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World

The Body, the Sacred Temple

Many people think that the physical has little to do with the spiritual. Why not, they ask, cast the idea of the physical aside in order to be entirely spiritual? If without the physical aspect of our being the purpose of life could be accomplished, the soul would not have taken a physical body and the spirit would not have produced the physical world.

A Hindustani poet says, "If the purpose of creation could have been fulfilled by the angels, who are entirely spiritual, God would not have created man."

That shows that there is a great purpose to be accomplished by what is called the physical body. If the light of God could have shone directly, there would not have been a manifestation such as that of Christ. It was necessary, so to speak, that God should walk on the earth in the physical body. And the conception that the physical body is made of sin, and that this is the lowest aspect of being, will very often prove to be a mistake, for it is through this physical body that the highest and the greatest purpose of life is to be achieved. A person only calls it his physical body in ignorance; once the knowledge has come to him he begins to look upon it as the sacred temple of God.

Our experience of life through the physical body has five aspects.

Physical Experience 1: Health

• Black eyes signify sadness, depth, sentiment and assimilating power, the power of assimilating all that they see.
• Brown eyes have sentiment, kindness, constructive and protecting quality.
• Gray eyes are, again, all-assimilating and with deep insight, also exclusive.
• Blue eyes show imagination, high reach of thought, intelligence, wit, love of beauty.
• Eyes of light color have a lighter effect, dark eyes have a deeper effect.
• Green eyes are observant, intelligent, deep and indicate changing moods. They change with weather and pliable and fine.
• People with one eye different from the other have two different temperaments. That is very difficult. If they have two different temperaments, they are very difficult to deal with, because one time they are angelic and another time quite the opposite. Sometimes there may not be such a difference.

Physical vibrations depend upon the purity and energy of the body, and they can be projected through the finer organs, such as the palms of the hands, the tips of the fingers, the soles of the feet, the tongue, the cheek, the forehead, the ear, the lips, nose and eyes. The finest of all these is the eye; it is much more useful than all the other organs for it is through the eyes that the electric rays can be emitted. The nose has also an important part to perform, it being the very channel of breath. The ears can work when the healer is spiritually advanced; and the vibrations can also pass through the tips of the fingers.

When you make yourself an Akasha for God to be enshrined in, that is the only purpose for which this body was made. It was made that God might take charge of it, might be awakened in this body. By doing this one fulfills that purpose, one opens this place for God, one makes it the places for God, and says, "Now You be enshrined in this place; it belongs to You, You made it."

There are different customs in greeting, and in every custom there is some suggestion that explains some psychical meaning behind it. The Hindus greet by joining the palms of the hands, which has the significance of perfection, since the right hand represents the positive power and the left hand the negative power, and when the positive and negative are joined together this sums up in perfection. The idol of Buddha, which is worshipped by millions of people in the world, signifies perfection -- sitting cross-legged with the two palms joining, the eyes closed, all of which shows that the negative and positive powers are united and made into one. The greeting of the Chinese is the clasping of the hands, either touching the clasped hands of the other, which means that the perfection of power from both should meet.

And for the same reason the Arabs shake hands with both hands, for giving one hand is like giving half of one's magnetism, but by giving both hands you show that you keep nothing back. The Persians touch the heart, which suggests the friendly feeling expressed from the bottom of the heart, that the greeting is not merely superficial, that it comes from the very depth of feeling. Among a great many people belonging to different parts of the world there is a custom of greeting by embracing one another, and no doubt there is a great psychical meaning in this.

The two arms are the two directions of magnetic power, positive and negative, and in the breast is the center of these two powers. And the custom is that they embrace twice, distinctly on the right and left sides. This is also the exchange of Prana, the very life, the center of which is in the breast. There is a custom in Persia and in India that when a younger person greets an older one he bows his head, bringing it closer to his breast, and the elder person, taking his arms, raises him up, as if the younger person wanted from the elder person, love, light and life, and the elder person gives it to him and raises him with it. It also suggests a sentiment of modesty and humility on the part of the one, and help and encouragement on the part of the other.

Customs have sometimes been much exaggerated, and yet, if the sentiment is a true one, no external expression can ever be an exaggeration. Among people of religion and culture in all periods of civilization there has been a custom of kissing the hand. The custom has originated from a natural instinct in life. What smells good the animal wants to bite first, and everything that interests the infant it puts in its mouth first.

The physical body is a necessity for the soul to experience life in its fullness, and to attain thereby to the highest possible realization of life, just as eyes are necessary for the sense of sight to fulfill its purpose. Body is an instrument of mind, as mind is the instrument of the soul. The mind and body stand before the soul like a folding telescope in two parts held before the eyes, and although the experience gained through mind and body becomes the realization of the soul, soul still remains unstained by any experiences gained by mind and body. However, every experience is for the cause of the soul; and both mind and body remain nothing but instruments for spiritual attainment.

That shows that the lips are the most sensitive part in man and they are capable of giving and taking life, which may be called magnetism. Therefore the greatest fondness that one can show to another in greeting can be shown by kissing the hands. This custom can be seen all over the world, in the East and in the West.

The ends of the eyebrows turning upwards denotes egoism and shrewdness. The puckering of the lips suggests pleasure, as the twitching of the lips shows a tendency to humor or indicates pleasure. The rolling of the eyes or a restless movement suggests confusion. The movement of the eyes towards the outer corners denotes a clever brain. The puffing of the cheeks denotes joy, the drawing in sorrow.

The prominence of particular organs and muscles shows the vitality which exists in these organs, and lack of it is lack of energy in these organs.

• Therefore the straightness of any organ suggests straightness in the nature, and
• curve, where it is natural, shows subtlety of nature,
• a point, wherever it is natural, shows sharpness of nature,
• roundness makes for subtlety, and
• the oval form shows acute intelligence,
• proportion of head and body and of each part of the head and body shows balance, and lack of it shows lack of balance.
• Every organ represents a certain part of man's nature, that may have no connection with that organ.
• A particular mode of standing or sitting denotes a certain nature.
• Crookedness where there should be straightness shows lack of straightness in the nature.
• Organs which should be symmetrical and are not show lack of balance.

As the cleansing of a metal object produces a shine in it so is the cleansing of the heart, especially from any feeling that produces humiliation. When a person thinks, "I have been wrong by acting in a certain way," "By saying a certain thing," or "By having thought something which should not have crossed my mind," he loses, so to speak, a radiance which even beams out through his countenance and which is called in Persian Ab-i-Ru, meaning "The Radiance of the Face." Every person shows from his expression his condition of heart. Therefore the innocence of the expression is the sign of the purity of heart. Man may be clever, learned, qualified, most able, he may be strong physically or even mentally, he may be wealthy, of high rank, but none of these outside things help him to retain that glow of the countenance which depends only upon the purity of heart.

We see it in man's form. There is the spine which is the stem. The breath runs through the center of man's body, although the hands and legs and face and various organs have different directions. This central life is more important than any other part of man.

Stiffness in walking, also crookedness, is caused by self-consciousness, and sitting in a rigid position, without any flexibility, is caused by the same thing. Self-consciousness gives hardness to the expression of the lips, and it stiffens the tongue and makes the voice toneless, preventing a man from saying what he wishes to say. Self-consciousness is like a chain upon every feature and limb of the body, and in the self-conscious person there is nothing of the smoothness that should flow like a fluid through every expression of life. Its only remedy is forgetting self and putting the whole mind into work and each occupation undertaken.