Body of Wisdom

I often meet people who tell me they have no faith. They are hobbled by deep dread, doubt, and fear. Because this is how they think, their lives seem to affirm it at every turn. They may be perpetually disappointed and dismayed, terrified of the unknown, haunted by what-ifs. My heart breaks for them, but I don't believe it for one minute. It is impossible to live without faith. No one ever has, because the body is the complete manifestation of faith.

The faith you might think you're lacking is functioning perfectly in your own body. Yes, your own body – the body you might belittle, battle and even mildly detest – your belly, your butt, your wrinkles, your gray! Your body is the body of wisdom. While we are busy rejecting and undermining ourselves, our bodies perform marvelous and supernatural feats twenty-four hours a day. 

Don't believe me? Scratch your nose. Feel your heart beat. Inhale and then exhale. Let your pancreas excrete, your blood flow. Allow the spleen to do whatever the spleen does. Wave your hand; wiggle your toes. Lift your foot and stomp the earth. 

Our bodies are inconceivably intelligent and miraculously reliable. Our bodies are the gateway to the limitless power and potential that we already are.

Just don't take my word for it.

Faith in yourself isn't something you can get from me. You can’t get it from a book, not even the really good ones. It’s not found in inspirational quotes, although it’s nice to run across them here and there. It’s not something you get from a TV show or movie, not even a really uplifting one, because the good feeling fades as soon as the show is over. Faith isn't acquired when something really good happens, or lost when disaster strikes. We say we lose our faith when bad things happen, but what we’ve lost is the false certainty, the comfortable bubble, that only good things happen to good people.

So where do you get faith? You won’t believe me, but you already have it. You have it when you surrender, if you ever do, to a night’s slumber and open your eyes to another day. You have it every time you exhale your breath, and in that half-minute before you automatically inhale again. You have it when you put on your shoes, or when you don’t, and you walk across this planet without falling off. You have it when you look up at the sky and see that wherever you go, wherever you are, it is always over your shoulder.

It is not by accident that you came here; it is not by chance. It is by faith.

So I will entrust you with the only thing I can give you: instructions on how to practice faith with your own arms and legs, your breath, and the beating of your heart. In Zen, we practice faith with the bodies we've been given, by doing seated meditation, and we learn from our own experience that the settled body is the settled mind.  It is the only lasting way to uncover the faith, dignity, and wisdom that abide in you. 

Keep faith with yourself. Trust the body of infinite wisdom.

*****

Karen Maezen Miller is a Zen Buddhist priest and teacher at the Hazy Moon Zen Center in Los Angeles. She is the author of Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life, and Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood. She leads retreats and workshops around the country. 

Comments

[melissa]

what an honor to share karen's wisdom with 3SV. i adore her words here...and resonate in a visceral, embodied way. thank you.