The Body as Avatar

Yesterday I wrote about my growing practice of living in stereo by being present in earthly and spirit worlds simultaneously, and I suggested how Ego is tied to the body and earthly life, and how Ego grounds me in the earthly world and crowds out my connection to the spirit world. Here I will delve further into my relationship to my body—from a spirit perspective—in case it helps you to reconsider your relationship to your body and ego. I have created a lot of joy and freedom through these relationships.

The Body as a Vessel for Spirit

As I discussed in On Being Incarnate, I regard my earthly life as Christopher Shawn Rollyson from the perspective of me as a spirit that is probably timeless. I imagine that my spirit is not bounded by the earthly dimensions of time or space, so it can see everything and be anywhere, but this ability is very constrained when one is incarnated. I have created my relationship to my spirit by detaching myself from Ego, who is like the sun in my earthly life; he easily outshines Spirit because he is so big and bright and important: from the perspective of being incarnate, I imagine body and Ego to be more essential than Spirit. Body is the default, and Spirit is deprecated during incarnation; however, I am learning that there is no need to choose, one can learn how to live both channels.

So my spirit transcends my life as Christopher Shawn Rollyson. It is temporarily domiciled within my body, which is attached to my birth time, place, family, and culture. Whether or not this is “true in fact” is beside the point because having that perspective enables me to watch my life and direct it as if it were true. So Spirit is kind of like the movie director. And my earthly self is the actor, the protagonist. I am directing the movie while playing in it, which may be more complicated, but I experience it as very rich. It frees me to interact with people and the universe more freely and completely.

I see my body as my vehicle or avatar for this life, and I understand it as a second house relationship (like a very precious vehicle, i.e. movable property ;^). So I care for it and appreciate it. It is the physical manifestation of my spirit in this life, and I am grateful to it for enabling me to act on the earthly stage, to relate to earthly people (like you!) in normal earthly ways.

Body and Ego Desires

At the same time, my body inherits all kinds of desires and concerns that come with being incarnate, and my spirit’s relationship to it enables me to have a graceful attitude towards its love for food, warmth, lovemaking, cuddling, being vigorous, being recognized, etc. Note that these things also underlie Ego’s main concerns and preoccupations with so-called material things, which really serve these basic emotional desires. This is why I hypothesize that Ego is a servant of the body; I note that animals also have egos, and I think for the same reason.

This brings us to the main point, the gold within this relationship between Spirit and body/Ego. As I discussed in On Being Incarnate, Ego and body are exceptionally powerful to people who are incarnated. Ego is about itself, often at the expense of other people, animals, Earth, etc. It represents very strong drives, so it is often difficult to deal with when one regards its drives from a social or spiritual perspective.

By being grounded in Spirit, I have developed a more detached relationship to Ego, so I can observe his desires and negotiate with him about fulfilling them. I think that the key point, though, is loving, appreciating, and understanding Ego and body, within the context of themselves as well as Spirit (“higher self”). My ability to love them is grounded in gratitude: I am grateful for my body as vehicle because it lets me act in earthly terms, and I quite like that.

Love and gratitude enable me to appreciate Ego’s desires and fears, to observe them and not be threatened by them. Since I am not threatened, I need not assume a punitive stance toward them. Many religious teachers and organizations adopt punitive attitudes towards “bodily desires” and regard them as evil/work of the devil, etc. My experience with psychology shows that demonizing and repressing are generally ineffective for helping people change their behavior. I know they are ineffective for me. I find that it is much better for me to keep things in the open.

A Relationship Grounded in Love

I don’t think this relationship between Spirit and body/Ego would work for me if I hadn’t discovered how to love and appreciate my body and Ego. To me, love means caring and understanding someone/thing in terms of him/her/itself. Ego loves people and things within his context; he often doesn’t see others in terms of themselves. So I can see Ego’s pursuit of material and emotional things, and appreciate how important they are for survival, for remaining incarnated longer.

By the way, I do not mean “worshiping my body” as espoused by many fitness/wellness/nutrition gurus. This expression feels to me as being grounded in ego, not spirit, and it often has a fetishizing element to it. I mean loving and appreciating body and Ego for what they mean to me, how they enable Spirit to live and interact in this incarnated life.

By detaching from Ego, one ceases to be Ego. I imagine that this is a hallmark of the Dark Night process; I know it has been for me. Since I have detached, I can have a seventh house relationship to Ego. I can talk with him and negotiate with him. I can explain Spirit’s point of view on the topic we are negotiating. I have a give and take relationship with him.

One favorite examples of spirit and ego in relationship is Mozart’s/Schikaneder’s The Magic Flute, which juxtaposes Tamino (spirit orientation) and Papageno (body).