Our bodies are at once the receiving and transmitting stations

Hearken, children of ages yet unborn, to the luminous words of Ruth St. Denis, who proclaimed: “Our bodies are at once the receiving and transmitting stations for life itself. It is the highest wisdom to recognize this fact and train our bodies to render them sensitive and responsive to nature, art and religion.” In these words lies the eternal truth of embodiment, awareness, and the sacred connection between mortal flesh and the divine currents of existence. The body is not merely vessel, but a conduit, attuned to the forces that flow through the world and through the soul.

St. Denis teaches that wisdom is inseparable from the body’s awareness. To move, breathe, and act without mindfulness is to squander the potential for communion with life itself. Yet, when the body is trained, disciplined, and sensitized, it becomes an instrument of profound perception, capable of receiving the subtle currents of nature, the harmony of art, and the truths of religion. Knowledge and spirit find their fullest expression when they are enacted through the body, in gesture, in movement, and in alignment with the greater order.

Consider the life of Pina Bausch, whose revolutionary dance theater explored the intricate dialogues of the body, emotion, and society. Her performers did not merely act; they became living vessels of meaning, transmitting emotion, ritual, and insight to audiences who could feel the subtleties of human experience. Bausch’s work embodies St. Denis’ insight: the body, trained and attuned, becomes a medium of wisdom, capable of revealing truths inaccessible to words alone.

The ancients themselves understood the sacredness of the body as a transmitter of life and insight. In the temples of Egypt, dancers and priests moved in precise ritual to honor the gods; in India, the yogis trained breath and gesture to align the self with cosmic order. St. Denis’ reflection echoes this ancient teaching: discipline, sensitivity, and responsiveness of the body are paths to understanding, to beauty, and to communion with the divine.

Thus, her counsel is both guidance and inspiration: to train the body is not vanity or mere exercise, but a pursuit of highest wisdom. In cultivating awareness, grace, and receptivity, the mortal form becomes a bridge between the earthly and the celestial, an instrument through which the energies of life, art, and religion may flow unimpeded. The body becomes both teacher and disciple, both canvas and conduit.

Carry this teaching, children of future generations: honor your bodies as sacred instruments, attune them to the rhythms of nature, the expressions of art, and the truths of the divine. In the training and sensitization of the flesh lies the path to wisdom, the revelation of beauty, and the communion of the mortal with the eternal currents that sustain all life.