Our Human Body, The Universe, & Finding Home

     "In the Vajrayana traditions of Tibet, in the yoga traditions of India, in Taoist meditation in Taoist yoga, and elsewhere in world religions, the human body, and the totality of the universe, are equivalent realities, only in a different scale. To put it in another way, the human body (microcosm) is the reality of the totality of the universe (macrocosm), with all of the space, all of the eventfulness, all of the energy, all of the vast display, only happening in a different frame of reference, a different scale – the scale of the human body. 
     When we do somatic descent, it’s very important that we have this understanding. At the end of the day, the ultimate mysteries, the ultimate sacredness, the ultimate power, the ultimate immeasurable expanse of the universe is actually present in our human body. Now we can say that these are equivalent realities happening on a different scale, but there’s one way in which they’re not equivalent, and that is that we don’t have direct access to the infinity of the universe. But we do have access to the infinity of the universe in our body. So the external universe can only be known by observation, measurement, deduction, and we’re very reliant on scientific technologies to know about the universe in its most expansive extent. But within the human body, we are given the opportunity to experience those very same cosmic realities through direct experience, through the non-conceptual experience of our body. ...
     What we’re saying here is that when we breathe into the lower belly (hara or dan tien), and we discover the space – the empty, open, vast space – that is the source of our life, in our lower belly, we feel this is me. This is really me. And when we bring that energy up and we uncover it, discover it in the central channel, we feel this is my core. If I’ve been wondering my whole life who I am, and if I have been looking my whole life for my identity as a person, my ultimate identity that will be unshakable in the face of any storms and any onslaughts, we feel, we experience, that this is me. It’s probably one of the deepest experiences of human life. This is who I am. This is who I’ve always been. And we see that it’s indestructible, and it’s neither born, nor dies. 
     This experience of our eternal aspect, again it’s not abstract, and it’s not theoretical. It’s one of the most intimate, personal, affecting experiences you can ever have in your life. Once you discover that space in your own body, in your lower belly, and in your central channel, and you see for yourself, in terms of your own experience, that this is who you are. It gives you a different foundation for your living."

       Reginald A. Ray “Somatic Descent.” Sounds True, 2016. 
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Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com