Embodying Incarnation
Spiritual Knowing Part Three: Feet and Legs
Jesus — God being us with a human body
Did Mary realize the baby she held to her breast was one that John would later write about as “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14)? Notice John does not say the Word came to live “in the flesh.” Rather, this profound prologue to John’s Gospel makes the astounding claim that the Word, God, actually became flesh!
The Christmas season is an excellent time to talk about bodies, flesh, and earthiness as we celebrate God with us in the body and person of Jesus. Yes, it is lovely to think of Jesus as an infant born in a manger. However, the deeper story of Christmas is that God love us so much he became us. The first followers of Jesus came to believe that, in Jesus, God was having a human experience—conflict, struggle, friendship, love, death, and yes, a body!
God embodied in all human flesh
As followers of Jesus, we find Jesus such a convincing embodiment of God that we call it a breakthrough of human evolution or “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). We can all enter this awareness of spiritual embodiment along with Jesus. If we reflect back to the creation of humankind as told in the Genesis story, we see it points to the radical understanding that the image and likeness of God is embodied in all humankind from the very being of human evolution. God becomes a part of the very web of life. And we also participated in “The Word became flesh” and dwelt as us.
The grown-up Jesus knew that all babies are made in God’s image. He said we are all “gods” (John 10:34), divine in our deepest identity. When Jesus, the light of the world, said that we were all the light of the word just as he is, he was pointing to the point of light deep within us. Trappist monk Thomas Merton said. “And I saw it - the divine and radiant point of light at the center of every person, everywhere. Everyone, everything, is filled with sacred light.”
The earthy, cosmic body of God
However, the belief that in Jesus God was with us embodied in a physical body here on earth goes beyond human bodies and encompasses creation itself. It includes all the “flesh” and matter in existence.
The Cosmic Body of God - Reef Nebula - Hubble Space Telescope
Richard Rohr says, “The incarnation of God did not only happen in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. That is just when some of us started taking it seriously. The incarnation actually happened approximately 13.8 billion years ago with a moment that we now call ‘The Big Bang’ or the First Manifestation. At the birth of our universe, God materialized and revealed who God is.” Our embodiment is a part of God’s embodiment as the earth and cosmos.
St. Francis of Assisi taught that God is incarnate in all of creation, and that entering into the sacred temple of creation helps us to deepen our relationship with our Creator. Entering more fully into our bodies and intentionally connecting with the earth and cosmos is also entering more fully into God.
Niels Henrik Gregersen, professor of systematic theology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, says, “If we recognize Earth as a living organism, can we also say God became ‘incarnate’ in Earth? Does Jesus the creature represent all creation? The answer, I believe, is yes! Jesus, as animated dust from the ground, is that piece of Earth where God’s presence is concentrated in the incarnation. God becomes flesh, clay, Earth.” Incarnation runs deeper than many of us have thought!
Religious folks turned it all around and became fearful of embodiment
Transpersonal psychologist and professor at California Integral Institute Jorge Ferrer says:
“The body and its vital/primary energies were ignored in religious practice, were not considered legitimate or reliable sources of spiritual insight in their own right. In other words, body and instinct have not generally been regarded as capable of collaborating as equals with heart, mind, and consciousness in the attainment of spiritual realization and liberation. What is more, many religious traditions and schools believed that the body and the primary world (and aspects of the heart, such as certain passions) were actually a hindrance to spiritual flourishing—a view that often led to the repression, regulation, or transformation of these worlds at the service of the “higher” goals of a spiritualized consciousness. This is why disembodied spirituality is often crystallized in a “heart-chakra-up” spiritual life that was based preeminently in the mental and/or emotional access to transcendent consciousness and that tended to overlook spiritual sources immanent in the body, nature, and matter.”
What our Feet and Legs know
Grounding is owning our embodiment. Awakened spiritual knowing in grounding is experiencing the biophysical and spiritual energy of the universe. In transcendent spiritual knowing we embrace and experience that we are One with all material reality, the body of God.
In the practice of Whole Body Mystical Awakening we find the primary source of the charged embodiment from earth and cosmic energy is accessed through grounding our feet and legs.
Grounding, while in our physical body, helps us know we are centered and anchored to the physical reality of God embodied as the earth upon which we stand and walk upon all of our embodied lives.
Grounding energizes the other three centers of spiritual knowing, especially bodily sensations. In the transcendent realm, we see, feel, and know our physical connection the physical reality of the universe. When your mind is racing, grounding brings you back to the here-and-now.
Grounding practices
In Whole Body Mystical Awakening we spend time first in our heart and then in mind, gut, and feet. In the grounding of our legs and feet to the earth and cosmos, here are some practices that may help you experience this connection. Do any or all of them.
1. Sit down in a comfortable chair, one where your feet reach the floor. Let your awareness drop down to your feet.
2. Push your feet into the floor or ground.
3. Wiggle your toes, paying attention to the sensation.
4. Visualize roots growing from the bottom of your feet and down into the earth. Imagine as they dig down one, two, then three times the length of your body, deep down into the earth. These roots are holding you fast to the ground and not letting you float away. Like a tree drawing moisture and nutrients from the ground, see yourself drawing earth energy up into your feet and legs.
5. Look out a window at tree. If that is not possible, even looking at an indoor plant can help you see yourself with roots. Even better, go outside and hug a tree that you are attracted to. It’s ok to be a tree-hugger! As your body touches the tree from head to feet, let the earth energy in the tree transfer to you.
6. When possible walk barefooted in the grass or bare ground.
7. Try earthing — using products that ground one physically to the ground while in a building. Although “earthing” has yet to be more fully researched, many have found it useful. The Earth has a giant electromagnetic field and humans also have a bioelectromagnetic field. Therefore the human body has the capacity to connect profoundly with the earth.
Recharge your body energetically and spiritually by grounding with the earthy, cosmic body of God accessed through your body. You can practice this individually as part of a Whole Body Mystical Awakening practice or together with others in a WeSpace group.
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