"Stop worrying about your body so much...you are just renting it anyway"

Is this body really in your control? Do you own this body? How do you let go of obsessions about your body? In this post I will attempt to answer some of these questions. Today we live in a society in which we are heavily obsessed with our bodies. I see so many people in my medical practice who are not happy about their bodies. Mostly people are too concerned about their physical appearance. They think either they are too fat or too thin. Some people go to the extent of even getting plastic surgery to look better. These body image issues especially trouble the younger generation. Other people are very worried about their health. This is somewhat reasonable in some settings. There are a small number of people who go to extremes of worrying about their physical heath. Some people are so worried about their illness they can even make it worse just by worrying too much. Do we really have control over these issues? Let us examine how these things work.

I try to tell my patients it is important to look after your body, but you have to always remind yourself it does not belong to you. You are only just "renting" it for the time being. Perhaps you may not agree with this or you may even think this is a little bit too "drastic". Suppose you had to rent a car for some time, you will have to take care of it while you use it. You will have to pump gas, change the oil, wash it and check the air pressure in the tire and so on. Applying the same principal when you have a body, you have to look after it the best way you can. But you have to always remember that you don't own it. There is a very deep concept in Buddhism called "Anatta" or "non-self." This is one of the very important teachings of the Buddha and he explained this in his second disclosure after his enlightenment, called Anatta-lakkhana Sutta. In this, he says "it is not only your body, you have absolutely no ownership of your feelings, perception, thinking (mental formations), and your consciousness." These were called the five aggregates. Although it is very difficult to understand these concepts, when one realises the true nature of these fully within oneself, that person is said to be fully enlightened. In Buddha's own words, "holy life fulfilled, the task done"

For the purpose of this post we will only focus on the body. I will try to explain this concept simply as possible. The Buddha said "if you own this body you should be able to keep it the way you want." You should be able to say "may my body be this way or may my body not be this way." In other words if you have ownership of the body, you should be able to give orders to it. You should be able to say, "hey body listen to me !.... I don't want you to get old, sick or die!" However, we all know that it is impossible to do that. This is because the body is arisen as a result of certain conditions coming together. There are three basic features of conditioned things. You can see its birth (origin), change while it exists and fading away(disappearance). Our bodies are no different as we can see birth, ageing and death. When you buy a new car it usually runs well until the warranty runs out (unless you get a "lemon"). So does your body when you are young you are usually healthy. When your car gets old and gives trouble, you may have to go to the mechanic often. Using the same principle, when you get older you may have frequent visits to the doctor. In the case of your car, eventually you have to throw it away and get a new one. Similarly your body will have to be discarded when you die. If you are reborn as a human you may get a new body and this process starts all over again. Interestingly, the final goal in Buddhist practice is not to get a new body again! Then you don't have to go through this endless cycles of old age, sickness and death which causes suffering. This is called Nirvana, putting an end to the cycle of birth, old age, sickness and death and then rebirth, the opposite of what we call the Samsara.

Now what can you do to not get attached to this body so much? If you meditate regularly the answer is simple. It is the practice of mindfulness meditation of the body, as described in Satipattana sutta. If you do not meditate you can start thinking of your body as a "rental. " This may somewhat free your mind from your body. This may help you not worry so much when you are sick. This will also help you not to be too obsessed with your body image as well. We all know that there is a close connection between the body and the mind. For a moment think your body as the "car" and your mind as the "driver." You have to look after both very well. If you don't take care of your car like doing a regular service and oil change, it may breakdown or even crash. The same way if the driver is not well trained, it does not matter how well you looked after your car, it may crash due to bad driving. This is a metaphor I always use in my practice to emphasise the importance of looking after both body and the mind. Ultimately what is most important is to have a good balance between the two.

As we discussed before the body and the mind are very closely connected and can influence each other. There is a lot of research done in this area to investigate how the mind can influence the body. The same way the body can influence the mind. When you are in pain you mind is not very clear and you can easily get irritated or even angry, and depressed. These days there is a lot of emphasis on body wellness. In fact we are sometimes a little too obsessed with looking after our bodies. We jog, go to the gym every day and so on. These are all good things but the only problem is we do very little to look after our mind. It is important that we have to exercise our minds as well. This exercise is different form the body exercise. You exercise the body by "running" whereas the mind you exercise by "stopping." This is where Buddhist practice of mindful meditation comes in. Recent research has shown meditation can even increase the thickness of your brain's grey matter. Meditation not only trains you to do things mindfully it also leads to wisdom and happiness. So it is a "two for one" deal. Research has also shown that mindfulness meditation can improve your immune system as well as general well being (read previous posts listed below).

So try to look after your body the best way you can, but don't ever forget to look after your mind. Remember you can have a perfect car, but if you have a bad driver, it is of no use. You know clearly sooner or later what would happen...CRASH!. It is difficult to always remember that you are just "renting" this body. You may want to contemplate on this as often as you can. This will hopefully help you to better understand your body and mind and will make you more content and happy in this very life.


Related Links:

Anatta lakkhana Sutta

How can mindfulness help?

Practice of mindfulness four bases of mindfulness

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