Here in this body are the sacred rivers, flowing with the essence of life itself. The commitment to our immediate embodied experience is the most radical commitment we could ever make. To commit to this life – right here, right now, as it is – is the unbearable and direct path into the love and freedom that we all so long for.

When sadness comes calling, grief appears, shame arrives, and anxiety comes for coffee, I do not mistake them for ordinary visitors. They come as grace-messengers from beyond. Inside every feeling, each sensation, and every flow of emotion is a secret doorway into the center of the heart. I allow these guests to reveal to me their gifts, turning toward them, for they are the way home.

In the words of the great tantric sage Saraha, “Here in this body are the sacred rivers: here are the sun and moon as well as all the pilgrimage places… I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body.” Whatever I am offered in this day – the beautiful, the challenging, the heartbreaking, the painful, the difficult – I allow this life to touch me in the most unprotected way. I somehow find the courage to risk everything for this one and only rare experience, allowing each and every person I meet to matter deeply.

I make this pilgrimage into and through the cells of my heart, learning its secrets; and through the strands of my DNA, sailing down the sacred rivers which make up this precious human body. And, finally, I behold the movement of love as it washes through every organ, reorganizing my entire somatic sensual reality into a vessel of kindness and attuned empathic presence, filled with profound care for this life and for all beings everywhere.

© Beatriz Esmer