Mindfulness of Senses

In the Asheyana path, Calm Abiding practice is supported by one's work with the Eight Renunciations, having developed some space of mind in stepping back from bivalent perceptions.

Here is an extension of the Calm Abiding practice to deepen one's work with the step : "3. Open the senses." This extension can be used during Calm Abiding practice or outside of defined practices sessions.

Called here "Mindfulness of Senses," this extension is inspired by the second of the Nikaya Buddhist Four Establishments of Mindfulness, also called "Mindfulness of Feeling," and by Nikaya Buddhist teachings on the "sense bases."

During a session of Calm Abiding, while working with the 'Five Points of Practice,' Location, Physical, Sensory, Attention, and Mind, one begins to focus more on the third Point of Practice, that of the Senses. One allows one's senses to naturally open to the panorama of the sense fields or to naturally focus on some object within the panorama of the sense fields, or to move steadily between openness and focus, for as long as openness or focus naturally occurs.

• • Drawing back from evaluations or judgements of what one's senses may contact, one simply connects with the basic experience of sensing.
    
    

• If what one senses gives rise to aversion or disgust, one draws back from evaluation or judgement and simply connects with the basic experience of sensing, gently returning to the panorama of senses.
  
  

• If what one senses gives rise to attraction or desire, one draws back from evaluation or judgement and simply connects with the basic experience of sensing, gently returning to the panorama of senses.
  
  

• If what one senses gives rise to indifference, lack of focus, or lack of sensory ability due to injury or condition, one draws back from evaluation or judgement and simply connects with the basic experience of sensing, gently returning to the panorama of senses.
  
  

• If one becomes overstimulated or understimulated during this Mindfulness of Senses practice extension, one briefly returns to the general Calm Abiding instruction until they are ready to continue working with this Mindfulness of Senses practice extension.
  
  

Following a session of Calm Abiding, one can extend Mindfulness of Senses into daily life by:

• Bringing the Mindfulness of Senses developed during practice to one's activities of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or smelling something pleasurable or enjoyable in daily life.
  
  

  • Notice if and how the senses are drawn to increase and perpetuate the pleasurable or enjoyable experience.
    
    

  • Notice how the senses feel after the sensory contact has passed.
    
    

• Bringing the Mindfulness of Senses developed during practice to one's activities of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or smelling something unpleasant or disagreeable in daily life.
   

  • Notice if and how the senses are repelled or withdrawing from the unpleasant or disagreeable experience.
     

  • Notice how the senses feel after the sensory contact has passed.

• Bringing the Mindfulness of Senses developed during practice to one's activities of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or smelling something unremarkable or ordinary in daily life.
  
  

  • Notice if and how the senses are underwhelmed or distractable during the unremarkable or ordinary experience.
    
    

  • Notice how the senses feel after the sensory contact has passed.
    
    

• If one becomes overstimulated or understimulated during this Mindfulness of Senses practice extension, one can return to the mindfulness and awareness of daily life until they are ready to continue working with this Mindfulness of Senses practice extension.
  
  

  • Notice if one's habits of sensory experience in daily life reflect one's Mindfulness of Senses in meditation practice--Be curious what might explain the difference between the two.
    
    

By practicing "Mindfulness of Senses," one can begin to see through direct experience how one's senses hold themselves and how they are drawn, repelled, scattered, and so on by feelings of attachment, aversion, or indifference arising from sensory contact. One can also begin to see for oneself the seeming permanence of a feeling arising from current sensory contact, and its actual impermanence once the sensory contact inevitably shifts.

The fruition of Mindfulness of Senses is called Poise of Senses--a good posture to the senses, with senses neither pushed nor pulled, with attention to the senses as senses, with arising sensory feelings held with a gentle firmness, such that the senses appear calm, focused, and free of craving, with a sensitivity that appears as elegance.

May these words help the gentle Asheyana practitioner to steadily hold the Poise of Senses, with full mindfulness. May it be of benefit.