We’ve been practicing a Tibetan meditation in yoga class this week.
Based on the idea of the five senses of the body and using a physical practice to highlight the sense and then the lack of that specific sense (say closing down the eyes) as we moved onto another sensory organ of the body.
The most powerful aspect of this meditative process is how embodying it is.
Moving through the sensory organs, as we progressively closed each sense down, our other senses exploded to make up for that lost physical sense.
It’s the reason why blind people have an extraordinary sense of smell and hearing.
Why perhaps a deaf and blind person might have an even stronger sense of smell and a highly sensitive sense of touch.
But the aim of the meditation was not just sensory in nature.
For many practitioners of deeper states of meditation, the five senses of the body could be viewed as distractions from your ultimate goal – that of a perfectly still mind and a state of bliss.
Because each sense organ is an open gate to energy loss, as we sealed the five senses, we prevented the outflow of energy and redirected this flow of energy inwards.
Each of our senses has a corresponding element in nature.
The sense of smell corresponds to the element of earth, the eyes to fire, the sense of taste to water, the sense of touch to air and the sense of sound to ether.
A beautiful practice.
