Sensations ,
Return to main One must become aware of certain body sensations of which one is
explicitly not aware. To go around by yourself to become conscious of
your toes, your feet, your legs, your knees, your thighs, your
buttocks, your waist, your stomach, your chest, your shoulders, your
fingers (starting from the tips), your forearms, your elbow, your
arms, your full back, then again your shoulders, your neck, your chin,
your lips, your nose, your cheeks, your ears, your eyes, your
forehead, your head, upper side of your head and backside of your
head. Do not dwell for more than two or three seconds on each part of
your body. REPEAT it again and again for five minutes.
This act of
yours brings a sense of relaxedness. BIGGEST ENEMIES: Nervous tension,
living too much in head i.e., to remain conscious of the thinking and
imagination and to remain conscious far too little of the activities
of the senses. It is a must to remain in the PRESENT and not in past
and future. One must master this technique of sense awareness. One
must learn to get out of the area of thinking and imagination and move
into the area from Head to Heart i.e., feeling, sensing, loving and
intuiting where contemplation takes birth, prayer becomes
transforming
power and a source of delight and peace. A few of you may feel an
increase in Tension. Note what part of your body is tense and see
exactly what the tension feels like. Become aware of the fact you are
tensing and note exactly how you are doing this. Note means not to
reflect but to feel and sense. You pick up no sensation. Why? Your
sensibility has been dead from so much living in head. Our skin is
covered with trillions (3 Powers of a million) of bio-chemical
reactions-that we call sensations and you are finding it hard to pick
up even a few of them? You have hardened yourself not to feel may be
due to some emotional hurt or conflict that you have long since
forgotten. And your perception, your awareness, power of concentration
and attention are still gross and underdeveloped. It is as a means for
attaining relaxation and stillness. GET IN TOUCH WITH SENSATIONS AGAIN
AND AGAIN without naming limbs and organs as you sense. If you notice
an urge to move or to shift your posture or position-do not give into
it. Do continue this exercise for a few minutes. You will gradually
feel a certain stillness in your body. Go on with your AWARENESS
exercise and leave taking care of stillness. If you are distracted,
get back to awareness of body sensations, moving from one to another,
until your body becomes still once again, your mind quietens, you are
able to sense again stillness that brings peace and a foretaste of
contemplation and of God. HOWEVER, DO NOT explicitly rest in the
stillness. Because resting in it can be relaxing and even delightful.
BUT in it there is DANGER of mild trance or mental blankness which is
not good for contemplation. It is like a sort of self-hypnosis that
has nothing to do either with the sharpening of awareness or with
contemplation. IMPORTANT: DO NOT DELIBERATELY seek stillness or
silence within you and not EXPLICITLY REST in it when it occurs. BUT
SEEK SHARPENING OF AWARENESS. In moments, stillness becomes so
powerful that all exercise and all your efforts become impossible.
Then it is no longer you who go in quest of stillness. But stillness
takes possession of you. THEN you may safely, and profitably, let go
of all effort and surrender to this overpowering stillness within you.
III. Deepening Exercise-Body Sensations
The body sensations exercise is so simple, in fact, as to prove
disillusioning. To advance in it, you have to preserve in simplicity.
Resist temptation to seek novelty, but try to seek DEPTH. You have to
practice second exercise over a long period of time. You may ask for
benefits. Don't ask. Do what you are asked to and you will discover
yourself. TRUTH is found less in words and explanations than in action
and experience. So get to work, with faith and perseverance. Close
your eyes. Repeat previous exercise of body sensations for five to ten
minutes.
NOW CHOOSE JUST ONE SMALL AREA OF YOUR FACE, PICK UP EVERY
SENSATION. At the beginning you may not feel. Continue previous
exercise, then enter in this area. Be aware of the type of sensations
that emerge; itching, pricking, burning, pulling, vibrating,
throbbing, numbness.... ... If your mind wanders, bring it patiently
back to exercise.
IV. Thought Control
By doing previous awareness exercises, your mind may be
distracted. To deal with such situation, you shall keep your eyes half
closed-resting on an object or one spot three feet ahead of you. You
are not to focus on the object/spot. By doing this, you may have
trouble with your wandering mind. No cause for alarm. You practise
control over your wandering mind with patience and perseverance.
Gradually you will succeed.
To deal with distraction of mind you may follow any of the two
ways:
a) You have to follow your thoughts as a puppy in the streets
follows any pair of legs it finds in motion. It does not care for the
direction where they are moving. After some seconds, you shall make
yourself aware that you are thinking. You may say to yourself
interiorly that I am thinking ......... thinking ...... thinking. By
this you will be aware that thinking process is going on.
b) The other way to overcome distraction is to observe your
thoughts as a man stationed at his window watching passers by on the
street. After doing this for a while, you shall keep yourself aware
that you are thinking .... thinking .... thinking .... You may do any
of the above two exercises for not more than five minutes. Thinking
tends to stop by making yourself aware of it. A distraction charged
with strong emotion: love, fear, resentment, sorrow-will not easily
yield to this exercise. Other exercises discussed hereinafter shall
help you in that.
V. Breathing Sensations
(Become aware of sensations in various parts of your body)
Become aware of the air as it comes in and goes out through your
nostrils. Do not concentrate on the air as it enters in lungs, but
limit awareness to nostrils breath. Do not control your breathing.
Don't attempt to deepen it. It is not breathing exercise, but
breathing awareness. Whenever you are distracted, return with vigour
to your task to enable you to make you aware of each breath. Continue
this exercise for ten to fifteen minutes. This exercise may be
difficult for some of you in comparison to previous exercises; but it
is most rewarding in sharpening awareness, bringing calmness and
relaxation. HOWEVER, in attempting breathing awareness DO NOT tense
your muscles. Determination must not be confounded with nervous
tension. You may be distracted at the beginning but you must keep
returning again and again to the awareness of your breathing the mere
effort involved in doing this-will bring beneficial effects that you
will gradually notice.
After developing some proficiency in this exercise move on to
somewhat difficult and more effective variant:
a) Become aware of the sensation of the air passing through your
nostrils. Feel its touch-in which part of the nostrils you feel the
touch of the air while inhaling .... and in what part of the nostrils
you feel the touch of the air while exhaling .......
b) Become aware of the warmth or coldness of the air .... its
coldness when it comes in, and its warmth when it goes out.
c) Also be aware of quantity of air that passes through one
nostril is greater than the amount that passes through other .....
d) Be sensitive and alert to the slightest, lightest touch while
inhaling and exhaling .... STAY with this awareness for ten to fifteen
minutes. In case you put in more time, you will get better results.
But DO NOT stay on breathing awareness alone for many hours over a
period of more than two or three days. Although this exercise brings
you great peace and a sense of depth and fullness that delights you
but prolonged concentration on breathing is likely to produce
hallucinations or to draw out material from the unconscious that you
may not be able to control.