You are the Mayor of Your City of Cells

Rishikesh, Cont. from 15 May post

Yogi Ramacharaka didn’t just propose that the body’s organs were simple conscious entities. In chapter 19 of Hatha Yoga (see link below), he made that insight practical: how to communicate with them via a form of body awareness.

Communicate with your heart or stomach or lungs? He gives the example of an organ that is not doing its job. What if the colon, that famously sluggish citizen of the body-city, is not keeping to its regular morning schedule? That question grabbed me, because mine wasn’t. I’d just arrived in India and was jet-lagged, while adjusting to a different time-zone, climate, and diet. My insides were confused.

His advice? Give the little worker some attention from the Mayor. Literally. Place your hand gently on that area of the body (or give it a pat) and “talk it up,” as if giving instructions to a loyal but lazy employee. “Come on buddy, let’s get moving.”

Obviously, an organ doesn’t understand English, but it does understand energy. Our mind’s attention brings more life-energy to that part of the body. The organ stirs, wakes up, and remembers its duty in the city of the body—just as a child sits up straighter when a loving parent walks in. The body is the projection of the mind, and the projector must keep its projections in focus. 

It may sound strange, but it works. Just as we can train a puppy, we can train our organs. They are conscious but simple entities that respond, not to abstract concepts, but to affection, attention, repetition, and clear intent.

I tested it with my own disoriented colon. It took time though, just as it takes time for a puppy to grasp what our words and gestures mean. At first: zero. After some time, a dawning understanding. And eventually—contact. Me and my inner puppy were talking. It got the idea, it really did, and since then: perfect plumbing. Like that, a yogi can gradually enliven any part of the body for better health (but if it were the heart, we’d address it more respectfully).

This may seem a mundane matter, but it points to something much bigger: coordination between mind and body. And deeper still, it touches on the unreal divide between I and me, between the observer and the observed, the root of duality. Healing that divide is about remembering who we really are.

Does this ring true? Ever tried something along these lines? If you’d like to read what Ramacharaka wrote, click this link: Hatha Yoga, chapter 19: https://www.johncowhig.com/ramacharaka-19

~John