‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?’
(1 Corinthians 6:19)
One aspect of my learning and practice that has really benefited from this somewhat crazy, out in the wilderness, contemplative journey, is the value of body awareness as an integral part of my faith and practice.
It seems to me – and I am not alone in saying this - that western Christianity, over the centuries, has sold out on the body – as well as silence and meditation, preferring an intellectual, dogmatic, dualist approach. It’s hardly surprising that, for some, faith has become an intellectual activity, too much in the mind and separated from daily life. Those who seek an integrated spirituality of body, mind and spirit have sometimes gone elsewhere, or given up on the search altogether.
So I want to try to play my part in reclaiming and proclaiming the place of the body as integral to the Jesus path. Christianity is, after all, an embodied faith, first and foremost in the person of Jesus – the Word made flesh … (John 1: 14)
For me that reclamation and proclamation is about walking the walk – it is about being a practitioner, honouring the body as a place of sacred wisdom and Divine presence. And when we honour that practice, which I think begins in stillness and silence, it feels to me that it spills over into our work, speech, relationships, actions and choices.
When we honour the sacred in our body, we honour the sacred in the other.
When we honour our own earth-ness as a place of divine presence, we honour the earth as a place of divine presence.
So may it be.
Peace be with you.
One aspect of my learning and practice that has really benefited from this somewhat crazy, out in the wilderness, contemplative journey, is the value of body awareness as an integral part of my faith and practice.
It seems to me – and I am not alone in saying this - that western Christianity, over the centuries, has sold out on the body – as well as silence and meditation, preferring an intellectual, dogmatic, dualist approach. It’s hardly surprising that, for some, faith has become an intellectual activity, too much in the mind and separated from daily life. Those who seek an integrated spirituality of body, mind and spirit have sometimes gone elsewhere, or given up on the search altogether.
So I want to try to play my part in reclaiming and proclaiming the place of the body as integral to the Jesus path. Christianity is, after all, an embodied faith, first and foremost in the person of Jesus – the Word made flesh … (John 1: 14)
For me that reclamation and proclamation is about walking the walk – it is about being a practitioner, honouring the body as a place of sacred wisdom and Divine presence. And when we honour that practice, which I think begins in stillness and silence, it feels to me that it spills over into our work, speech, relationships, actions and choices.
When we honour the sacred in our body, we honour the sacred in the other.
When we honour our own earth-ness as a place of divine presence, we honour the earth as a place of divine presence.
So may it be.
Peace be with you.
Tessa
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