Foundation or cage

It is an old question whether the body is a foundation or a cage. Plato called it the tomb of the soul; the apostle Paul called it a temple. I think both were right, only not about the same man.

The same body can be both. It is not the body that decides which, but the consciousness that dwells in it, and its level of understanding.

For the one who is led by the body, through hunger, fatigue, fear and habit, the body is a cage. He does not live in it, but under it.

For the one who leads the body, the same body is a foundation. It is built upon with discipline, measure and work. It carries thought instead of smothering it.

Cage and foundation are the same body. The difference is who dwells in it.

So one does not leave the cage by escaping the body, but by the growth of consciousness within it. The higher the consciousness, the farther away the bars, until one day they become the walls of a house.

N. Ž.