Day 303, Sunday, November 3, 2024
Good morning Friends!
How familiar are you with the sensory world? Our five senses and the mind create meaning of the world that surrounds us. Yet we’re jaded to our sensuous power. Therefore the meanings we receive are dull as compared to their finest possibilities.
What if we pay deeper attention to every sense while it is functioning fine? What if we don’t wait for something to go wrong? We begin to “see” instead of merely “looking.” The words “look” and “see” are as different as “hearing” and “listening.” One is ordinary and the other mindful. So let’s be mindful of what we see, hear, touch, smell and taste.
There is seeing and, as Jon Kabat-Zinn writes, there is “being seen:” a caring person looking at you with kind and accepting eyes for who you are. Do you remember when it happened to you? Did a current of comforting love flow through your body? One is not likely to forget such a moment.
Inspiration
Developing Fine Senses
To develop the subtle and complex emotion of wonderment and awe that delights, you must sharpen the senses. When cultivated to the best of your ability, you are better able to enjoy finer things in life – art, nature, literature, and the divinity in you. Once developed well, they displace the trivial and spiteful.
You may be going through your day-to-day life thinking you are utilizing the five senses, but what you are doing is merely going through the motions of living. What if you are not living as passionately as you could? Mindfulness, attention, and awareness train you to sharpen your senses to their maximum capacity. So much so that you begin to experience physical sensations that you did not know you had the potential to sense.
World literature and art is unfathomably unique and diverse. Even fine arts of a single culture vary immensely. Take interest in the one that touches your heart, that you truly appreciate, and take the first step to develop new subtle senses and feelings. You cannot go wrong. Whatever speaks to your heart-mind is correct.
Appreciating distinctly different arts connects diverse world cultures. The delight you feel when sensing new experiences is exactly the same in the language of the art and heart.
It is therefore up to you to improve the quality of your life, and to grow emotionally and spiritually.
Journal Prompt
Journal about the senses you use the most and the ones you use the least. What can you do to further strengthen the strongest sense and use more often the ones that are neglected?
Today’s Practice
Meditation: “Body”
Read, reflect, and journal.
Lorraine
Taste and smell are the two I notice the least. Just like seeing and hearing, there is a difference between eating and tasting. I typically eat. Today I will focus on taste and smell. Namaste.
Madhu B. Wangu
Namaste Lorraine!
Sounds good! Please journal tonight about the difference it made and then share your experience with us.
Jenn Diamond
Namaste, Madhu. I’ve been thinking about my sense of hearing because I recently scheduled an appointment with an audiologist because I have to admit I’m not hearing as well as I used to. I can hear the sound of people’s voices, but I often mishear the words, sometimes to comedic effect! I have ringing in my ears, too, which I find interesting in that sometimes I can tune the tinnitus out and I don’t even notice it. But there are times when I don’t even notice the ringing sounds at all! How interesting our senses are? Thank you!
Madhu B. Wangu
Namaste Jenn,
Good for you that at times you can tune out the ringing in your ears or don’t notice it as all. Some members of the Mindful Creators Group at Ashby Ponds have a similar hearing hinderance. But they too can tune it out.
Enjoy your evening!