LIVING WITH THE SENSES

VICTOR MANUEL GUZMAN VILLENA

On having spoken about the silence, it is necessary to remit us to the quietude and to live with all the senses. For it I am going to transcribe some exercises of meditation that Anselm Grün narrates to us. It is not a question of proposing big targets. Rather, the exercise consists of remaining gathered precisely without much ado in ourselves, of being present in the proper senses and of experiencing the world with them.

It is necessary to look for a quiet space, out of the city – if it is possible to do it in a country - or in a quiet sector of the city. This first exercise is easy, in the first ten minutes of daily walk, to limit yourself to look: What do I see?, to notice the scenery, the gardens, the flowers, the field, the forms of the trees. To observe the sky and how does play with the clouds. It is not a question of a curious look: the eyes do not stroll around constantly of a side for other. Is to be completely immersed in seeing. In seeing the amazing beauty of the creation, to perceive the force of the nature. That's why for the Greeks, the sight is the most important sense for the meeting with the power of the universe. Do not watch as a spectator, but as merge with the sight.

This is also what means “contemplation“: looking it is possible to discover the bottom of the things and there, in its depth, to discover the knowledge of the nature. To "meditate" means also: to look inwards, to visualize the proper light. The light of the sun that guides our look towards the interior light of the soul. There to discover the power that generates the universe not like a certain image but like foundation of all the images.

Then, during another ten minutes try to limit oueselves to listening. What do I hear when I walk along the scenery listening attentively? I hear the rustle of the wind, of the field, of the birds, the barking of the dogs, the noise of the city. And I hear my own steps. When everything is immersed in the listening, finally also listen in all the noises the quietude, not disturbing the peace, makes it perceptible. And sometimes, in the middle of a lot of noise not to hear anything, but only the calm, those are wonderful moments, since we will not listen to cars that circulate along any place, or noise of any class, at that time the absolute calmness reigns. And then we hear a light rustle again. It is something delicate that makes audible for us the calmness that wraps us. To listen always has a mystery aura. In what we hear we perceive, in the fund, the audible.

In the ten following minutes, to devote ourselves only to smell. I smell the scenery, the fragrance of the flowers, the trees, the field, of the shrubs that rise at the edge of the way. If we concentrate completely in smelling, we will state that every scenery has its own smell and that a scenery smells of different form in the morning than in the evening, of different form after raining that while it rains or that when it shows the sun, of different form in winter than in spring, summer or autumn. We smell the diversity.

The smell is a sense loaded with emotions.With the smell, there comes to us the memory of the smells of our infancy that were important, who were transmitting a safety sensation. But also the affronts that we experience of children are associated often with certain smells. When we smell, the thoughts stop fluttering in us. Then, we are completely in one of our senses, in our body, not in the mind. To smell communicates us with intense experiences of our infancy, adolescence and also ripeness. we remember our holidays and we it associate at once the smell with our adventures, with the good moments that we spend in certain places and the smell causes in us a feeling of freedom as well as a safety sensation, and at the same time, there is in this fragrance a slight sign of transcendency, of mystery. It is clear that, the harmony of the cosmos itself touched us.

Next, we try to have the senses focus only in our skin. We notice the wind, which sometimes caresses us tenderly or it is up to our bones. We feel the heat of the sun in our face. Then is when we wonder about the mystery of the creation. We extend the arms and perceive its powerful energy that wraps and encourages us. We feel the sun, the wind and how is so good to us. Or we touch the grass, the flowers, the leafs, the crust of a tree. There we can concentrate entirely at once in touching, of experiencing the calmness. Now only we perceive. We are immersed in feeling and that pacifies us.

When we are overturned in the tact, we touch something that is major than we are. We are not satisfied neither with comparing the different experiences, nor with evaluating them from a scientific point of view. We touch in the things the untouchable, the excellent mystery. Then, by means of the tact, all that surrounds is calmed down. Everything is silenced and does not speak any more than of the indescribable.

When we walk along the nature with all the open senses, it stops the tumult of the numerous thoughts. Rather, we are immersed in looking, listening, smelling and feeling. The thoughts remain completely awake, for example, when we smell come to our mind certain fragrance of the infancy, of the youth, of the first kiss or hug, but we do not continue reigning on it. Our thoughts do not stroll everywhere. We are in the moment, we are in our senses and this way we calm down. The senses moor to the spirit and plunge it in the quietude.

For many persons to walk along the nature is an important footpath towards the quietude and the meeting with our-self that is the microcosm and we slide to the macrocosm to feel its nobility and power that goes out to our visible, audible, odorable and palpable.