Jack Kornfield is one of my favorite authors, scholars, practitioners and teachers in the field of Buddhist Mindfulness practices. He brings us a wonderful insight into the importance of being present in the body in his article Mindfulness of the Body. (Excerpted from his book A Lamp in the Darkness.)
Without mindfulness, you take your body for granted, or ignore the body as if it’s not important. James Joyce described this relationship in the line, “Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body.” Or you can fall into the other extreme of clinging and fear and overidentification with this body. It’s fine to care for the body, but it’s also possible that the wrong kind of attention will lead you into unhealthy fears and attachments about how your body should look. Buddha’s invitation for healing is to come into a mindful relationship with the body in our own body. You can start with attention to what your actual experience of being in this body is here and now.
One of the key goals of Ming cultivation (cultivation of eternal life or a healthy longevity) is for body and spirit to fall in love. This can only happen if we come into a mindful relationship with the body. Our practices of Tai Chi and Qigong are central to supporting the spirit fully inhabiting the body. If we have experienced serious trauma in our body, the spirit may have chosen to absent itself. In order to heal we may need to address the trauma at physical, emotional and spiritual levels. As the healing process unfolds we can begin to inhabit out body fully.