1 Corinthians 12:12-14: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.
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The Diamond Sutra states that there is no self, no human being, no living being, and no lifespan. Its longer name is The Diamond that Cuts Through Illusion because it cuts through these four illusory concepts of self, human being, living being, and lifespan. For example, we don’t think of magnesium as a living being, but listen to what the National Institute of Health says, “Magnesium is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. It helps to maintain normal nerve and muscle function, supports a healthy immune system, keeps the heartbeat steady, and helps bones remain strong. It also helps regulate blood glucose levels and aid in the production of energy and protein.” Is not magnesium a member of the body?
Imagine if there was an immense interstellar vacuum that could be programmed to just suck up certain elements. Imagine that it came to Earth, sucked up all the magnesium into its interstellar vacuum bag, and shipped it off to Neptune. Immediately, you and I would die. There would be no human beings. Our lives would cease to exist. Magnesium is essential to all cellular life. Our bodies are not just fingers and toes, eyeballs and lungs, a heart, liver, blood, and skin. Our bodies are also magnesium and iron and oxygen and so much more.
Biologically, you have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents, etc. Do you know what your maternal grandmother’s grandmother looked like? I have a single photograph of my maternal grandmother’s mother from Czechoslovakia in the early 1900s, but I have no idea what her mother looked like. Few of us have any idea how our maternal great-great-grandmother looked, but, still, try to imagine her. See the shape of her hand, the knuckles, veins, fingernails. Envision her gait as she walked. Picture her eyes as she smiled and frowned. Regardless of your family history, whether you feel deeply connected to your blood heritage or completely removed from your biological kin, you simply could not exist without that great-great-grandmother with her hands and her walk and her eyes. She is part of you. Inseparable. Your body is as dependent upon her as it is upon magnesium. There is no human cellular life without the great-great-grandmother.
If you can, recall your 2nd grade teacher. You may remember much or little from 2nd grade, but I submit that you are different than you would have otherwise been because of her or him. The trajectory of your life may have been influenced in significant ways that you do not know by that 2nd grade teacher. My 2nd grade teacher was Mrs. Ruark. I sometimes say: Know Mrs, Ruark, know me. No Mrs. Ruark, no me. No magnesium? No maternal great-great-grandmother? No 2nd grade teacher? No you. Know magnesium, your maternal great-great-grandma, and your 2nd grade teacher – know you. Like muscles in your forearm or tendons in your leg, like magnesium, your 2nd grade teacher is also part of your body. Your life is impossible to describe without her or him, even if you can’t picture them.
And…no magnesium, no Jesus. Without lungs, intestines, blood, oxygen, iron, trees, soil, and much else, Jesus could not exist. No trees, no Jesus. Know trees, know Jesus. What is the body of Christ? We are. And that “we” includes magnesium and trees and Mrs. Ruark and soil and your great-great-grandmother.
We inter-are with Jesus. If we were to change that interstellar vacuum setting from magnesium-removal to Christ-removal and have it suck up everything Christ-related, everything influenced by Jesus on this planet, we would cease to exist. Thich Nhat Hanh says you may say that you hate Jesus or Christianity, but they are not separate from you. However you feel about Jesus and Christianity, whether or not Christianity has been part of your family’s faith tradition, whether the influences of Jesus’ life and teachings appear positive, negative, or neutral to you, Christianity is part of our human history and part of your personal history. Jesus can no more be sucked out of you than can magnesium or your 2nd grade teacher or your maternal great-great-grandmother.
Christ is in us, we are in Christ, whether we like it or not. The same is true, of course, of the Buddha. We need not have a family religious history of Buddhism, we need not have ever read a Buddhist sutra or even tried to understand much about Buddhism, the Buddha has played an immense role in our human history. The Buddha has touched us all. We can not suck the Buddha out from within us either.
Despite these realities about the Buddha and the Christ and magnesium and our great-great-grandmothers, we have choices. We can choose to hate the Buddha and the Christ. We can try to ignore them. Or, we can open our minds and hearts to what is beneficial in Christian scripture and Buddhist sutras; we can choose to meditate and pray; we can seek out the compassionate, life-affirming teachers of these traditions; we can invite the Buddha and the Christ to be our teachers, to help us to water beneficial seeds in ourselves, in each other, and in the world. Like it or not, we are the body of Christ. Each moment, each day, we are choosing how this body will manifest.
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Choose a quiet time and place and allow yourself fifteen minutes or more for this exercise: Sit or lie down and focus on your breathing. Attend to your in-breath and your out-breath, your in-breath and your out-breath. Clench and relax the muscles of your toes, your feet, your calves, going up your legs, up your torso, up to your neck and head. (Don’t clench too hard, but enough to draw your attention to these parts of your body as your attention flows from your toes to the top of your head.)
Then, allow someone or something to come to mind and relate it to your body. Here are some suggestions to start: your heart, a favorite tree, a caring aunt or kind-hearted uncle, your ideal of who Jesus and/or the Buddha is (and was) in the world. Allow this someone or something to rest in gratitude within you. Continue to note your in-breath and your out-breath, your in-breath and your out-breath. Smile in deep appreciation for that someone or something. Know that this someone or something is a part of you and will always be a part of you. Feel the joy of knowing that your body is made of your heart, a favorite tree, a caring aunt or kind-hearted uncle, and your ideal of who Jesus and/or the Buddha is (and was) in the world.
(Allow yourself time to slowly and gently arise from this meditation.)
(Music: Courtesy of Adrian Von Ziegler, “Circle of Life.” )