My body should always be healthy. I will do ten backflips to make sure it is healthy. I must have a special room for yoga. Do not ask me to do yoga in a room that has laminated flooring, even if I have a yoga mat. No. My body is too precious for that. I must have my perfect room for yoga, the right temperature, and good yoga clothes. I cannot do yoga in just any clothes. I must wear my yoga clothes. Especially if I go to a yoga centre, etc.

Then if you go cycling, you must have your cycling clothes. You cannot just put on jeans and a sweatshirt. You must have cycling clothes and a helmet that matches. The helmet must be the same colour as your cycling clothes, or at least blend and offset the subtle colours in your cycling clothes, and so on just to pamper this body.

When we stub our toe, our mind shrieks, “Ahhh!” and borders on a national disaster. Everything that happens to our body, we take great care of. Do you remember when you played softball and you got hit in the stomach? “Oh, I want some attention, this is terrible, look how hurt I am!” You catch a cold and then suddenly you wear all your Alaska gear. You are all bundled up. Even though it is just a cold, you have everything on and perhaps five or ten masks because the thin ones will not do anymore.

I remember in Singapore, if I start coughing, immediately they want to take me to the doctor. What is the doctor going to do if you have a common cold? He is going to say, “Go to bed and sleep.” But, I have got to go to the doctor.

It is just amazing. We fuss so much about this body, don’t we? And worry. When it has really severe sicknesses, we go really nuts. You are diagnosed with kidney disease, cancer or a heart condition. Or you get severely injured and you go totally ballistic, “My life is falling apart. How could this happen to me?” Our whole world gets condensed into this body, and that is all that is important. Our Dharma is out the window and worry and anxiety become the air we breathe.

We spend a lot of time taking care of this body, giving this body pleasure and protecting it from harm. From another perspective, we do not actually treat this body very well when in our pursuit of pleasure we do not eat well, and we take all sorts of substances, such as alcohol, recreational drugs, etc. that harm our body. We do not take care of the health of this body because we spend so much time seeking bodily pleasure. We eat too much, we eat the wrong stuff, and we do not exercise (because who wants to get off the couch?) In a Dharma way, if we are going to keep this body clean and healthy, and fit for practice, then we really should watch our diet, mind what we consume, ensure we exercise and go to the doctor when we need to.

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!