This stinking skin bag

The Chinese Buddhists call the body a "stinking skin bag" （臭皮囊）.

For a stinking skin bag, I must admit that I spend quite a lot of time on it. I estimate that I spend an average of about 5 hours per week in the gym between carrying weights or doing cardio exercises, which is a pretty significant amount of time.

I started going to gym seriously only about 3 years ago, when I started doing dragon boat. I had to build up my fitness to keep up with the dragon boat training. But if I were to stop dragon boating today, I would still continue to go to gym, simply because it sure feel good to have a nice physique! (Yes, it's vainity.)

There are good reasons to keeping fit and maintain a good physique. Besides the obvious health benefits and physical well-being, I must admit that it also contributes to self-esteem and confidence. It even helps in social life -- it's amazing how people appears to be friendlier if you look nicer.

However, the path to getting a good physique is fraught with many traps and pitfalls.

After having gotten by for so many years without without much attention, I found it rather disconcerting that people suddenly seems to notice me and be friendlier. For a while, I started to react with a bit of paranoia and suspicion. I kept wondering if they were really friendly because of who I am, or just because of the physique. It took me a while to put that aside and learn to appreciate that people can still be genuinely sincere even if they are attracted to physical appearance.

Then, there is the trap of putting gym as a higher priority above all other things. I knew this was a very common trap many of the gym rats got into. I could not remember if I ever told my friends that I can't meet them because I'm need to go to gym (ok, I confess, there are probably some people whom I rather pass over for gym), but I had to check myself from placing building a nice body over other important things in life.

I had been tempted many times over to take protein supplement. It was a temptation I had managed to resist so far though it keeps challenging me every now and then. Practically everyone who goes to gym and carry weights takes protein supplement. But I do not believe in it and I think it's not good for health. However, when you see people gaining results quickly after taking the supplements, it gets tempting. I had to ask myself many times over, what is the real motivation for working out. So far, I have resisted because I think it is really not good -- not just for health but for mental well-being as well.I did not want to get too built and start to worry about losing it if I stop the supplements -- that would be a bad mental state to get into.

Another thing I had consciously watched out for was if I had start to think of other people as less. I had indeed caught myself looking down on others. My disdain was not at those who do not have a good physique -- I can empathize with them having been there for so long -- but at those who are constantly enviously but not willing to put in the effort to work out. It's something I still have to work with.

Perhaps it was inferiority complex -- I keep thinking that I was not really that well-built. Then recently, a few things prompted me to look in the mirror honestly. I decided that I do now have quite a nice body -- good enough by my standards anyway.

It was then a good time to start contemplating what good has a nice physique done to me. Well, much good I think, except for one thing. Long ago, I thought if I have a nice physique, it would be easily to find a partner. Seriously, it did not make any difference.

However, what I discover was that although a good physique does bring about a better sense of well-being, it did not bring about the rooted sense of happiness and fulfilment that I was seeking. That is something which I think can be only obtained through the cultivation of wisdom and compassion.

In the end, I decided that a hot bod is definitely nice, but a cool head and a warm heart is far more important. However, there is no reason why a hot bod cannot contain a cool head and warm heart. I just must not loose sight of the fact that even a hot bod is nothing more than a "stinking skin bag" to contain the heart and mind.