As this website has been being designed, I've been thinking back to where or what the source was for me to feel and believe so strongly that all of our senses are important. I have surrounded myself with experiences and people who believe the same, though I think the source was my parents. Nature walks, vacations, special meals, arts and time with family and friends have always been a critical theme in our family. Exploring on my own I have continued to surround myself with those things that have us be and be present in the body.
It's funny as I have done research on beer and discovered that the addition of hops into beer was a declaration that came down from Martin Luther, as a puritan act against all Catholics but especially the Irish. The reasoning was that the Catholics were too indulgent. That has changed over time and it seems that the Puritan mindset can be found everywhere. Denying oneself for future reward isn't something that works for me. We are here in a physical body; we might as well be present in a physical body. Since most of us don't sit on a mountaintop in the Himalayas doing Hong Sau breaths every day and we have lives to live, families, work and laundry we might as well enjoy being here!
Buddhist Nun Pema Chodron says:
"It's also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that's sitting with us right now ... with its aches and its pleasures ... is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive."
I hear her saying that this is it, this body. Not the body I want or the body I used to have, but this one. I also hear her saying that this time is it. Not someday or one day when we've arrived, we have more time, more money, more space or however you'd like to fill in the blank. This time, this body, this expereince is it. There's so much possibility that opens when we are awake to experience wonder every day. Paul Pearsall, PhD has a test to see how alive, awake and happy you are; it includes the question:
"Do you experience wonder everyday (goose pimples)?"
True, sometimes our reactions to our lives and relationships and entanglements prevent us from seeing and appreciating what is around us. This is it! Jack Kornfield writes in "After the Ecstasy, the Laundry":
"Enlightenment is only the beginning, is only a step of the journey.... You have to get back down into the messy business of life, to engage with life for years afterward. Only then can you integrate what you have learned."