Perceptions

Sensual perception is the common factor for all living beings. It differs between the living beings only with respect to the number of senses. Human being is the only living species who have more than sensual perception, which is widely referred as sixth sense.

It may not be an easy task to capture the real meaning of perception beyond sensual perception in words. The description may lead us to some sort of imagination. There are multiple dimensions of perceptions beyond sensual perceptions. We human beings are capable of perceiving all the possible dimensions of perceptions. Yet we are unable to go beyond or can go just at a micro level beyond the sensual perception due to the way we are living our life. On the other side, we started losing the sensual perception also to a great extent due to the way of our living.

The term ‘way of our living’ indicates here about our attention to things happening with in us and around us. Due to this varied attention, the perceptual threshold is altered very frequently for various sensual perceptions, which leads to insensitivity to the senses, which is same as loss of perception. Are we incapable of being attentive to everything happening with in us and around us? Surely not! Our mind is inattentive to happenings due to its preoccupation with things which are created by the mind itself and caught between the things created by it. As the mind becomes the slave of its own creations, the thoughts, it appears to be very active but in an imaginary zone which has no reality. Due to the whirling movement of our mind within the things created by it, it has no space available for allowing even the sensual perceptions. When we are not able to perceive the senses itself, there is no question of the dimensions of perception beyond senses. When we are not able to completely perceive at least the sensual perceptions with zero or near zero perceptual threshold, we are actually not living. We just exist!

Our life is to live this wonderful life. When we are not in the field of perception, we are just wasting a possibility available to us – the possibility of living. What are the perceptions beyond our five sensual perceptions? We know that there are unlimited number of activities happening with in our body. The flow of blood, the contraction and expansion of muscles, the functioning of our internal organs are some of those functions. Are we able to perceive any of these happenings within our body? For example when we are attentive we can perceive to some extent the functioning of heart – the heart beat. I think this perception itself is something beyond our sensual perception. When we are in relaxed mood, are we able to perceive certain perceptions in the relaxed part of our body? When we have such perception, our relaxation actually gets multiplies. If we allow our mind to have enough free space, it is capable of perceiving such perceptions of our body and when we have that perceptions, the body and mind will be in a really relaxed mood. Please note that this perception is not due to imagination. If it is due to imagination, it is not perception – it is hallucination.

Why should we have perception? Perceiving is living. Perceiving is not in the past or not in the future. Perceiving is from moment to moment. It is living. If we do not perceive from moment to moment, we are not living – we are just existing.

All our problems are due to lack of perception. For example, when we eat a tasty food, we fail to perceive the taste from moment to moment. Due to the preoccupation of our mind with its own creations, we tend to recognize the taste only after the moment the taste bud senses the taste. We recognize it by comparison which is in the field of thoughts and not in the field of perception. Due to this, we tend to feel it again but repeatedly fail to perceive the taste as it is sensed by our senses. We compare the senses and after that we decide whether it is tasty or not tasty. Due to this failure in recognizing the taste as it is sensed, we rarely satisfied with the food and tend to over eat. If we really perceive the taste as the taste bud sense the taste, we will not over eat due to the desire of enjoying taste. We stop eating when required to stop, but will have a complete satisfaction of eating due to our complete perception of taste.

Another major problem for every one of us in our lives is the problem in relationships. This is the problem which constitutes the major part of all our problems. This problem is due to lack of perception. We never perceive or attempt to perceive others and other life forms. We just make images of others and other life forms and take this image as our perception at best. Then we act on these images, which never be the real action required based on perception. Due to this lack of perception or action based on image, a gap is developed between our actions and others and other life forms, which in turn create all the problems in relationships. Then how to perceive others and other life forms? It may not be possible to capture in words with our current level of perception. Unless we are capable of perceiving completely our senses and the happenings within us, any attempt to understand or explain the other dimensions of perception will enter into the domain of imagination. The discussion here is just to understand that we are capable of perceiving multiple dimensions of perceptions and the first step towards it is to perceive our senses completely and the happenings within our body and mind.

If we start perceiving these basic perceptions, nobody else is required for us to explain the other dimensions of perceptions. Our brain is capable of perceiving all those dimensions, if we allow the mind to have and expand the space within it which is created by the basic perceptions.