Inner Work

For the week of June 5, 2006

Building the Inner Body

The inner body, or lower part of the soul, does not come to us ready-made, nor does it grow naturally, like our physical body, through the ordinary process of living. The inner body forms through conscious and intentional efforts directed expressly for this purpose. Our physical body gives us a place to live on this Earth. A stable and robust inner body would give us a place to live in a deeper, more spiritual world, one that also encompasses the physical. Thus, a major part of our inner work must address the care, feeding, and creation of the inner body.

What is the inner body made of? Primarily sensation: the sensitive energy. Through the practice of sensing our physical body, we come into contact with this substance from which our inner body can form. We discover its value in connecting us with our physical body, with establishing our place in the present moment.

The more we practice sensing, the more we notice it arising unbidden, calling us into presence. Further practice increases the duration, depth, and frequency of our episodes of living in sensation, in our nascent inner body. We can find other sources of help by learning to open our perceptions to intentional energy breathing, drawing raw material for the inner body from the air around us. We can even learn to draw it directly from the Earth, our mother. And deep meditation or prayer can put us into contact with very high energies that cascade down to blend with the sensitive energy and nourish our inner body. Those high energies play a crucial role in transforming our sensitive energy into the substance of our inner body.

Awareness of the state of our inner body teaches us what helps build it, what weakens it and what wastes its substance. You may find, for example, that certain disruptive emotions, overeating, rushing, tobacco, and lack of sleep deplete your inner body, diminishing your contact with sensation. On the constructive side you may find proper care of your physical body, positive emotions, a relaxed presence, and full but easy attention to whatever you are doing. A well-conducted lifestyle, repeated and sustained practice of sensing, and drawing on various sources of energy gradually builds our inner body, thereby establishing and deepening our presence, and creating new possibilities of contact with the sacred.

For this week, work on building your inner body through the sustained and repeated practice of sensing. Notice the times when sensation spontaneously reappears and follow up on those moments by relaxing into the sensation, into your developing inner body.

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