You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

ALAN WATTS

PRACTICE

INNER BODY AWARENESS

If we wish to make any significant changes or progress in life, we always have to start from the inside out, and cultivating our experience of interbeing is no exception. It is equally important to be familiar both with the interbeing that’s happening internally (formlessness) as well as externally (form). The practice of inner body awareness can lay a very strong foundation for doing this. Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle has often talked about it in his books and workshops (though I’m sure its origins trace back farther than him). In case you’re not completely familiar with the “inner body,” here are a few words from Tolle to help clarify:

Your inner body is not solid but spacious. It is not your physical form but the life that animates the physical form. It is the intelligence that created and sustains the body, simultaneously coordinating hundreds of different functions of such extraordinary complexity that the human mind can only understand a tiny fraction of it. When you become aware of it, what is really happening is that the intelligence is becoming aware of itself. It is the elusive “life” that no scientist has ever found because the consciousness that is looking for it is it.1

That’s just a brief description, but one I believe is of great service for us to understand before going deeper into this practice. It helps us (in real time) to become intimate with the life energy that gives rise to and sustains our material existence, which is to say the energy that bridges the seeming gap between the worlds of form and formlessness.

The practice itself is quite simple, but don’t let that fool you into underestimating its effects.

       •  Start by closing your eyes and taking a few conscious breaths. (Closing your eyes is not always necessary, and the more you do the practice, the more easily you’ll be able to do it anytime and anywhere—eyes opened or closed.)

       •  Next, become aware of the air you’re breathing. Pay attention to it as it enters your body on the in-breath and leaves your body on the out-breath.

       •  Once you feel grounded in this breathing (usually two or three conscious breaths are enough), turn your attention inward and see if you can begin to feel, or sense, your inner body.

       •  (I’ve found the easiest place to begin bringing attention is the hands—so let’s start there.) Bring your attention to your fingertips and, within a few seconds, you should begin to feel a slight tingling sensation. Once you do, slowly bring your attention down from your fingertips, through the rest of your fingers, and become aware of your hands in their entirety.

       •  Remember, don’t think about your fingers and hands; rather, just place your attention there. Allow the tingling sensation—the aliveness within your hands—to grow and intensify.

       •  Hold your attention there for another moment or two (or three—just go with what feels natural) and, once you feel anchored into the aliveness of your hands, allow that internal energy—the tingling aliveness—to expand from your hands into your forearms. Keep your awareness in your forearms until you feel the aliveness both there and in your hands, and once you feel anchored in both, bring your awareness into your upper arms, repeating the previous steps.

       •  From there, do the same from your upper arms into your chest, and then into your abdomen, legs, feet, and head (in whatever order feels right to you) until you’re aware of the aliveness in, and throughout, your entire body. Now, sit with this for as long as feels meaningful. It may be five minutes, or it may be an hour. You’ll know what’s right for you.

As I mentioned, you can practice this anytime and anywhere, so even if you do it only for a few minutes at a time, that’s totally fine. It’s a versatile practice that works when you’re sitting quietly at home, when you’re stuck in traffic (with your eyes open, of course), in a long line at the bank, or especially when you’re in a long-ass, boring meeting and feeling like you want to claw your eardrums out. Regardless, it’s an excellent practice for helping to take the focus from your discursive thoughts and to mindfully go within instead.

There’s tremendous peace to be found in this practice. As we bring our attention to our inner body, we’re tuning into the creative play of life that’s happening within—and interconnecting every one of us on a very deep level. We’re becoming more intimate with the absences of separation between form and formlessness, and this is what allows us to experience the interbeing of every single thing! (We’ll continue to go deeper into Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching on this—and more—in the next chapter.) That’s got to be better than allowing ourselves to drift on autopilot, stuck in the cyclic thoughts and emotions that are revolving around whatever we’re not psyched about in the moment, right? Obviously it’s your call, but I’m just sayin’ . . .