James Wood Teachings

From a talk given by James in 2006

Q: What does it mean to see the body as a form of dependent arising?

James: It means to see the body consciously. It means to see the body as dependent on consciousness for its existence as opposed to an independently existing entity, a thing in itself.

To see this, you have to get really deep and really quiet. You witness the sensation in your body. What is the body but a field of sensation, in a way? Consider thought, feeling, and sensation. Have you ever had a tight place in your body and breathed into it and the tight place became fluid?

The body is a dimension of the mind. We call it “the body” to distinguish it from the thinking part. Emptiness means empty of self or empty of independent substance. It’s more energetic, more of an emanation. It is dependent upon awareness.

“Embodiment” is a term I use that means inhabiting the body consciously. It’s like making love; it is difficult to do it and talk at the same time. When you talk about it, you remove yourself from it, in a sense. Embodiment is enhanced by letting go of words.

If I have a sensation in my foot, if I get really quiet and listen into it, pay attention to it, I might perceive the sensation as as a thought. It’s subtle. It’s not a thought chattering on the surface of my mind, but more of a sense of “this isn’t right,” like an insidious form of discomfort. You can feel into it. This discomfort is a form of resistance on a deeper, subtle, hidden level that you wouldn’t ordinarily feel. Not like an icepick, but like your skin is crawling even when you are sitting in a comfortable chair, like you are not comfortable in your own skin. If you really get quiet and pay attention to the sensation, it may have an angry quality, a sense of irritation. Irritation is a low grade form of anger.

You can just pay attention to that, and the process may put you in contact with something more emotional. For example, notice your left knee. See or feel the contours inside, as if under the patella. There is a quality, not overtly negative, but it may feel like a slight irritation. You may feel even fear or disgust in your emotional feeling-space that is connected to the irritation. You may feel loathing.

If you hate the body as a thing and you are deeply identified with it, it is going to make you feel that emotionally. So paying attention to sensation can take you through to a more emotional feeling, kind of “I don’t want to be this. I’m a loathsome thing.” Nonjudgmental awareness is curative. This kind of awareness can help with something like body dysmorphic disorder, for example.

It’s a quiet listening inside yourself. You’ll find some form of “I don’t love myself. I can’t stand myself. I am not okay as I am.” That’s when you start getting deeper into the causal level. You can sit with it and be with it, feel into what it is. Just notice and be with it fully; be with it consciously. It is one thing to see “I can’t stand my knee” and identify with that thought. It’s another to see that structure and see that it’s not true, that it is a form of not wanting it to be what it is.

If you can connect that with a deeper sense of “I don’t want to be the way I am” — that’s the deeper root. The root is in the self and the branches are out on the periphery, more of an aesthetic sense of the body is not okay in itself. That is common in our culture.