Episode 96 – Freeing the Senses
[This episode originally aired on November 22, 2022] Continuing our discussion of the sense perceptions, and how they are connected with a subtle kind of grasping • in Buddhism we talk about the senses as having three components: the sense organ, the sense object, and the sense consciousness • every sense perception we have is a meeting of those three elements • it is an active process, one that involves a great deal of selection and interpretation; we are creating our world as much as we are responding to it • there is a form of walking meditation that highlights how easily the sense perceptions are distorted • you begin by just simply walking outside, without talking, without any particular agenda • one of the walkers has a bell, and when the the bell is rung, everyone stops • you let go of the sense of coming from somewhere and trying to get somewhere, and just stop — just letting the senses sense, instead of trying to observe anything • notice the grasping of the sense perceptions and the relaxing of the sense perceptions, the heightened sense of duality and the softening or dissolving of that duality • in exploring the senses, we are exploring our way of being in the world altogether.