Understanding the Body as an Instrument of I
UNDERSTANDING THE BODY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF ” I “
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(” I ” being the Seer, Doer, and Enjoyer)
1. ” I ” am. The ” Body ” is.
- ” T ” knows I exist. I am a conscious/sentient entity.
- The ” Body ” doesn’t know. It is a material entity.
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2. ” I want to live. The ” Body ” is my instrument.
- ” I ” and my ” Body ” co-exist with each other. ยท
- ” I ” takes decisions and the ” Body ” acts accordingly.
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3. ” 1 ” want to live in Continuous Happiness. For my happiness, the Body needs Physical Facilities.
- For the ” I ” to enjoy the feelings of Strength and Health, my body needs food. To get the feeling of protection, my body needs clothing and shelter.
- To utilize my Body (Right Utilization of the body), I need various instruments, equipment, etc. With the help of these, my body can make me feel happy.
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4. My (I ‘) program for Continuous Happiness is to understand and live in harmony at all four levels. To fulfill my (I) program of achieving Continuous Happiness, the Body is provided with Physical Facilities.
- Ensuring Physical Facilities to the body consist of Production, Protection, and Right Utilization
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Examples: Producing Wheat, Protecting the wheat from extreme climate and pests, Right Utilization through proper consumption like avoiding wastage, etc.
- Today, we have ignored the ” I “, we know only of the existence of the ” Body ” and we are only aiming at having more and more Physical Facilities. These facilities do not ensure good health, happiness, or the right understanding of ” T “. Hence we should all pay urgent attention to including the program for ” T “.
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Problems that are created by having Desires, Thoughts, and Expectations on the Basis of Pre-Conditioning
When our activities are not guided by our natural acceptance, then they are guided by preconditioning and sensations. Preconditioning means we have assumed something about our desires on the basis of prevailing notions about them. We have not verified the desires in our own right. As a result, we are not clear about what we will get out of the fulfillment of that desire. What is the issue with that? Unless we verify our desires, we may not even know whether they are ours! We may end up spending an entire lifetime accumulating desires that are not ours, and running about trying to fulfill them!
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The sensation is a perception associated with the stimulation of a sense organ or with a specific body: condition: the sensation of heat; a visual sensation. We go into conflicts when our activities are not guided by our natural acceptance.
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Conflicts and Contradictions in ‘ I ‘ as a result of Pre – conditioned Desire
We have not verified the desires, thoughts, and expectations in us on the basis of our own natural acceptance. As a result, these desires, thoughts, and selections are in conflict. Since the desires are in conflict, the thoughts they give rise to, are also in conflict and in turn, the selection from the thoughts is also in conflict. This conflict affects us in different manners:
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- Wavering aspirations: Our goals keep shifting as the inputs from the outside also keep changing. Our desires thus keep shifting, because their source is outside and these preconditioned desires may come from what we read, see, hear, from media, friends, society, etc. hence, we are always wavering in what we want; we are not able to be certain about it.
- Lack of confidence: Since our desires are shaky, we are not sure about them. As a result, we ourselves with others in order to feel confident. we lack self-confidence, in the true sense. Our confidence seems relative i.e. we keep comparing.
- Unhappiness/conflicts: Since our desires, thoughts, and expectations are in conflict, they conflict with our natural acceptance and become the cause of our unhappiness, leading to stress and tension. Such desires will also be in conflict with our natural acceptance.
- Lack of qualitative improvement in us: We focus largely on fulfilling the needs of the body. As a result, we live with a sense of lack of fulfillment. We are doing many things, accumulating a lot, and progress on paper, but we don’t feel that we have improved, that we have become better. It seems that only the things around us are changing!
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A. State of resignation: Because we do not understand ourselves properly and have contradictions within, we slowly start getting disillusioned (pleasant but mistaken beliefs). We feel that there are no solutions to these issues, and end up in a state of resignation.
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B. Short-lived nature of pleasure from sensations: The pleasure obtained from sensations is short-lived. We have so much dependent on sensations that instead of giving us some sensory pleasure, it becomes the source of our happiness. This can be understood as follows:
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The external object is temporary in nature contact of the external object with the body is temporary in nature. The sensation from the body to ‘ I ‘ is temporary. And at last, the taste of the sensation from the body in ‘ I ‘ is also temporary. Therefore, if the source of our happiness is temporary by definition, then our need for continuous happiness will never be fulfilled. Hence, any sensation we have from the body can’t be the source of our lasting happiness.
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To sum up, if our desires, thoughts, and expectations are based on pre – conditionings, we are generally in a state of great confusion. This leads to confusion, unhappiness, conflict, and stress. We lack clarity about the self, relationships, society, nature, and existence. We have a lack of confidence. We have a feeling of being unfulfilled, and unsettled. We operate largely on the basis of the environment, driven from the outside – either from sensations or based on preconditioning.
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I am the Seer, I am the Doer and I am the Enjoyer
I am the Seer: Behind all our activities of our Seeing, Understanding, Doing, and Enjoying is a feeling of ” I – ness ” with which we identify ourselves. Every human being actually participates in a number of such activities every day. In all these activities, the body acts only as an instrument. It is the ” I ” that sees or understands something.
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For e.g.: Our eyes and cars act as instruments that help us to see or listen to anything. They do not convey any information. It is the ” I ” that understands what it has seen or listened to. ” Seer ” also means the one who understands. Hence I am the Seer (Drasta).
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I am the Doer: Once I have seen and understood something, I decide what I should / should not do. I take the help of my body parts to accomplish the task I want to do. For e.g.: I use my hands to write, my legs to walk, etc. My body works as per the instructions given to me.
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Hence I am the Doer and I express my actions via my body. Doer means ” one who does ” or ” the one who takes decisions to do something “. Hence I am the Doer (Karta).
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I am the Enjoyer: I use my body as an instrument to perform various activities. It is I who enjoy the pleasure derived from those activities. For e.g.: the mouth helps to chew and the tongue to taste, but I enjoy the taste and flavor. I am the one feeling excited, angry, sad, happy, etc. my body is only one instrument. Enjoyer means ” one who enjoys “, Hence I am the Enjoyer (Bhokta).
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