One of the most fundamental concepts of Western culture is the dualistic mind-body split. This split is clearly a false dichotomy, as the brain is an organ of the body and plays a huge role in the functioning of the mind.
Likewise, the Materialist reduction of the mind to merely mechanistic electrochemical neurological activity in the brain is also not accurate, as we know through near death experiences, and out of body experiences such as the remote viewing done by the CIA, that the mind can travel beyond the confines of the body.
In the East, in Zen, we find a different description of the relationship between the mind and the body: “not two and not one.”
“This is the most important teaching: not two, and not one. Our body and mind are not two and not one. If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.
- Shunryu Suzuki
In the West we have come close to this nondual realization in figures like Jung, who recognized that blockages in the subconscious mind resulted in physical illnesses, and Candace Pert, author of “Your Body Is Your Subconscious Mind.” But the scientific medical establishment still lags far behind.
The dualistic mind-body split in our culture casts as evil everything that the Taoists would call yin: Woman, Earth, Body, Sex, etc. In Chinese medicine, which was developed in far less patriarchal times, the importance of sexual energy in healing and sustaining the body was realized.
Sexual energy, called jing by the Taoists, is what creates the body, sustains the body, and running out of it leads to the death of the body. It is also the key to good mental health, and even enlightenment itself, as reflected in the Taoist saying:
“To understand the head, investigate, as well, the tail.”
However, the healing power of sexual energy is unknown and untapped in our culture due to the body and sex-denying aspects of Christianity. The mind-body duality in our culture can be traced back to our founding myth, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Eve and Adam eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, entering into a dualistic mind, and their immediate response was to cover their naked bodies. Since then, this original shame, as well as death itself, has been blamed on women. Consider the following words of the Church Fathers:
“Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman.” - Clement of Alexandria
“Woman is a temple built over a sewer, the gateway to the devil. Woman, you are the devil’s doorway. You led astray one whom the devil would not dare attack directly. It was your fault that the Son of God had to die; you should always go in mourning and rags.” -Tertullian
“If it is good for a man not to touch a woman, then it is bad for him to touch one, for bad, and bad only, is the opposite of good.” -Jerome
“Why should you find pleasure in a young girl, pretty and voluptuous?…You fancy that you can sleep safely beside a death-dealing serpent.” -Jerome
“Amongst all the savage beasts none is found so harmful as woman.” - John Chrysostom
“Woman is a sick she-ass … a hideous tapeworm … the advance post of hell.” - John Damascene
“[Woman] was made only to assist with procreation.” - Thomas Aquinas
This repulsive, misogynistic stream of thought permeates our entire culture. Although these words come from Proto-Orthodox and Orthodox Christians, all streams of modern Christianity, including all Protestant Churches and evangelicals, have this stream of thought flowing through them.
This body-denying, Earth-dominating, sex-shaming attitude is at the very core of the Western Psyche, and it is incredibly destructive to society, to the planet, and to our very bodies. It is an utter contempt for half of reality, the material half of reality that created our planet, our bodies, and grants us the gift of life.
Our bodies will not be able to fully heal until we can realize the non-dual nature of reality, until we can Remember Eden and realize that this planet is Paradise right Now.
According to Mahayana Buddhism “Samsara is Nirvana.” We might say Earth is Heaven. Christ said it like this:
Christ's disciples ask, When will the kingdom come?
Jesus replies, The Kingdom of the Father will not come by expectation. The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it.” - Saying 113, Gospel of Thomas
In closing, I’ll leave you with the beautiful words of a great non-dual teacher from the Christian tradition, Thomas Merton: “The Gate of Heaven is Everywhere”
So well said! Such a good article sharing some very interesting insights!