Nearly every spiritual and religious tradition has a theology of the body — a teaching about what the physical form is, what it is for, and how it relates to spirit, soul, or consciousness. These range from body as obstacle (some ascetic traditions) to body as sacred temple (many Indigenous and tantric traditions) to body as borrowed instrument (certain Buddhist frameworks) to body as primary site of divine encounter (many embodied spiritualities). How we understand the body metaphysically shapes how we treat it — the values and the practical care are not separable.
Dipa