This article was first published in "Power of How" by Daniel McGowan
Instructive Experience of the Body and the Gift of a Conscious Mind
“The conscious mind has limitless power, hence it performs every action.”
“The conscious mind is the leading power and leader of all states and all minds.”
Rammurti S. Mishra M.D, “FUNDAMENTALS OF YOGA”,
Chapter 4, pages 53 and 54.
Each individual has evolved from a formless ego to become a so-called body. This has been achieved through a co-creative process initiated by the World-Mind and continued and developed by the individual mind. The awesome power of the World-Mind to create anything it wishes is to be marveled at, but the creative power of the individual mind must not be underestimated and undervalued. This lack of appreciation of the power of the individual conscious mind pervades the vast majority of humankind and prevents us from realizing our full psycho-physical-emotional-spiritual potential in each incarnation. The person who does appreciate the power of the individual conscious mind realizes that this knowledge cuts right through and eliminates any ideas that exist in the misguided minds of certain human beings who believe that a hierarchy exists in human social interaction. These narrow, selfish minds assume that some individuals are superior or inferior to others. Intelligence, however, does not discriminate. In essence we all possess the same fundamental intelligence. The fact that an individual exists at all as a human being reveals how incredibly intelligent that individual is. It is only the varied experiences of different individuals throughout countless incarnations that have brought each one to the evolutionary stage that he is now at.
Considering the evolutionary stage humanity is now at, where we have not only forgotten our origin, but also that long process of building a body; a process lasting aeons of time involving staggering repetition by the conscious mind of repeatedly recognizing a need and then using its incredible powers of creativity to fulfil that need. The need could have been an organ, a limb, a desire and so on. As each need was fulfilled, it was committed to memory and its vast store is what we now curiously call the subconscious mind.
It is worth considering three – among many – different approaches and attitudes to the body. The first one – and this one is in the vast majority – is the person who goes through life never considering the body and its needs and is almost completely unaware of it until it becomes ill. The beauty, grace and power of the body is usually missed by these people and it is doubtful if they have ever considered how they ever came to be one. This type of person does not deliberately ignore the body; he or she simply has no deep appreciation of it whatsoever.
The second is the person who undervalues and even denigrates the body because he or she is pursuing a spiritual quest, where the body is dismissed as a hindrance to spiritual advancement. One example is the mystic who considers the body and the world to be an illusion and wishes to remain constantly in the ecstatic states that are achieved during meditation. Such states are usually regarded as the highest ones of existence. Mother Nature, however, does not allow these blissful experiences to last very long and the mystic is forced back into the body and the world. The fact that the mystic is unable to remain in these ecstatic trances shows that he has to learn that the world may be an illusion, but it is also the real. This paradox is a hard fact of the human condition. The mystic has to learn that the body and the world cannot be spirited away at the behest of any individual and they are there to be experienced, studied and understood if psycho-physical-emotional-spiritual equilibration is to be achieved. It is a wise mystic who can balance spiritual experiences in the lofty spheres of meditation with a common-sense practical approach to living in the body and accepting the instructive experience it provides.
Before considering the third type, it is worthwhile noting that the human being has evolved through the mineral, plant and animal stages to the human one. This is not the place to elaborate on this progression, as it would labour the point being made here. At the animal stage of its evolution the human being relied on what we curiously call ‘instinct’. This term is used by many people even although they have no real idea of what it is. Phrases abound such as,
“Well, it’s something that we’re born with,” and,
“It’s something that you do without thinking about it.”
No consideration is given to the staggering repetitive creative thinking used by the ego to develop a body.
The third type, then, is the person who has come to realise that the way in which we use the body in our everyday activities has gone wrong. The vast majority of the human race has no clear idea or understanding of what is really taking place in the body as they are carrying out a movement. The conscious co-ordinated use of the body is completely unknown to them.
How did this state of misuse of the body come about? The answer is that evolution was a slow and conscious process that gradually speeded up as each new development was practised and mastered. Up to and including the animal stage, the individual was totally concerned with the building of the body in such a way that it could function optimally in its immediate environment and thus increase its chances of survival in very difficult conditions. The superb use of the body can be seen in any and every wild animal.
When the individual evolved into the human stage the sense of ‘I’ arose, followed by the ability to think abstractly. This abstract thinking, this expansion of the intellect, led to the invention of primitive tools right up to the amazing technology that exists today. Also, at the human stage when we became cognizant of being the ‘I’, the ego could ruminate and ponder the question, “What am I?”
This amazing expansion of the intellect, however, had a very negative influence on our use of the body, because it now has to function in unnatural environments such as offices, factories etc. The individual no longer needs to function optimally to survive. Slumped torsos, twisted spines, narrowed chests causing inadequate breathing, shortened, rigid and flaccid muscles etc. etc., resulting in mental and physical debilitation, lethargy and ill-health, can be seen in all nations all over the world.
Referring to the evolutionary process described earlier, we must relearn how to discipline the conscious mind and allow it to take the lead again as the great driving force and by the greatly unappreciated power of thinking take charge – as it did in the past – in our evolutionary development. We must take the next evolutionary step and adopt constructive conscious control in the use of the self, which is humankind’s supreme inheritance. The use of the self – good or bad – is the universal constant in living. Through this process we can restore the body to its former glorious state of co-ordination, balance, grace, poise and dynamic power. Not only that, we can also reclaim the gift – our greatest gift – of a conscious, vibrant and quickened mind willing to take responsibility for its own destiny, a truly conscious and constructive way of being. In our everyday interaction with people and things such constructive awareness is true mindfulness.
This article was first published in The Power of How by Daniel McGowan. You can download the PDF of this book for free here: FREE DOWNLOAD