On the Bearing of the Body

Many times we know not what goes on in our mind; but our bearing of the body says a great deal of it — whether we are happy, whether content, in an easeful temper, or in discontent, weariness. The bearing of the body says much: how you sit, stand, look upon another, how your body answers to things. In differing states of feeling and of mind we hold a differing bearing of the body. So to understand the mind, it is easier to understand the body. When we are stressed, low, cast down, the shoulders droop, the neck droops, the eyes look downward, the backbone is not straight; the chin rests upon the palm; we tap with the leg. These are the bearings that show we are in stress, in darkness — and stress, heaviness of heart, and unease are common these days, well-nigh a plague upon the age.

Now, commonly the gloom of the mind shows itself through the body: mind dark, body dark — that is the wonted course in the brain. This is why the reader of men, the teller of lies, may read a man; the body sets forth what goes on in the mind. But we may turn this about. Whenever you mark yourself in the dark bearing — chin upon the palm, shoulders drooping, looking down — stay in that bearing, change it not, and begin to set your heed upon your breath, keeping your mind calm, keeping it in a happy state. This makes a wilful contrariety: dark bearing of body, but a bright mind. And this contrariety makes a new path, a new way in the brain — for the brain has never passed through a pass where the body answers darkly, but the breath is long, the mind bright. So it builds a new way; and then, whenever the body unknowing falls into the dark bearing, that new way is stirred, and the mind of itself grows calm, of itself setting free the stress, the heaviness, the unease. So today, rather than meditating with the spine straight in the wonted bearing of meditation, we of set will take a dark bearing — chin upon the palm, elbows upon the ground, arms crossed with the head down — and in that bearing we practise the keeping of the mind wholly calm, bright, and happy, heeding the breath. It is, in a sense, a trick played upon the mind, a making of a fool of the mind — and it helps a great deal to overcome darkness, unease, and heaviness of heart. (Is it hard to set your heed upon the breath, set your heed upon the point just below the nose, about the nostrils, where you may feel the touch of the air; it is the easiest way to bring the mind back into heed.)

Why is this hard at the first? For this dark bearing is not new — we take it unknowing whenever we are dark; and at that hour our breath grows very short. In stress the breath is short, and it is the shortness of breath that keeps the body in the dark shape. Commonly our spine stays straight for we are taking a long breath; when we begin to take short breaths, the body falls into the dark bearing. So breath plays a very weighty part in the keeping of the body in a bright bearing. Here, you are of set will keeping the breath long in a dark bearing, and that challenges the working of itself — the working that runs without our willing. So for a few days it is hard, for the body and for the mind; but as you practise, the brain takes it in and makes the new way, and then it is no longer hard. And this helps a great deal in the daily life, for well-nigh none escapes stressful and dark passes; several times a day we feel ourselves in stress. So whenever the mind goes into stress and the body begins to go into the dark bearing, the new way you have of set will made is stirred; you unknowing begin to breathe long; the spine grows straight; the bearing of the body grows bright and the mind grows bright — of itself, without your doing anything, just as the setting of the measure upon a cooling engine, that whenever the room reaches that measure the engine sets itself aright.