Life as Cinema

 The players in this cinema do look more real than this bundle of impressions within. They speak, but they speak from a unified place. I can identify their bodies as distinctly real. And when I look in the mirror, I can see that there is this body that can be said to put together all the various impressions. Without that sense of the body, one might not feel so real.

   But when I start to recognize that I am not a single body experience--I am the sum of all these impressions, not just the body--then I stop trying so hard to control what happens to the body, knowing that I am not the body. This is something of a relief! Spending all my time taking care of a body that is bound to suffer the bouts of decay, illness, tiredness, etc. can be a draining experience, and can at times lead to a sense of defeat. So the idea that I am not my body is quite liberating in itself.

    But this would not mean that I neglect the body. Instead, it becomes a tool. I use that tool to be able to get things done and to work, but it's not something I need assign success/failure to. In this sense, I can let go of the egoic attachment to the body.