St Francis of Assisi Punishing the Unholy Body
Perhaps the most famous example of this was the Italian monk, St. Francis of Assisi. He was a wonderful, humble soul that inspired many to accept and love others. He claimed to have a special love for the creatures of the natural world. Although he was incredibly kind to others, he was brutally cruel to his own body. He could accept other's bodily needs, but rejected his own.
He often referred to his body as "Brother jackass", and subjected it to extreme hardship. He subsequently died quite early, at the age of 42. If he had accepted deeply the spiritual nature of his own body, I am certain St. Francis would have lived to a ripe old age and achieved far more profound spiritual states. Let me share an interesting story with you in this regard.
When I visited Assisi in Italy a few years ago, I meditated for hours beside his tomb. There was very strong energy there, but I felt it wasn't his. I used the Inner Smile process and some other alchemical dissolving meditations to peel off the centuries of emotional-devotional religious projection that had been layered onto him.
I sought to connect to his spirit through direct contact with the vibrational essence remaining in his bones. After many hours of going deeper and deeper inside his bones lying in his tomb, I felt I finally achieved a direct and unadulterated connection with Francis. More accurately, I contacted his spirit body, which had merged with a larger collective consciousness that was responsible for the holding the "St. Francis" frequency.
The clear message I received was that upon his death, Francis' soul realized the error of rejecting his body and mistreating it. Francis then vowed to remain as a presence supporting the acceptance of the animal body as essential to the spiritual development of all beings on earth.
Hence his popularity as the patron saint of animal lovers, among other things. But meanwhile, other people are unfortunately reading his thoughts written when he was in a less developed state, thoughts that are very body-negative. St. Francis was guilty only of believing the anti-body prejudice common to Christians of his time.
History is filled with other ascetics who failed to integrate their bodily reality with their soul reality. They achieved elevated mystical states by loving others more than themselves, but could not ground this spiritual field within their own physical body. Some died of terrible diseases. Why couldn't their great spiritual awareness transform that disease?
I believe it was because their spirit was not properly linked to their body. These mystics may attain a One Mind state, but may not achieve the One Body or "yang body" consciousness sought by Daoist adepts. They achieved a certain high level of mind enlightenment, but did not achieve whole body enlightenment, known in China as immortality.
At the opposite end from these out-of-body mystics are narcissistic, selfish types who love only their body appearance. These people have
no regard for their deeper spiritual self, which is what allows us to see beyond our ego self and include others as part of the same field of collective human consciousness.
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