Fragile and Impermanent Body by Swami Sukhabodhananda

1
Fragile and Impermanent Body by Swami
Sukhabodhananda
2
(No Transcript)
3
Fragile and impermanent body Learn to treat the
body as a dress. Dress is not you. Treat the
body, as not oneself, but the dress. Understand
that your body is extremely fragile, however,
strong it may be. Even a mosquito can kill you.
Remember that you have the body and not body has
you. I have a car is different from the car has
me.
4
Likewise, to say you have money is one thing and
to say the money has you is decidedly different.
Once you know that this body is fragile, you do
not invest your life in the body. One has to
respect the body and take care of it. One has to
see the beauty of the body. Take the illustration
of the flower, which is fragile, but still
beautiful. In the same way, our body is fragile
and impermanent, but still it is beautiful. The
notion that only the permanent is beautiful is a
myth. Flower is impermanent but still beautiful.
5
The famed King Alexander while passing through a
city, heard that there was a mystical lake in
that city and any one drinking water from that
lake becomes eternal. The king rushed to the lake
to drink the water, for he wanted to be eternal.
As he happily went to drink water, a crow started
speaking. The crow said, For heavens sake do
not drink water from the lake. You will become
eternal. I drank, and now
6
I am eternally a crow. Learn to love the
impermanent and the permanent. Learn to see
elegance in imperfection. There is so much beauty
in the impermanent.   Everyone seems to be
harming me. Why should this happen? No one can
hurt you unless you give permission to be hurt.
Dwell on this deeply. Someone may say a harsh
word. That is his freedom. Your freedom is to
accept it or reject it. Why cant you come from
this inner freedom? When someone or something is
not acceptable, reject it in the same way you
reject a salesman trying to sell something that
you dont want. 
7
If you dont reject, it would appear that you
have accepted it at some level. This is the
disorder. Also, dont get lost in asking, why?
Instead, ask how I can deal with this and deal
with it wisely. Being wise involves you to
internalize things carefully. You should be alert
not to personalize it, if someone says you are a
fool. Dont internalize it. Do not allow past
references of someone calling you a fool come
unconsciously and support or confuse you. This
much of inner alertness, one should have in ones
life. Once you are alert, you will not be a prey
to your disempowering self-talk.