Let me continue from where I stopped during the previous part (1.a). I had been looking at each part of my body, appreciating the contours and beauty of each part, chiseled by the master craftsman. Now it is time that I own up my body as it is, and not as I would have loved it to be. I have very little power or option to change the way I have been created (and even the best of plastic surgeons may not be able to give an original appearance to my body, as I have been created!), but it would do me good to accept my body as I behold it here and now, with all its proportions, shapes, and contours. Let me accept my body as it is, without wishing anything to be different from what it is!
I would like to apply the Ignatian application of the senses contemplation to “commune” with my body as I behold it here and now! I had already completed the first part of the contemplation, seeing each part of my body; now let me listen to my body, let me listen to every little sound that my body makes; the heartbeat, the heaving of my chest, the breathing in and out, the knuckles, the movement of different parts of the body… let me listen to my body. What does it say to me? Let me run down my body from top to bottom listening to each part, and maybe even in the stillness of their being, they may be telling me something profound; maybe the muscles may ask me to release them, the chest may wish to breathe in and breathe out at its own pace… Let me pay close attention to their “speech”.
I have almost forgotten how I smell? It is not that I have to smell my body only when I wear some fragrance or body spray; everybody has its own odour, and scientists may call this pheromones, which are supposedly responsible for love attractions, all that I am interested in here is to be aware of how I smell. Am I comfortable with the body odour of my self, or do I hate it, and wish to cover it up with an artificial body spray? The next phase of the exercise is to taste how my body is; new-borns and toddlers do it spontaneously. When toddlers suck their thumbs, what they do is taste their body, though Sigmund Freud would have a different explanation. Let me lick different parts of my body and see for me how I taste!
The last part of this exercise is to feel my body as it is; to be alert and conscious of what is happening to my body; if I am not going to be conscious of what is happening to my body, then who can? Let me close my eyes, and lying on the floor on my back (in savasana – dead body posture), legs spread apart, and both the hands about 10 inches from the hip… let me become conscious of each part of my body, and let me enter into a dialogue with each of them! What do they have to tell me here and now? Let me release every form of pain or tension and uneasiness, and relax all the muscles. Let me not hold any tension within, but leave them all slowly and joyously.
When I have relaxed my entire body, I might fall asleep, but I would appeal to my body not to fall asleep, and sure enough the body would respond to my appeal positively. There is no obedient subordinate to me than my own body. I continue to lie on my back in savasana position. Now following the exercise by Anthony De Mello, considering myself as dead, and my body placed before others, let me see how different persons respond to this body. Let me look at this body as if I am a third person; look how different persons look at the body. Let me listen to what they say, what they do. Is there anything which is striking to me in the way how they treat my body? Let me stay for a while looking at my body… Then I would be ready to enter into the third phase of the day’s journey inward!
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