oh, and figs', there's a specific Niz quote where he addresses the "I am the body"/"I am not the body" issue .. have you ever read it? Want me to post it here? It's in "I AM THAT".
Sure, post away...please.
Niz: I make no claims of consistency. You think absolute consistency is possible; prove it
by example. Don't preach what you do not practice.
Coming back to the idea of having been born. You are stuck with what your parents told you: all
about conception, pregnancy and birth, infant, child, youngster, teenager, and so on. Now, divest
yourself of the idea that you are the body with the help of the contrary idea that you are not the
body. It is also an idea, no doubt; treat it like something to be abandoned when its work is done.
The idea that I am not the body gives reality to the body, when in fact, there is no such thing as
body, it is but a state of mind. You can have as many bodies and as diverse as you like; just
remember steadily what you want and reject the incompatibles.
Here are several others that deal with the issue to one degree or another, and that demonstrate quite clearly the context flip involved:#1
Q: What benefit is there in knowing that I am not the body?
M: Even to say that you are not the body is not quite true. In a way you are all the bodies, hearts
and minds and much more.
#30
Q: And when I realise that I am not the body, shall I be free from desire and fear?
M: As long as there is a body and a mind to protect the body, attractions and repulsions will
operate. They will be there, out in the field of events, but will not concern you. The focus of your
attention will be elsewhere. You will not be distracted.
#35
Q: In the same way are not the body and the dweller in the body one?
M: Events in time and space -- birth and death, cause and effect -- these may be taken as one; but
the body and the embodied are not of the same order of reality. The body exists in time and space,
transient and limited, while the dweller is timeless and spaceless, eternal and all-pervading. To
identify the two is a grievous mistake and the cause of endless suffering. You can speak of the mind
and body as one, but the body-mind is not the underlying reality.
#36
Q: A man like you should set an example.
M: Are you ready to follow my example? I am dead to the world, I want nothing, not even to live. Be
as I am, do as I do. You are judging me by my clothes and food; while I only look at your motives; if
you believe to be the body and the mind and act on it you are guilty of the greatest cruelty -- cruelty
to your own real being. Compared to it all other cruelties do not count.
Q; You are taking refuge in the claim that you are not the body. But you are in control of the body
and responsible for all it does. To allow the body full autonomy would be imbecility, madness!
M: Cool down. I am also against all killing of animals for flesh or fur, but I refuse to give it first
place. Vegetarianism is a worthy cause, but not the most urgent; all causes are served best by the
man who has returned to his source.
#46
M: To know that you are neither body nor mind, watch yourself steadily and live unaffected by your
body and mind, completely aloof, as if you were dead. It means you have no vested interests, either
in the body or in the mind.
Q: Dangerous!
M: I am not asking you to commit suicide. Nor can you. You can only kill the body, you cannot stop
the mental process, nor can you put an end to the person you think you are. Just remain unaffected.
This complete aloofness, unconcern with mind and body is the best proof that at the core of your
being you are neither mind nor body. What happens to the body and the mind may not be within
your power to change, but you can always put an end to your imagining yourself to be body and
mind. What-ever happens, remind yourself that only your body and mind are affected, not yourself.
The more earnest you are at remembering what needs to be remembered, the sooner will you be
aware of yourself as you are, for memory will become experience. Earnestness reveals being. What
is imagined and willed becomes actuality -- here lies the danger as well as the way out.
