Our body is not in space like things; it inhabits space. It applies itself to space like a hand or instrument; and when we wish to move about we do not move the body as we move an object.
We transport it without instruments as if by magic, since it is ours, and because through it, we have direct access to space. For us the body is much more than an instrument or a means; it is our expression in the world, the visible form of our intentions.
Even our most secret affective movements, those most deeply tied to the humoral infrastructure, help to shape our perception of things.
from ”The Primacy of Perception,” Maurice Merleau-Ponty