What makes each of us different besides the shape, size and characteristics of our bodies? It is the absence or presence of the five evil thoughts of greed, arrogance, miserliness, covetousness and self-love. These are neural pathways in our minds. This combination of neural pathway defines who we are as a person. The absence or presence of these pathways determines how we think and act when situations arise in our lives. We are our thoughts.
We know that our bodies are not static. They go through the stages of life, and eventually cease to exist. Therefore some will say that the body is not important in relation to our mind. Oyasama (Miki Nakayama) once said that we must adorn our minds (with good thoughts) instead of our bodies (with possessions). The body ends, but does our minds continue? Enter the mysterious soul.
It is the soul that carries our pattern of thoughts for eternity from one lifetime to another. The body is only a temporary dwelling borrowed from God. Unlike the body, the soul has no color. It is this soul that programs and creates our mind upon entering the developing newborn. With this said, we cannot usually change our borrowed bodies, but we can change what is most important. We can change our thought patterns from evil to good. We have free will to act or not act upon our thought patterns that were established by our souls. By not acting upon our evil thoughts, the neural pathway for these evil thoughts becomes weaker; and we can eventually purify our minds of these evil thoughts.
God tells us that the purified mind only brings upon joy in our lives. In summary, it is the mind we must adorn first. With the attainment of the purified mind, the body will follow and prosper.