By the way, you can replace "body" by "mind" in your previous comments about not functioning as desired. That is another grave mistake in most religions: to idealize the purity of mind.

Mind can fail as well, it is far from perfect.

Reality as we know and generate it is not consistent, never will be.

No body no mind

No mind no body

The division between material and immaterial is arbitrary in my opinion once you start seeing everything as a process.

A short anecdote: according to David Peat, native Americans would describe anything in nature as a process, e.g. fish are "swimming processes in the water". Now that is a very intelligent point of view.

Maybe i am overlooking something right now, but I see absolutely no difference between being not attached to thoughts and being not attached to my body. I even question if i can actually be mentally attached to my body.

It is however possible to have a body image (distorted/not distorted) and to be attached to that.

When i feel pain, when i am sick, it is my un-ease, i have to embrace it, not resist it. Again, it's identification taking place, not attachment. My body merely is, it is there, a part of me.

It might actually be a language thing, bringing in duality where there isn't. And it's also the legacy of Descartes and his followers of course:).

Just like spacetime, if you consider the mindbody process, there is no longer a problem, no distinction.

Can mindbody as a whole be attached to itself? A part of it may be…

Hm, i feel like philosophizing on the practical… Consider the following, somewhat wild hypothesis: as a baby mindbody develops, seeking physical security in the environment, the whole representation system develops, the system of thought. The environment can only be perceived through representations, so there is in fact a seeking of security in basic, primitive thoughts. At some point it creates the center, the "ego" if you will, from which it categorizes, it labels, thereby creating the illusion that it, the center, is something/someone separate from the representation of mindbody, which is unaware at that stage.

The whole surrounding culture adds to this false construction, the illusion is all over the place. As we grow older, the center solidifies, and we continue to seek security in the representations, in thoughts, so self gets addicted to its thoughts. Since self gets divided in most cases, there is a whole lot of conflict and confusion, and it sees no way of getting out.

Now, when the mess gets sorted out into a more integrated system of thought through some form of meditation practice or rather an integrated form of living more aware, mind starts opening up, becoming more "fluid", wiping away illusions (blocking, false, dividing thoughts) through insight. Once the center momentarily ceases to be, through some larger insight, mindbody recognizes the falsity of the center, putting thought in its proper place.

That is my best bet for the moment:D.

+ mirror neurons, or some other mechanism:), it doesn't matter that much, it is there, it can be observed. I even doubt whether these also get triggered when there is no visual recognition, as while listening to music, for example.

A la prochaine!

Attachment and identification are well worth looking into. Our 'self' that we people think (largely unconsciously) we are is not some THING, rather a process that is changing all the time, influenced by other people (family, friends, foes, … ), the job we have, our taste in food and arts, the stuff we read, the shizzle on TV, the mind practices we do, our physical body that feels healthy or less healthy, …

The body however *is* some THING that's less fleeting than thoughts or feelings. This tends to be underestimated, especially in spiritual circles where the immaterial world is often put on a pedestal. It's hard not to be attached to your body, for the simple reason it's the only one you happen to have for many years, and it's not getting better when we age. If it's not functioning well you might escape it for a while (sleep, trance, drugs, …) but it's the first THING you meet when you wake up again, confronting you with your limitations, driving you into escapism and making the world a worse place while you're at it, or forcing you to deal with uncertainty and to take another look at the world and your convictions, and that's where the mind, the self comes into play again (Joseph LeDoux, Freud, the mindbody, …).

Yin Yang, n'est-ce pas?

"… because you can only connect with something or someone by identifying. Correct me if i am wrong!"

Right! That's what mirror neurons do apparently.

It should stand the test of time, we'll see