Jain Spirit 2003 06 No 15

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 33

IF ONLY I COULD BE LIKE MY CELLS
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the non-physical. The generation gap is not an option.
When I look at what my cells have agreed to, isn't it a spiritual pact in every sense of the word? Other labels work just as well for any of these qualities. The first, higher purpose, could be changed to surrender or selflessness. Awareness includes both alertness and adaptability. But my body is unconcerned with labels. To it, these qualities are woven into everyday existence. They are the result of life's inner intelligence evolving over billions of years as biology. If you examine the structure of a single cell, nothing like surrender, awareness or communion would be evident. These qualities aren't present in single-celled organisms like bacteria, yeasts, and amoebas. The mystery of life was patient and careful in allowing its full potential to emerge. Singlecelled creatures continue to thrive - thousands live in your intestines, which could not digest food without them. Evolution moves forward, but it remembers where it has been and nothing is lost.
Even now the silent agreement that holds my body together feels like a secret, because to all appearances it doesn't exist. More than two hundred and fifty types of cells go about their daily business - the fifty functions that a liver cell performs are totally unique, not overlapping with the tasks of muscle, kidney, heart or brain cells - yet it would be catastrophic if even one function were compromised. As it divides into billions of progeny, the first fertilized cell in my mother's womb kept its link to the source. At the level of memory, I still am that first cell. If I possess a soul, anything I could possibly know about it was told to my body first.
The mystery of life has found a way to express itself through me. In fact that's my purpose for being here. Am I fulfilling that purpose? If you read over the list again and take note of everything marked 'not an option', you confront a stark fact: the very behaviour that would kill our bodies in a day hasn't been renounced by us as people. We are selfish and greedy. We refuse to cooperate. We behave as though there is no higher purpose more important than the demands of I, me and mine. In our fragmentation and confusion, we've been ignoring the very model of a perfect spiritual life inside ourselves.
As they evolved, cells learned what really works for survival. Your body can't afford to pay lip service to leading a spiritual life unless it wants to throw away eons of wisdom. Yet the vast majority of suffering in our personal lives comes about because we consciously choose to behave contrary to the soul bargain that keeps our bodies alive.
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Deepak Chopra, MD is a pioneer of alternative medicine, a fellow of the American College of Physicians and founder of the The Chopra Centre for Well Being, California. The above article first appeared in Namaste, the official email newsletter of the Chopra community, and has been reprinted here with the kind permission of The Chopra Centre.
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June - August 2003. Jain Spirit
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