Set Down the Body to See the Soul

📖Master’s Reading

Modern people are too easily led by the senses, chasing enjoyment and desire, letting the mind forever race outward. Yet the deep meaning of the letting-go the Dharma teaches is: "Set down the body's perception, set down the body's needs, and then the soul on the other side can come out."

Many think letting go is discarding outer objects; in truth, an object set down still exists — what truly must be set down is clinging to the body and self-clinging. Self-clinging is the things we crave to possess, the goals we chase, all that human nature hungers for. The truth of the dharmadhātu is: as long as the mind is tightly bound by the body's needs, the soul cannot transcend and can only become the body's prisoner.

Practice is not denying the body but learning not to be controlled by the senses. Facing worldly affairs, we practice "not caring at all, nothing is any great matter." When you no longer fret over gain and loss and keep an open attitude, you find there really is nothing any great matter in this world.

When the mind slowly quiets and cuts excessive dependence on bodily perception, no longer held hostage by fleeting sensation, the soul trapped deep within breaks its shackles and gains true renunciation. Then the deep inner wisdom surfaces and leads you toward eternal liberation.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• Set down the body to see the soul.
• Set down the body's perception and the body's needs.
• What truly must be set down is worldly self-clinging.
• Facing worldly affairs, nothing is any great matter.
• The soul breaks its shackles and gains true renunciation.