yoga which means amongst other things ‘to connect’ or ‘integrate’, means to disconnect us from our attachment to limited ideas and false beliefs so we may connect to the greater wholeness and vastness that we are really part of.
But this does not mean ignoring, suppressing or repressing the body! The body is our faithful, most intimate companion. It is endowed with so much intelligence. It too is part of THAT - that intelligence which animates the all! When we savour, appreciate and harness the gifts of embodied consciousness, we can refine our understanding of ourselves and existence.
It is not that we want to obsess with the body or become a slave to its whims and fancies. However, if we inhabit it with gratitude and cherish its gifts, we may come to recognise the perspective that as well as a heap of matter bound to decay, the body is also a miraculous divine vehicle and our means to recognise our deeper, subtler essence, here and now.
To read more about and sign up for the autumn 2025 online course on Living Rāmāyaṇa, use this link: https://jamesboagyoga.com/ramayana2025/
