“A few months ago I took a day-long workshop at East Bay Meditation Center or EBMC, in Oakland, California…. One of EBMC’s core teachings is to embody the Dharma—literally—by reminding us that we are embodied beings. So I was not surprised when this other teacher started leading us in movement meditation. But I was a bit apprehensive about whether my body would be able to move as requested.
“I needn’t have worried. Using language that acknowledged our various degrees of mobility in the room, she guided us to stretch and bend so far as we were able to, emphasizing that whatever we did was enough, asking us to be gentle with ourselves. She encouraged us to focus not on what our bodies couldn’t do but instead on what they could and did do. And that, for me, caused a profound shift.
“I realized that without being consciously aware of it I’d been thinking of my body as a machine that my mind rides around in, and machines break over time. But that way of thinking only looks at change in terms of loss, and the best you can do is to accept it.
“Instead, our teacher reminded us that whoever we are is in large part due to our bodies, however they are. Through the ongoing, inevitable process of change, we are continually becoming something new together.” – Kat Liu
How has your understanding of your body changed over time?