Meditation On The Subtle Body

In this talk and guided meditation, we explore the subtle body, the energetic connection between body and mind, through the lens of Tibetan Buddhism. It’s part of a broader conversation we’ve been having about art, embodiment, and Buddhist practice.

Together, we’ll gently guide our awareness through the body, connect with the breath, and reflect on how our mind and body are not separate, but deeply intertwined. We’ll also explore how this energy body shows up in movement, creativity, emotion, and everyday life.

Transcript

So this is a meditation I'm calling Meditation on the Subtle Body,

And it's paired with an episode that was about my artwork and a larger series that we're doing on art and Buddhism.

And in this meditation I wanted to go over an aspect of Vajrayana Buddhism,

Which is a type of Buddhism I don't talk about that much in the podcast,

But it's actually the main Buddhism that I practice.

Most Tibetan Buddhist practitioners practice where you use certain ways of working with the body and feeling embodied that create the greatest sense of connection between you and yourself,

To just make it really clear and simple.

And in this tradition,

The easiest way to explain it is that there are three bodies that we consider that a living being can have or has,

And we also talk about enlightened beings having those bodies too,

And that's where the Vajrayana Buddhism starts to look a little more supernatural to people who aren't Buddhist.

But I'm just going to talk about a way that anybody who's not Buddhist can benefit from these ways of thinking about the connection between the body and the mind,

That Tibetan Buddhism,

Vajrayana Buddhism offers us.

So to explain it simply,

There's the idea of a physical body,

Which we can all see when we look in the mirror.

I'm seeing it right now on my camera screen.

There's the idea of a mental body,

That's our thoughts,

Feelings,

Emotions,

The immaterial aspect of ourself.

But then there's also a body that's in between,

And we call that the energy body.

Sometimes you hear it called the light body,

But that is the connection between the two.

And so I'm using that body right now as I speak,

Right?

I make a connection between my mind,

My thoughts,

And my physical body to create speech and communicate my thoughts and feelings to you.

So we're said to use that body in any time that we're connecting our body and mind,

Like in exercise is a great example.

In sensuality we use it,

When we're playing music,

Any form of creativity.

And in general it's a thing that makes us healthy,

To feel a healthy sense of connection between our body and mind.

And some of the people who might call themselves the most hardcore scientific materialists,

Even they like to wake up early and work out for an hour to create that connection themselves,

The connection between the body and the mind.

So in this meditation I'm going to just explore that idea a little bit and see if we can feel a greater connection between our body and mind.

Some of us are more physical,

Some of us feel really,

Really that we are our body and that's all we are.

And then others of us are very stuck in a world of the mind.

Robert Thurman kind of said this in the funniest way.

He said,

You know,

About academics,

He actually said it,

That many academics think of their body as something to take their brain from conference room to conference room.

So this meditation will help us avoid some of those extremes.

Meditation on the subtle body,

The energetic body,

Connection between body and mind.

So let's do the meditation.

So settle yourself first into a meditation posture.

You can do that cross-legged on the floor like I am with your seat raised,

A little cushion under your seat.

If you're in a chair,

Your legs are not crossed and you try to have your legs out and down with your feet firmly planted on the floor.

Put your hands in your lap and your thumbs touching.

I'll talk right now about a nice way of thinking about our body and mind and connecting them just through this hand gesture or hand mudra,

They call it a mudra,

Which are these gestures that enhance your meditation practice.

And so you put the right hand onto the left with your thumbs touching.

The left hand is said to represent wisdom,

Interdependence,

An understanding of the interdependent nature of reality and that we're not separate from anyone or anything.

The right hand is said to represent action,

Compassionate action,

Doing things to benefit others.

And then the thumbs touching is said to represent concentration.

And so this is one way to connect our body and mind is to actually make all of our gestures symbolic and beautiful.

You know,

As you do things during the day,

You can kind of imagine,

Like as you go upstairs,

You can think,

Oh,

You know,

I'm ascending to a higher state of consciousness,

Deeper connection with myself and others and so on.

As you're cleaning,

You know,

As you're sweeping the floor,

May I sweep away my delusions and disturbing thoughts and emotions,

Things like that.

So this way we can use our body to enhance the way we think.

So yeah,

Put your hands in your lap like that.

Leave a little room between your arms and your torso,

Which lets air circulate.

You don't get too hot that way.

Then straighten your spine,

Which is the most important part of starting to unite our body and mind.

You know,

Yoke.

Yoke is a word for connecting one thing to another,

And that's the way that we understand the word yogi.

You know,

Most of us think of a yogi as someone who does yoga,

Physical yoga practice,

But the word yogi in Buddhism,

Tibetan Buddhism,

Means to connect the body to the mind,

To yoke your mind to virtue and benefiting others and healthy ways of thinking and being.

So,

Straightening your spine helps you be a more successful yogi.

You know,

Even as you get your spine straight,

You feel your mind clarifying,

More focused.

Then relax the muscles in your shoulders,

Your neck,

That can help to kind of spin them around,

Squeeze them up and let go.

Tilt down your head,

Relax all the muscles in your face,

Your eyes.

And then they say half-closing your eyes is very helpful because you can go inward without falling asleep.

And so just feel what that's like right now.

How does your body feel?

How does your mind feel?

They feel more connected,

More at ease.

Even before we start meditating,

Just getting into meditation posture.

And then set a motivation for our meditation to become better connected with ourselves,

To connect the parts of ourselves that seem separate,

Our body and our mind and our different activities.

To feel whole.

To do that so that we have a sense of ease and confidence and strength when things are difficult.

And then think of anyone you really admire who has these qualities of seeming whole,

Seeming connected with their body and mind and healthy,

Creative,

Expressive.

When you meet great musicians or athletes and actors too,

People who seem to have this kind of ease in their body,

Dancers,

Just normal people.

Think of someone like that.

Could be a spiritual person,

An athletic person,

A creative person.

And see how nice it is to be that way.

Also how it draws people to,

You know,

There's a kind of magnetism for people that feel whole and connected to all their parts.

And then also see that that person worked at it.

They work at it every day.

Some of them work hours a day,

Taking care of their body,

Taking care of their mind,

Connecting them,

Resting,

Doing healthy things,

Having trained to be good at something and then having that joy in doing it well.

So we can become like that.

You know,

They spent big parts of their life training to be that way,

Letting go of,

You know,

Less healthy ways of being,

Cultivating the healthy ones and then refreshing it every day.

We can do that too in our own way,

Through meditation,

Exercise,

Nature,

Creativity,

Maybe a sports,

Who knows,

Whatever it is for you.

And then bring your mind to your breath.

And for one minute,

We're going to focus on our breath.

This is one of the clear,

Simplest ways of connecting your body to your mind.

You know,

What is life?

What is it that ends when we die,

You know,

When we exhale and don't inhale again?

And the breath is the strongest,

Most obvious signal of our life.

Connection of our body and mind.

And so look at it for a minute with wonder and with that sense of awe that that's my life.

That's a sign of my life.

For one minute.

And then let's move on to the meditation on our subtle body,

The connection between body and mind.

Now we can deepen that connection to feel whole.

First,

Let's ground ourselves in our body.

So bring your attention,

Your awareness,

Your consciousness,

Your mind to the top of your head.

And you can notice with your mind that when you think of a part of your body,

It's like your mind is there.

So your mind is there at the top of your head.

Let's see how that feels.

And relax there.

Send a kind of relaxing,

Warm energy there.

The crown of your head.

Even there,

You can get tight.

And then let your mind,

Your awareness,

Scan down kind of like a glowing circle around where that slice of energy touches your body.

You feel it at your eyes and ears.

Relax them.

Become aware of them.

Your nose.

How does it feel?

Relax there.

Your mouth.

Relax it.

Become aware of it.

Your neck.

Your tongue.

Your shoulders.

Become aware of them.

The energy of your mind is there.

And ask your shoulders to relax.

To be calm.

Become aware of your chest and your upper arms.

The energy of your mind touching there.

Become aware of your belly.

And if you find yourself sucking it in,

Pushing it out,

Just relax your belly.

Become aware of your seat.

Where you touch the earth.

How your body feels there.

Your thighs,

Your knees,

Your calves.

Let them relax.

Let this energy move down to your feet and toes.

Become aware of them.

Energize them.

Relax them.

Soften them.

Think of everything you know about your body that you learned in school and through reading about science,

Medicine.

What an extraordinary thing it is.

Teeming with cells and blood,

Electrical signals.

Try to see your body as this extraordinary collection of trillions of living cells.

Millions dying every second.

Millions reborn.

See your body the way we understand it to be now.

Through our understanding of science.

Try to also see your body as a collection of atoms,

Particles,

Elements that it is.

Your body is all of these things.

Ask yourself,

Is one more true than the other?

Is the macroscopic sense of being a whole person more true?

Than the sense of being many parts and organs?

Or the sense of being many cells?

Or the sense of being many molecules?

Many subatomic particles?

What are all these ways of physically being a body?

And is one more true than the other?

And what brings these particles to life?

And what makes them capable of moving,

Of sentience,

Of thoughts and feelings,

And feeling love and sadness?

Then become aware of your mind.

Just watch it and notice how thoughts,

Feelings,

Perceptions,

Memories,

Plans arise in it.

Almost on their own.

Where do they come from?

Where are they going?

For a minute,

Just watch the way you'd sit on a bench and watch people pass by.

Watch your thoughts.

Just be curious about your mind,

The contents of your mind.

And just watch what comes and goes within it without reacting,

Without pulling forward,

Without pushing away.

Then try to become aware of the space of the mind,

The place in which thoughts and feelings arise.

With curiosity,

With openness.

Does the space feel big or small?

Does it feel bright or dim?

One way,

In this tradition,

We consider the mind when we look directly at it.

The mind looking at the mind is that it's clear and knowing.

Try to look at the mind this way,

That it has a clarity in which anything can arise.

But the way that something arises in a mirror,

In the first moment of perception,

Where you don't have a name,

You don't have labels or parts.

And then there's knowing,

A way that we perceive experience.

Clear and knowing.

Just meditate on that for a moment.

However,

Those two ideas manifest in your mind.

Clear and knowing.

And so we now might feel a little detached from our body this way.

It might be a nice feeling,

Actually.

Still,

It might also feel detached.

So,

Now try to imagine a body in the same place as yours,

Made of mind.

That where your body is now,

There's a skin of light,

A shell,

Made of what we've just been meditating on,

Clarity,

Awareness,

Forming in the shape of yourself.

Still,

Weightless,

Energetic,

Energized.

And see how there's some way that our mind connects to our body that is quite mysterious,

That science doesn't even yet understand.

How does a thought turn to movement?

A thought to move our hand,

Moves our hand to speak,

And we speak.

How mind can control matter.

So,

Feel this again now through your breath,

Because you're breathing.

That's a connection between the body and mind.

Feel the other parts of your body,

Your chest rising,

Your shoulders suddenly rising and falling,

Your hands in your lap,

Made of light,

Energized.

Feeling a strong connection between subtle aspect of your mind and your body,

Made of light.

Imagine yourself speaking,

And how that's an expression of a mind moving through the body.

Imagine smiling.

In fact,

Try it right now.

And you see that goes kind of backwards,

Because,

Like Thich Nhat Hanh says,

Sometimes happiness is the cause of our smile,

And sometimes a smile is the cause of our happiness.

And see how a smile becomes a cause of happiness?

As you move your body seemingly mechanically into a smile,

You actually feel happy.

Imagine petting your dog or cat,

If you have one,

Or hugging your partner,

Your child,

Someone you care about.

Feel that strong connection between body and mind.

Why does it feel so nice to hug someone,

To be hugged?

Because it unites our body and mind.

We feel whole.

Think of yourself exercising,

However you do.

Just walking,

And if that's all you do,

Imagine yourself walking through the street or the forest.

Or running,

Or doing yoga,

Working out in a gym,

Playing baseball,

Surfing.

Whatever form of exercise you do,

Even if it's just walking,

Imagine yourself doing that now,

Totally absorbed in it and happy.

Imagine that body as that light energy body that you're embodying right now.

Imagine other things you do with your body that make you feel whole,

If you play music,

If you create art,

If you dance.

Sexuality.

Think of the other ways in which your body connects to your mind,

And imagine your body made of light,

Energized,

Whole,

In that state,

In those states.

And then come back again and rest on the seat in the sense of being a light body,

An energy body,

Deeply connected,

Your body and mind,

Feeling whole.

And then as we ease out of the meditation,

Try to maintain the sense of that energy body.

That is your body.

Feel connected,

Feel yoked to yourself,

Your body,

Your mind,

Your energy,

Your creativity,

Your kindness,

Your compassion,

Your love.

See if you can take this sense of an energized body,

A whole body,

One that's not disconnected,

Deeply connected,

Body and mind,

Through the energy body.

Imagine taking it,

When you end this meditation,

Up,

You stand up,

And move on through the rest of your day,

Always feeling that sense of connection between body,

Mind,

Energy,

Creativity,

Expression,

And love.