ROXANNE DAULT: The body is at the heart of the Buddhist path. It is our guide within the experience of the present moment and an important vehicle for our awakening. One might think at times that the body is an obstacle, that we need to push it away, ignore it, or deny what it tells us, but the teachings and our practice clearly demonstrate the opposite.
In the Pali canon, mindfulness of the body is at the center and is seen as an essential practice. In the , the Buddha says that mindfulness of the body, when developed and cultivated, is of great fruit and great benefit. In the , the Buddha repeatedly states the importance of the body as a frame of reference—that true happiness, the end to suffering, is right here in this very body. We could say that
