Welcome back to The Gist. Over the last several weeks, we have been exploring John Kabat-Zinn's book Coming to our Senses, with particular attention to one sense each week. When we put all of them together they form what John calls the bodyscape. The bodyscape forms our sensory experience which is ultimately interpreted into a message, maybe even a narrative in our minds - what John calls the mindscape. The bodyscape is really part of the mindscape which houses our sense of awareness.
John notes that 'when we become aware, when we rest in the knowing, we are resting in the deep essence of the mindscape, in the basic empty spaciousness that is awareness itself. It is its own sense. Perhaps the ultimate sense'
Awareness is the sense that gives us the ability to witness our own experiences, thoughts and feelings. It is ever present in us, in our interior lives, beyond words and labels. Even if we lived a different life, looked different, were called by a different name, our awareness would remain unchanged. While awareness itself is not tangible, has no center or periphery, it is the sense that allows us to cradle all our other senses in it.
John encourages us to stop living on autopilot and to regularly practice closely seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting, and also 'awarenessing'. Being aware means to 'drop in' on our interior life frequently, through formal practices like meditation, and through the living of daily life. To carry with us the sense that, whatever is happening in this moment, deserves our full attention and acceptance just as it is.
At the same time, while awareness brings us into the present moment, it also connects us with something much bigger than ourselves. It reminds us that we are but a part of a very large universe where everything is impermanent yet also, in some sense, timeless. By cultivating awareness we can be both fully present in this moment, without losing the perspective that the moment is also fleeting.
To understand how awareness can help us stay present, it is best to give John the last word, who eloquently talks about it in this excerpt from his book. 'When we know something of the mindscape through a sustained cultivating of intimacy with how things actually, we are better able, in any and every moment, to let go of our fears that things will not work out for us (the future), and to let go of our various strivings to make sure that they will work out the way we want by subtly or not so subtly attempting to force them to (again the future)' For now is already the future and it is already here. Now is the future of the previous moment just past, and the future of all those moments that were before that one. Remember back in your own life for a moment, to when you were a child, or an adolescent, or a young adult, or to any other period already gone. This is that future. The you you were hoping to become, it is you. Right here. Right now. You have already turned out.’
It has been wonderful to explore each of our senses in turn. This week we can try to hold all our senses together in our awareness and practice paying attention, moment by moment, to our experience of daily life.
Wishing you a wonderful week as you attend to each moment. Over the next few weeks we turn to the work of other scientists and authors who have examined how we can live in a more integrated way both within our own minds and bodies, and also in relation to the world around us.
