The Transparent Body: Reclaim Your Emotional Freedom

What if the key to emotional freedom isn't found in managing your thoughts, but in reclaiming your relationship with the sensations in your body? This isn't another body scan meditation—this is a profound exploration into the "fifth sense" that distinguishes your body from all others, and how mastering this internal experience can transform your relationship with anger, fear, anxiety, and every emotion that has been running your life without your consent.

In this guided exploration, we dive deep into the transparency of the physical body—not as a visual experience, but as a pure field of sensations. You'll discover how the same internal antenna that communicates hunger, thirst, and tiredness also carries anger, jealousy, and fear. More importantly, you'll learn how to reclaim your agency over these sensations instead of being controlled by them.

Transcript

For today's meditation,

I insist that we keep our eyes closed for the entire duration of the session.

The flavour of today's meditation is so different that trying to multitask will not give us the true experience,

A possibility of insight.

So whether you like it or not,

Whether you agree or not,

Let's close our eyes.

This series of meditations is similar to going to a gym.

Although we won't be lifting any weights or doing any cardio,

It will still feel like an endurance sport.

This is a series of discovering the transparency of our body,

Our physical body.

We experience our physical body in and as a combination of multiple senses.

For instance,

We see our body,

Not our complete body of course.

We see some parts of our body and when I say see,

I mean directly,

Not through a camera or in a mirror or as a reflection of any sorts.

Directly perceiving the body,

We can see our torso,

Our legs,

Our hands.

We can't see our face,

We can't see the back of our body,

Some parts of it.

We can hear our body,

Like right now I can hear my body,

The words coming out from my body,

I can hear it.

Of course,

I can smell my body as well.

I can also,

I also know my body through touch.

So take your right hand and touch your left hand,

Your wrist,

Touch your right knee.

Notice how you are sensing your body through touch.

Now,

Here's the catch,

You can see,

Hear,

Smell and touch your body,

But you can't but you can also see,

Hear,

Smell and touch someone else's body.

And those experiences of seeing,

Hearing,

Smelling and touching are very similar.

What makes this body seem like your body and not someone else's body is the fifth way of experiencing it.

That is beyond the sense perception,

The four sense perception of seeing,

Hearing,

Smelling and touching.

That is the internal experience of your body.

The way you and I distinguish our personal bodies from the other ones is through this internal experience of our body that allegedly tells us that this is mine,

That is not mine.

This belongs to me,

That is someone else's body.

What do I mean by this internal experience of the body?

The sensations that we feel without touching,

As if we are feeling it underneath our skin.

For instance,

Your eyes are closed,

But see if you can feel your face,

Feel your nose,

Feel your nose,

Your forehead,

Your eyelids,

See if you can feel your shoulders.

You don't have to touch any part of your body,

You just have to take your attention and see if you can sense it,

If you can feel your left knee,

Your left foot.

Internal experience of body is a very important instrument that we almost always never consciously think about.

But this internal experience of our body controls almost everything we do on a daily basis,

The sensation of hunger,

The sensation of thirst,

The sexual urges,

They are all felt and sensed in our body and accordingly we act.

All this is sensed without touching,

Without smelling,

Tasting,

Hearing,

Seeing,

But it is felt,

All these are felt inside our body as an internal experience of the body.

And this internal experience of the body is an important instrument,

It's like an antenna that we communicate with the rest of the world and the rest of the world communicates with us,

Whatever we cannot touch is sensed inside,

That's why we are spending all our time today only becoming familiar with this internal sense of our body.

And the reason this exploration is pivotal in the exploration of peace,

Happiness in daily life is because just like hunger,

Thirst is felt,

Is sensed and we do something about it,

Anger,

Jealousy,

Fear,

Insecurity,

Hopelessness,

Anxiety are all felt inside the body as well.

If we were animals,

The survival and reproductive instincts would be controlled by nature without us having any say over it,

But because we have this freedom that even if we have to go to the bathroom and we are driving on a highway,

We can hold it until we take an exit.

We have freedom over our sensations,

But somehow in our daily hustle we have become so disconnected from our body that we have lost this agency on our sensations.

When the rest of the universe communicates with us and anger is triggered,

We react.

We react in multitude of ways,

Hurting ourselves,

Others.

When fear is triggered,

We react in ways that hurts us or others.

In short,

We suffer our feelings.

We suffer these sensations without really understanding what they are,

Where they are.

So,

This series is an aim to reclaim the understanding of our feelings,

Of our sensations and to reclaim our freedom,

Our agency over them.

In order to lead a peaceful life,

We need two kinds of understanding.

One is the thinking understanding that lays the foundation of how we think,

How we interpret it,

What is happening inside,

What is happening outside,

About how things are,

How you are.

And then there is feeling understanding,

About living the thinking understanding.

We all have understood a lot of things in our life,

But when it comes to feeling it,

Feeling it,

Living it,

We find immense difficulty because as a society,

We have been encouraged to pedestalize our minds,

Our thoughts,

Our thinking understanding to the point of inflicting violence on our own bodies,

Mind over matter,

They say.

And we can all see where it has gotten us.

There will be very little thinking that we do in these sessions.

Even if it doesn't make sense,

I invite you to consider it.

Be open to letting your heart decide whether what I'm describing is your experience or not.

It doesn't matter whether you like it or not,

You agree with it or not,

Whether it makes sense or not.

All we care about is whether it is true or not.

Because our eyes are closed,

We cannot really see our body.

So when I'm guiding you through different parts of the body,

It is only to direct your attention.

The moment you understand my words,

I want you to let go of the description.

Because in the internal experience of the body,

There is no visual.

The only visualizing agent,

Your eyes are closed.

So you cannot really see anything.

And that's the whole point.

To not see our body,

But to feel our body.

And because we have been so used to visualizing things,

That the mind will come up with images of our body from memory.

Of what an elbow looks like,

What a knee looks like,

What your head looks like.

I want you to let go of this imagery.

They are not our current experience of the body.

Our current experience of the body,

With eyes closed,

Without referring to any past experience,

Is only the sensation that we experience.

That is the internal experience of the body.

For instance,

I want you to raise your right hand.

And I want you to feel your palm without touching it.

Let go of this image that your fingers are stretched out,

What height your hand is at.

But just stay true to your current experience of the body,

Of this right hand and feel the palm.

Feel it from the inside.

Feel the fingers.

Wiggle the fingers.

Notice that this wiggle is a flow of sensations.

You can't really see it.

Let go of this imagination of what it must be like and stay true to these sensations.

That is an example of the internal experience of the body without visualization.

And if you are feeling a little discomfort or pain because of raising your hand,

Notice that the pain itself is an internal experience.

It is merely sensations.

Gently put your right hand in your lap and sit extremely relaxed.

Become aware of your left foot.

If it is touching the ground or your sofa or your chair,

Notice that the only way you will know that it's touching something is through a dense field of sensations in that particular area.

Let go of any imagery and just let the sensations be seen.

Let them come out of the closet,

So to speak.

Become aware of your left calf,

Left shin,

Left ankle and notice the sensations.

It might be tiny vibrations.

It might be throbbing.

It might be heat sensation.

Become aware of your left knee,

Left thigh,

Left inner thigh,

Left butt cheek,

Your entire left leg.

As your attention is going up and down your leg,

Those sensations are emphasized.

Become aware of your right foot.

Wiggle your right toes.

Notice any density as your right foot touches the floor or the sofa.

At this point,

There is no sofa or there is no ground.

There are only dense sensations.

Become aware of your right calf,

Right shin,

Right ankle.

Become aware how they are coming to life through these tiny vibrating sensations.

Your right knee,

Right thigh,

Right inner thigh,

Right butt cheek,

Your entire right leg.

Become aware of your hips and notice the dense cloud of sensations where your hip touches the floor or the sofa or the chair.

If you have tightened your butt cheeks,

Notice the tightness.

Become aware of your genitals,

Your abdomen.

Lose the imagery and be purely with your sensations.

Let the stomach area become alive as you take your attention to it.

Feel the bulging and deflating of the stomach as you breathe in and out.

Feel the back of your stomach,

Your lower back.

Feel the middle of your back,

Middle of your rib cage,

Below the chest.

Feel your chest as sensations.

Even the movement,

The rise and fall of the chest as you breathe in and out is merely known as sensations.

Take your attention to your upper back,

Your left shoulder,

Your right shoulder,

Your right arm,

Your left right elbow,

Your right wrist and palm.

Whatever your right arm is resting on,

Feel the density of the sensations there.

Notice that all you can feel is a giant cloud of sensations where your arm and your hand is touching the rest of the body.

Take your attention to your left shoulder,

Left arm,

Left elbow,

Left wrist and palm,

Throat and neck,

Your lips,

The inside of your mouth,

Your tongue,

Your nose,

Your cheeks.

Your eyes,

Your left ear,

Your right ear,

Forehead,

The back of your head,

The top of your head.

Lose any and all directionality and stay true to this giant amorphous cloud of sensations of no particular size,

Of no particular shape,

Of no particular color.

No particular gender,

No particular age.

Nothing can be gleaned from these sensations except the vibrating sensations.

Just like when we stand underneath a shower,

A cold shower,

It wakes up every cell in our body through its touch.

Just by mere looking,

All these sensations have come alive,

Dancing,

While you are the eye of the storm.

You are the center of this dance.

Everything is vibrating in and around you.

You are the space in which this dance is occurring.

Thank you.