A PERFECT BODY - Keys to the Ultimate Freedom

星空

Should we try to achieve a perfect body? I would say yes, definitely yes, if you can't do it.

Q: If you cannot do it?

Lester: Yes.

Q: That's a contradiction!

Lester: No. Change your inability to being able. If you cannot perfect the body you should learn to do so. Although we should be able to perfect the body, once we are able to do that then it is better to let the body be the way it is, healthy or sick, and not be affected by it. When one has enough understanding, no matter what happens to the body, it is all the same to him.

I've given you an over-all approach and now I'll go into it in more detail. If we want a perfect body and we don't have a perfect body, it means that we dont have the conviction that we make the body perfect. It means we are subconsciously holding in our mind a consciousness of an imperfect body. The body is an exact copy of the mind, the body being only our consciousness projected outwardly. We must change our subconscious thinking until we subconsciously have the conviction that our body is perfect. That will do it.

Now, is it necessary to have a perfect body? No, it is not. However, it is necessary to have a perfect understanding. To get this understanding, if you cannot have a perfect body, then learn to make your body perfect. When you can, then go beyond the necessity of a perfect body by getting the spiritual understanding of "I am not the body" and "The body does not affect me." This is a much higher state. In fact this is one of the highest of states to be able to maintain your equanimity regardless of what is happening to the body!

This body is not infinite. It's an extremely limited vehicle and very, very delicate. Change the internal temperature 12 degrees and it dies. Put tiny amounts of chemicals (poisons) in it and it dies. Cut out oxygen and it dies. So, this body is an extremely limited vehicle. It is much better to not be the physical body, to be what you really are, and get out from under the fear of death, the basic fear behind all other fears.

The discipline of having an imperfect body and not allowing it to bother you is a very high spiritual discipline. Many fully realized masters go through life with a sick body, setting an example of non-emphasis on the body, because the body is a cage of limitation. We are not in the body but the body is in us. Our greatest limitation is, "I am this body." Not only is the body a limitation but also associated with it are hundreds of other limitations. So, although at first I corrected body imperfections instantly, I now prefer not to correct the body, but to have it touch me not, not even in the slightest, regardless of what is happening to it. This is something I started three or four years ago.

I can tell you what happens when you do not identify with the body. I was just thinking of the time I was loading trees for firewood onto a truck and one tree wouldn't go. I said, "I'll make this go, and I gave a tremendous push while I had my shoulder against a tree trunk. The tree went on and I slipped a disc at the bottom of my spine. The reason why I mention this incident is that this was an excruciatingly painful one. Immediately I almost collapsed from the pain. Then I said, "Lester:, be not the body."

Now, what happens is that the body doesn't bother me if I'm not the body. I was aware that there was a pain, but it was like a weak distant pain and did not bother me. I could immediately load other trees. The body acted just as though it were not imperfect.

I've done that at other times. I once sprained an ankle and it swelled. That's painful too, and when I did not identify with the body, I walked off as though the foot were perfect and yet there was a sprained ankle there. When I had that slipped disc, I'd awaken in the morning and, forgetting, I would not immediately not be the body and the pain would be severe. To get out of bed I'd actually have to fallout on hands and knees. I remember doing this the first day or two. Then I'd shake my head and say, "Wow, what is this!" Recognizing the situation, I would say, "Oh, I am not the body," then I'd stand up, move through the day as though the body were O.K. and the body could do any thing and every thing; and yet, there was a weak distant pain that I knew was there but it didn't bother me. Now, this type of disciplining is excellent if one can do it. Be not the body!

Q: Wouldn't it be so much simpler to simply say, "The body's perfect," and then have a perfect body? After all, you control your body,-why even have the pain or feel uncomfortable when you get out of bed?

Lester: Well, when I got out of bed I was identifying with the body; that's why it pained so. But the moment I didn't, everything was all right. I'd stand up and the body would do anything. Now, this is a test of your spiritual knowingness. This is much higher. This is being not the body.

Q; How can the body be imperfect when you said before your body is a reflection of your mentality, and if you know hat there's only perfection, how can you have an imperfect body?

Lester: At first I identified with the body and then, after minutes, I did not. You want me to come down a step? Or do you want me to stay where I am?

Q: All right, go ahead and stay up where you are.

Lester: A perfect body is not the highest state. A body is a limitation even when it's perfect. It's a perfect body. Its still a body, but perfect. A higher state is not being the body but being the All. Ah, you're shaking your head now. Have I answered it?

Q: I'm beginning to follow what you're getting at.

Lester: So again, it's a matter of level, but because we're now into a level that is high, I want to stay there. Be not the body! Be what you really are! Be infinite! Be the All! Perfection is not a perfect body. Perfection is absolute perfection. Although you have a tendency to bring it down into perfect things, perfection does not relate to things. No thing is perfect. Every thing is a thing of limitation, confined to form and space. So the top state, the absolute, is a state of no things. Its just beingness, or pure consciousness, pure awareness. That's not being a body, a thing. It's just being. So to sum it up, of course we should have perfect bodies! If we have bodies that pull on our attention all the time, its difficult to seek the Truth. So rid yourself of body demands. Make the body as perfect as you can; however, it is a higher state when the body does not affect us because of our not identifying with the body.

Is it clear now, these two different aspects of body? It's great to make a perfect body. It is far better to be not the body.

Q: You see, it's very difficult for me to be beingness or awareness without being something or aware of something. Lester: You and most of us. But the top state is just beingness, only beingness, or consciousness, only consciousness. It's consciousness conscious of all consciousness. It's beingness being all beingness. And consciousness and beingness mean the same thing at the top.

Q: Well, can't we enjoy the limitation at the time?

Lester: You can. You can if you choose, but that's not the ultimate joy. If you want more joy, don't enjoy the thing, -be joy! Happiness is our natural inherent state. We are the All.

We artificially create a lack and then a desire to relieve that lack, which, when that lack is undone, we feel better. It's like sticking a pin into you. It hurts and you take it out and say, "Gee that feels good." This is exactly what enjoying things and people is. We hurt ourselves by creating a lack and then remove the lack, the pain, and say, "Gee that feels good. That makes me happy."

Every time you feel happiness, you feel only your real Self, more or less. The happier, the more you feel your real Self. And you wrongly attribute it to things and people outside of your self.

The mechanism of it is this: When you create the lack, you start up thoughts of I need this person, this thing, to make me happy. That causes a bit of pain, -a need, a lack-which when you are relieved of that thought of lack you return back to being your Self and this is what we call happiness. This is something very great to be achieved: to see that your happiness is inherent. That which you have been calling happiness is doing away with happiness and then restoring it and wrongly attributing it to external people and things.

So, if you want to enjoy a body, that's your privilege. If you want more joy don't enjoy the body, just be joy, which you naturally are. That's the natural state. It's not necessary to need things. When you see that you are the All, there's nothing lacking. So, take your joy directly, be your Self. That's being infinite joy.

Q: Now step down and discuss your experiences of changing your body because really, many of us are in the area where we don't quite understand this. Or let's talk about myself, not "us."

Lester: O.K. What happened to me was that I saw that there's as much life in this body as there is in a piece of wood. It's composed of carbohydrates and minerals, the same chemicals as in a piece of wood; that the only life in this body is I. I put the life into the body. I saw that the body is my consciousness, and my consciousness puts the life into it. When you see that you make the body, then you can change it. You can mentally change it.

Now, the body we have now is the accumulated education, body-wise, that we have gathered up to date. This is my concept of a body. That's your concept of your body. It's deeply subconscious right now. This is why it's difficult to change the body. To perfect it requires seemingly impossible letting go of all these past concepts of imperfection of body. This, however, is the negative way of doing it, that is, of eliminating the negative concepts of imperfection. It's a difficult way.

Then there is the better way, the positive way of putting in what should be there, a picture of a perfect body in your mind. Now, this picture of the perfect body must be put in with will power, more powerful than the sum total of all the pictures in the past of an imperfect body. You must image the picture of a perfect body with a thought that's stronger than all the past thoughts. Does that make sense? This is the mechanics of it.

All right, now what is a powerful thought? A powerful thought is a concentrated thought. The more concentrated, the more powerful the thought. A concentrated thought is a thought without other extraneous thoughts present at the time. The very best way to get a most powerful thought is to let go of your self, your little self; let go of your feeling that I have this and I have that. Then say. "Yes, there is only perfection, and that includes this body." Let go of the world; let go of your thinking as your mind is your biggest obstacle. Your mind is going all the time, whether you're aware of it or not. When you're not conscious of it, it's going on subconsciously. You've trained yourself to think, think, think. You've got the mind spinning with all these thoughts. You've given a lot of importance to this thinking. The importance of it is also subconscious, so it's not easy to let go of the importance of thinking. And this is an obstacle to your concentrating.

If you could let go of thinking, and in just one easy thought with no other thoughts around, think "I am perfect," you'd instantly have a perfect body. It'll take a continuous trying until you achieve it. An almost effortless thought is the way it is effected because your mind is quiet at the time. And you might not even be aware of it when it happens. You might become aware of it later on.

I was just reminded of a case of a man who was in a wheel chair for many years, I believe ten. His house caught on fire and he packed two bags, ran out of the house and sat down on them. It was after he had sat down on the bags that he had realized what he had done. He had forgotten that he couldn't walk. See, when it does happen, you're accepting the positive so much that the negative is forgotten for the time being.

To sum it up, the thing that will affect a perfect body is a very strong conviction "My body is perfect." Saying it in another way, it is a concentrated thought, which is a thought undisturbed by other thoughts at the time. And the feeling is a feeling of let-go. You just let go and let the perfection be.

Q: Well then, what you're really saying is that when you see all perfection, your thoughts are so based upon perfection your body automatically takes that perfection.

Lester: Yes, if you see the all-perfection, then everything is absolutely perfect, everything.

Q: Then you cannot have an imperfect body.

Lester: Right.

Q: And this being very, very peaceful, - if you go into psychosomatic medicine, they claim that the body difficulties are caused by turmoil in the mind. And if these are quieted, then the body may be corrected without any thought about it.

Lester: Yes, if you quiet the subconscious mind. You see, the body is working on an automatic pilot. Everything happening in the body, we are doing subconsciously, automatically. So, you have to straighten out the subconscious thinking.

Q: When you were in New York and you accomplished much, did you do it systematically? Did you just see perfection so completely, or did you realize the power of your mind? Just exactly what method did you use?

Lester: Well, when I did it, it was almost like a byproduct. I sat down with a determination to get the answers to "Who am I, -what am I? What is this world? What is my relationship to it?" In the process of which I saw the Perfection and that this universe, including this body, was a product of my consciousness, my thinking. I therefore imaged the body as perfect and instantly it was. Gone were the ulcers, the jaundice, the coronary trouble and other imperfections. It was very easy. It was like an almost effortless thought.

There are different levels of healing the body. Spiritually, it's instantaneous. There's only perfection and that's all there is and it is instantaneous. Mentally, it is done from instantaneously to very fast, in days or in weeks, depending upon your mental concept of how fast you can do it.

Q: When you're using the word "body," it also would include all our environment, wouldn't it? There's really no difference between our body and our environment.

Lester: That's true in the sense that it is all our consciousness, but Im speaking specifically of the body because we're talking on that. Actually, the whole material world and the body are very similar in creation. They are the physical out-projecting of our mind.

Have I answered all your questions on it? See, it does not help you much when I tell you what I did. You've got to do it your way. And as I see it, your way is overcoming the accumulated wrong body-thinking of the past. Now this is a carry-over from a prior life. This is how deeply engrained it is in you. If you can perfect it, good. If you can't, don't make a big issue of it because it's better to live with it and not be it. Get your spiritual understanding. That's far more important.

What's so great about the best of bodies? They decay sooner or later. The very best of bodies becomes awfully stenchy sooner or later when it starts decaying. So, what's this big thing about bodies? Approach it from a higher point.

Q: As I understand it, if I have a sense of perfection, which would include my body, the body could not be imperfect.

Lester: That's correct. Get it! And when you get it, not only the body but everything becomes perfect, which is far better than having just a perfect body. Then you have the whole universe perfect and that's a very, very high state. To see the perfection where the imperfection seems to be is the highest state.

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This Session was recorded in Sedona, October 31, 1964.