Dear Sensei Tony - I’ve had a lot of physical ailments lately and what do I do when I don’t trust my own body? This is Jane.

Hi Jane.  I’m sorry you are going through this. It is a great question and one that many folks with physical issues ask. The first thing we need to do is define our terms. Firstly, I define “trust” as an act of volition and not something automatic. The problem is that we get used to our body functioning in a certain comfortable way and when that changes we often feel confused betrayed, especially with something chronic.

The problem is that it’s not so much about trust as confidence. The problem with confidence is that it’s always related to doing and having or their opposites. If we look at how we define “body” it is from an ancient Proto-Indo-European word, “kwrep”, from which we get the word, “corpus”. Interestingly, it original meant “to be awake, or observe”. If we observe our body from the Buddhist faith tradition, we realize that it is a transient and contingent form. Even in the healthiest person it will eventually follow the second law of thermodynamics and fall apart. So, while I believe we can be compassionate towards our bodies, we shouldn’t really put our trust in them. Rather, we should put our trust in our True Nature, which is unborn and undying. An analogy I often use is my 25 year old Jeep Wrangler, who I call “Frank”. I love that Jeep but as it’s aged things have started to fall apart. And while I fix what I can and give it a new coat of paint, I know that eventually it won’t be fixable. And while I don’t like to think about that eventuality, I know that it’s true. So I treat it the best I can and enjoy it as much as possible in the moment. I appreciate what it can still do, even if it’s not like it once was.

Our physical form is part of what we call our Ego Self and is like a coat that will wear out and we will ultimately take off. In our next experience of life beyond this one, we may put on other coats but our hope is in what we call Nirvana, where our “moi-meme”mind-stream will be transmogrified as Buddha. So, my hearts advice is to be compassionate to our body, take care of it the best we can, enjoy it as much as possible, and try to be grateful for what it has done for us in its temporary form. I hope this was helpful.