Is Body-Mind-Spirit All Baloney?

Buddha was a smart dude, no question.

2,500 years later and we're still following Gautama's lead - so why did he see the "whole Self" so differently from the way we do today?

Is the contemporary Body-Mind-Spirit way of thinking just a big load of baloney?

Buddha's way to break us down was to say: Body-Speech-Mind. 

Watch all three, and you're OK. "Speech" is so much easier to grasp than "spirit" or "soul". It's a better working model.

(As a point in fact, Buddha said we have no soul – which is probably why "spirit" doesn't make the grade for him. All we have inside, he said, is the arising of a reaction to what just happened. Our whole life is a "happening" – no wonder the hippies loved Gautama so much!)

Speech is what you say, and people's lives have been crushed by speech. Through accusations, insults, rejections, revelations, and so on: 

Words Matter.

Helen Keller – who was born blind, deaf and consequently without speech – was depicted in "The Miracle Worker" in a pivotal moment as she realized that the cold, slimy feeling on her hand was represented by the sound "water." 

In "The Story of My Life" she told us how the world finally appeared to her.

Before Helen knew "water" as speech --> no world.
After Helen knew "water" as speech --> a world appeared.

In the film - once she got "water" - she frantically went about asking for the sounds that represented all the objects and experiences she had been having. And then it turned out – she was not dumb, she could speak. She started to do that, eventually becoming the first deaf/blind person to gain a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Which goes to show: how vital your speech is.

Which goes to show: you can't think a thing until you can say it.

Which goes to show: you better be darn careful about the words that you say.

In America at the moment, there is a considerable palaver about "racist" tweets (words) from the current Occupant of the White House. Words matter to people because they indicate how you think.

If you are still using words like inhibition, primary control and faulty sensory perception – it's time for an update. And even if you're not, it's easy to get stuck in groves with staid old language. At BodyChance, I have been evolving our use of terms for 20 years – just hearing a new way of explaining the work is the kind of refresh that can recharge your teaching.

Join me, Lucia Walker, Sharyn West and a team of BodyChance teachers at our Golden Week Residential close to Mt Fuji for the first five days of May. Email back if you're interested in signing up…

Here's a video about it:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvykdYrq0oNxo7oUaGT1S5w