Living a Short Distance From Your Body
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One of my favorite lines from college freshman English literature is still etched in my mind. It is James Joyce’s novel The Dubliners and reads, “Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body.” Mr. Duffy was a one-dimensional bureaucrat who lives an unattractively plain, colorless life. He represents the post-modern everyman: cut off from his feelings, defined by rules and protocols, and lacking purpose and meaningful connections.
Buddhist practice is often characterized as being completely rational and firmly implanted in “reality” (whatever that word might mean to you). The popular image is that it leaves no room for sensitivity. There are many people who self-identify as Buddhists of one sort or another that live in their heads finding the distance to their bodies a long walk. In classes I’ll sometimes ask a student how far away he is from his feet. I often get an answer like “five and a half feet or so” as if his feet were not part of him. If not trained this is the same student might later spout things like “there is no body” possibly meaning “there is nobody.” A subtle difference of language, a big difference of somatics.
Of the 7 types of devotees that find liberation, the first mentioned is the faith devotee, while the last is the wisdom devotee. All attain liberation through their respective approaches to reality as it is. A huge part of that reality is compassion, the desire to relieve humanity and other beings from their “suffering.”
It seems weird, at least to me, that the practice of the four sublime abodes—friendliness, joyful sympathy, compassion, and even equanimity, as described in the Suttas & Sutras—could be practiced without “feeling;” ie, emotion. Without emotion we become apathetic, and that is one of the hindrances that keep us from being awakened.
From a somatic point of view living any distance from our bodies is dangerous and the consequences harmful, even grave. Technological advances in the field of neuroscience demonstrates that distancing ourselves from our body places not only our physical health at risk, but our emotional health as well. Being out of touch with our sensate life limits our capacity to learn and dramatically reduces the possibility of authentic, meaningful relationships, one of the foundations of practice, Kalyāṇamittatā.
Somatics, defined as the unity of feeling, acting, and spirituality, traditionally focuses on the individuals’ physical and emotional health. Numerous forms of bodywork, movement therapies, and body oriented psychotherapies have emerged under the broad heading of somatics. It’s good work, it’s growing, and many are helped by it. May it continue. May it thrive.
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