Strange Vessels

Our bodies are strange vessels.

We identify with a state of being that is tangible and stable, but that is not entirely so. Our size and shape changes constantly. We perceive ourselves as solid – we are and we are not. When we touch something solid, we stop. But we have many cavities throughout our body. The pocket inside our mouths. The passage to and inside of our lungs. One could also argue that there is the space between the atoms. That being said, these cavities are efficient beyond anything made by humans. When we close our mouth, the tongue and teeth and jaw and roof of the mouth contract into a perfect tightness. Our bladders expand and contract depending on the liquid they hold.

Our bodies change frequently – changing temperature with sickness. Gaining mass with food consumption and loosing mass when we excrete. We shed skin cells and hair. In my case lots of hair. Our hair and fingernails grow. Our skin changes color when we bruise or burn. In our younger years our size changes dramatically in short periods of time. Through childbirth, a woman’s internal organs will change location. We get wrinkles with old age.

And oddly, we usually use this constantly changing vessel as the basis of our identity. We look in the mirror and obsess over the color of our hair or the shape of our nose. We forget that this body is just the container for our consciousness. We think about the color of our eyes more often than we consider their role in visual perception.

So if our bodies are only the exterior shell for our true being, what are we? What is the deeper meaning of being human?

I have more ideas to jot down on this subject, but must end this article now because I’ve needed to use the restroom since writing the part that says “Our bladders expand and contract depending on the liquid they hold.”

Perception

The past couple days I’ve been contemplating perception. What does it mean to perceive? Is it to simply become aware of something? We can look at a flyer on a bulletin board and have many different levels of awareness/perception about it:

• Sometimes we walk past it dimly aware that it exists at all save for a small element our environment. Other times we can look at that same flyer and read the content written. In other instances it is a trigger a deeper awareness connected to input that we have already acquired (examples: If you had seen the missing dog displayed on the poster at the local dog park. Or if you knew the person who posted the flyer, and know how sad they are that their dog is missing. Or perhaps it triggers feeling of sadness from when you lost your dog…).
  
  We can also perceive this flyer as a visual entity. Behold the yellow of the flyer stands out against the brown bulletin board. Notice how it casts a delicate shadow on the surface below.
  
  One may be able to judge how long the flyer has been up on the cork board by the color and texture of the paper.
  

Our perceptions are always incomplete. When we look at something, we are not looking at the true object. We see only the reflected rays of light that define that object to our (limited) vision. When we hear something – we actually only perceive the waves given off by the original energy. When we touch something, we don’t feel the thing itself, but rather the force it exerts against our finger.

What about an individual? We still can only experience a person through our five senses. But it gets more complicated. We can perceive a person’s energies through sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing a person… but that is not all.

We can perceive a person through their indirect energies also. When a person has created ANYTHING, we can also perceive their energy. Whey a loved one has written us note, that is an imprint of their energy. They are in your awareness, whether standing with you or not.

Going back to the flyer of the missing dog - that flyer is an imprint of the creator’s energy. It is one of the ways that we are able to perceive and acknowledge the creator’s existence.

But it is not only when we intentionally create something. People emit their presence all over, unconsciously. Have you ever walked into your office and known right away that a certain person was in that day - although you hadn’t seen them yet? Maybe they left their slightly askew. Maybe there is extra paperwork on their desk. Maybe a book was still open, or a pen and paper were left out.

This leads me to a few more questions. If there are various imprints of peoples energy left about, are there varying degrees of one’s presence? Could there be a situation where a person is only ‘somewhat present’? And what is a person’s body? Is it simply the most concentrated amount of a person’s presence?

Can several people imprint their energy in one place? It seems like they can. Is that what creates “office atmosphere” (or any atmosphere for that matter)? Does that mean that there are collective energies?

Yesterday I road the subway to work. I watched people (as I always do, people-watching on the subway is often really interesting) and tried to imagine these strangers as bodies of energy. It was really interesting. I was surprised that I could do this, and it was actually fairly easy to visualize. I found myself noticing a pair of somewhat contradictory things right away:

1. People’s appearance gave some insight into their personal energy, and gave a degree of their experience. People’s scars were physical documents of accidents in their life. You could see that a person had dyed their hair, and roughly how long ago that occurred. Their postures would give some information about their self confidence and conformability. You could read their emotional mood too, to some extent.
2. People’s appearance hid the nature of their personal energy. At points I found myself drawn to people because of their attractive/charismatic appearance. When this happened, I found my ability to imagine them as energy would melt away.
   
   
   I also thought about how we can perceive from a distance. You can look at a building from far away and know it is residential rather than commercial. You can sense roughly how many people are likely to live in the building. You may be able to guess at the occupants' financial status depending on the condition and location of the structure.
   
   As I ate my lunch, I thought about how out bodies take in and spit out energy. That samwich is about to become part of me.
   
   So what defines the borders of our identities? We shed physical parts of ourselves like hair, skin cells, blood, and excretion but it hardly reflects what we are.
   
   We also shed (give birth to) information in the form writings, physical construction, inventions, videos, music, etc. We identify with these creations. They partly define us. They also affect the beings around us, and help to inspire more creation – whether in addition, or in reaction to the original creation.