"Most of our feelings and commonplace ideas about our lives are based on the metaphor of the body, a thought so foundational to us we can't even begin to know how to question it
In Buddhist Dharma class I was assigned with a group to explain the metaphor of the body in the conversation between King Milinda and Nagasena.
The following phrase in the conversation (below) seems very important. It is repeated for ego and the chariot and I think you could equally plug in the word body.
" . . . (the body) is, nevertheless, your majesty, but
a way of counting, a term, an appellation, a convenient designation, a mere
name . . . there is no (body) here to be found."
One can relate to the body to a laundry list of parts:
"Are nails . . .teeth . . . skin . . . flesh . . .
sinews . . . bones . . . marrow of the bones . . . kidneys . . . heart . . .
liver . . . pleura . . . spleen .. lungs, etc.
(the body)?
Then there is actually no mention of the word body until the passage below. I am not sure how to exactly interpret it. I feel like this is
a key to something.
So, I have read, In Buddhist teachings "there isn't a
body per se but instead a variety of momentary mental events." When the delicate prince feels the hot sandy
ground on his feet, this is a mental event produced in consciousness when an
object called foot activates inner sensors that awaken awareness in a particular
way, maybe the awareness of being sore, tired, oppressed.. "Likewise,
seeing, hearing, and all sense perceptions are mental events stimulated by
apparently physical objects. . . All experiences arise when consciousness is
activated by a sense organ meeting an internal or external object."
King Milinda and Nagasena |
So I guess now when I think metaphor of the body I think
what does the word metaphor mean?
met·a·phor
ˈmetəˌfôr,-fər/Submit
noun
1.
a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to
an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
"“I had fallen through a trapdoor of depression,” said
Mark, who was fond of theatrical metaphors"
synonyms: figure
of speech, image, trope, analogy, comparison, symbol, word painting/picture
Nagasena |
So maybe the word body, itself, is the metaphor. The word body is "a figure of speech . .
. which is not literally applicable."
The word body is an analogy for skin, hair, nails, teeth, etc. but skin, hair nails and teeth are not the body. There is not literal body just the metaphor of body.
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