We Are More Than Our Bodies
by Robert Meagher on 07/10/13
One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.
Ramana Maharshi
On an intellectually level I have accepted for quite some time that we are more than our bodies. Only recently, however, have I come to known this through experience.
Almost a year ago today my beloved partner was rushed to the hospital to undergo emergency surgery to repair a strangulated bowel. As our eight-day hospital odyssey came to a close, my partner asked me one day how much sleep I had over the previous days. I had not thought much about such things. When your loved ones are fighting for their lives, our own personal needs have a tendency to sink into the background.
I had been journaling extensively during my stay with him in the hospital and I was able to trace back over the previous days to answer my partner’s question. Much to my amazement, over one 96-hour stretch (4 days), I got a total of eight hours sleep—broken up into 30-minute or one-or two-hour naps. In addition, during that 96-hour period, I had nothing to eat for a 24-hour stretch.
Under normal circumstances, I would have collapsed from physical exhaustion. To go with so little sleep over a four-day period, and with so little food during one 24-hour period during that time, was something I had never experienced before in my life.
I am used to being in bed by 10pm each night and up between 5:30 – 6:00am each morning. I can only remember two nights in the previous five years where I reluctantly stayed up past midnight (and both occasions were to ring in the New Year with my partner and other friends). I am quasi-hypoglycemic and eat at regular intervals throughout the day. My Maritime routes have bred a healthy appetite in me.
Somehow, some way, during my partner’s hospitalization I was able to go with very little sleep and, in some cases, very little food. And what was even more surprising, to me, was that as I was going through the experience I was aware I had very little sleep and food. Even though I was tired, I felt full of energy. I knew I was not up for one of my usual workouts at the pool, gym or yoga studio, but I was full of whatever energy I needed to caregive for my partner.
Much of the literature on such experiences suggests that after the traumatic period is over (however long that may be), the caregiver often ‘crashes’ for several days as a means to recoup or regain their strength and vitality. I had no such experience. On the Friday night my partner returned home, I was in bed at my usual time, had a great night sleep, rose the next morning and in the ensuing days slowly got back into my daily routine, including ministry efforts, spiritual self-care, and physical self-care regime (which includes swimming, weight/resistance training, long-distance walking and yoga).
The experience made me realize we are more than our bodies. Science cannot fully explain how I was able to do what I did over that 96-hour period. Adrenalin? Perhaps; but that’s not the whole story.
Of the cornucopia of spiritual practice I invite into my life, I am a devout student of A Course in Miracles (ACIM). I turned to ACIM in asking… “What is it that keeps us going, that gives us the energy/life we need in times of crisis?” The ACIM Workbook for Students lesson 50 gave me my answer…
I am sustained by the Love of God. Here is the answer to every problem that will confront you, today and tomorrow and throughout time. In this world, you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, “protective” clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the “right” people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers.
All these things are your replacements for the Love of God. All these things are cherished to ensure a body identification. They are songs of praise to the ego. Do not put your faith in the worthless. It will not sustain you.
Only the Love of God will protect you in all circumstances. It will lift you out of every trial, and raise you high above all the perceived dangers of this world into a climate of perfect peace and safety. It will transport you into a state of mind that nothing can threaten, nothing can disturb, and where nothing can intrude upon the eternal calm of the Son of God.
Put not your faith in illusions. They will fail you. Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; eternal, changeless and forever unfailing. This is the answer to whatever confronts you today. Through the Love of God within you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort and in sure confidence. Tell yourself this often today. It is a declaration of release from the belief in idols. It is your acknowledgement of the truth about yourself.
In love, gratitude, compassion and forgiveness…
Shanti, Namaste, Agapé
