Sensing - July Morning

I am increasingly aware of how my attention can constrict or expand my sensory awareness. For example, this morning I was out in my garden, digging away at weeks. Most of my attention was on what was directly in front of my nose. I was aware of the soil, its need for moisture. I was aware of the scent of the tomato plant leaves when I brushed against them, but didn't really feel when I brushed against them. I was aware of the warmth and humidity of the day, even at 6:30 a.m. Soon, I was aware of the deerfly buzzing around my head. Oh, and the itching of yesterday's deerfly bites. Shaking the dirt off the weeds meant that my arms, legs and socks became dirt-colored, not to mention gritty. Sometimes I was kissed by a few drops of dew falling from the weeds I was pulling. There was also the tug of weeds and satisfaction when I felt the roots pull free.

As I expanded my awareness, I heard our dogs panting in the shade and felt the ruffle of an occasional breeze through nearby trees and enjoyed the cooler air on my cheeks and arms. At one point, the sun, which had been hidden in blessed clouds, came out and the air temperature immediately warmed. Sometimes there was the song of the cardinal, probably celebrating a breakfast of raspberries! At another time, the distant roar of an airplane overhead.


Then, I heard big Gus barking for his own breakfast at the back door. Other family members were still asleep and I didn't want his barking to wake them up. It was clearly time to go in to feed Gus and Honey.

Amazing what paying attention brings! What if I widened attention even more?

Inner Awareness of the Physical

When I first engaged with psychosynthesis many years ago, I was a bit puzzled by why Roberto Assagioli would emphasize the physical. I was relatively young then and reasonably healthy and energetic. My only physical issues were that I sometimes had anxiety attacks. These would come at random times and scared me until I learned that they would not kill me and were not harmful.

When I first encountered relaxation and relaxation imagery as a college freshman in required physical education, I had been quite surprised by my sensations. We were stretched out on exercise mats listening to the instructor guide us through a relaxation exercise. When I first relaxed deeply, I felt as if my body would fall through the floor. What an alarming feeling it was at the time!

These days mindful awareness is promoted in counseling, healthcare settings, business offices and the mass media as a way of managing stress. Mindfulness practices can involve paying attention to the breath, being aware of internal sensations, deliberating relaxing body and mind, and observing one's sensations, emotions and thoughts. Disciplines such as yoga and chi gong cultivate fine-grained awareness, ability to discriminate among sensations and to detect energy shifts within and outside the body.

We become aware first through our senses. The physical senses are: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, kinesthetic sense, awareness of temperature, pain, balance and acceleration. Each of these senses can be developed. For example, a woman I know is a personal chef. She has an acute sense of smell and taste far surpassing mine. My husband grew up in a rural wooded area and can perceive a deer in hiding that I never see. A musician can hear tones that I never will, while a visual artist can distinguish among fine color gradations and lines that are just a little "off".

Classically, cultivation of the senses was part of the education of the young, and a way of life for those who were able to afford the leisure to continue the practices. Part of such education involved being able to represent the sensory realm in the imagination. So, for example, Beethoven could 'hear' his symphonies in his mind, even when he became deaf.

What might a sensory education be for those of us who are adults? How might we develop greater physical capacities even after a lifetime of forgetting that we are embodied?

As the Soul

One Symbol of the Soul is the Butterfly

I want to be clear about what the soul is when I write about it because there are many possible definitions and approaches to soul. In the way I am focusing my work, the Soul includes and transcends the entire personality. The physical, emotional and mental components of our being, as well as the subpersonalities that we form as a result of our roles, life experiences, and contact with role models, comprise our personal self, our unique individuality. As the Soul we explore all the dimensions of our being. At first, such self-awareness is focused on what we have to work with, our bodies, emotions and minds as they grow through innate patterns of development, are shaped by our interactions with the world into which we have been born, and by the choices we make along the way.

The next posts will address inner awareness of the physical, then the emotional, and the mental. After that, our attention will turn to subpersonalities, the parts of self we all develop as we grow and interact with others.  I will be presenting suggestions for increasing awareness and self-knowledge in relation to the physical, emotional and mental dimensions of the personality. In addition, I will address how to increase our capacity to know and bring our subpersonalities into harmony. From there, I will move to examining in more detail the inner "I" that observes, is aware, and consciously selects experiences the "I" wants to have. Along the way, I will bring into the discussion the fact that some experiences and knowledge go beyond the limits of ordinary consciousness, and so will identify some possible ways integrating these experiences into ordinary life. Furthermore, as the Soul makes itself increasingly known, puts forth calls or demands for attention and action, I will address the relationship between the Soul and the individual's personality. Sometimes the "I" or subpersonalities will resist the magnetic pull of the Soul, or become confused about what the "call" really is. Throughout the history of human experience, a number of patterns have been explored for resolving these tensions. These, too, will be presented and discussed.

Perspective

I want to say a few words about my perspective. I accept that humankind is in the midst of a major transformation, sometimes called a shift in consciousness, sometimes thought of as a breakthrough into a whole new way of life and culture on a planetary scale. I believe that the most important element of that transition is for humankind to get in touch with our Soul. Caroline Myss puts it this way in the introduction to her book, Entering the Castle: An Inner Path to God and Your Soul, "As an evolving spiritual culture, we are now ready to meet our souls."

What has formed my perspective is a lifetime of spiritual seeking, experience and reflection. I have explored Christianity in depth, and continue to practice as a Christian. I have also read deeply in Buddhist writings, studied shamanism, and have benefited from the teachings of Islam and Hinduism, as well. My favorite authors and teachers are open to Spirit in all religions, and in none in particular. Spirit cannot be caged or bounded, and neither can our souls.

Spirit can be met, and we can "meet our souls." We are transformed in the process. We can open to the transformational process, and embark on a journey of discovery that leads to peace, freedom and joy. T.S. Eliot wrote in "Little Gidding",We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

As we journey together we sense the destination, moving with excitement and joy toward new life and a transformed humanity.

About the Name of the Blog - Soul Focus

Sunrise in the mist
thundafunda.info

The Soul is more than the personality, includes more than ordinary consciousness, and has a timeless dimension as well as the ordinary-time dimension. When we shift our focus to the Soul, we have a broader perspective on our lives. We see ourselves differently, with more compassion, less self-judgment and criticism, and more detachment. From the point of view of the conscious personality, the Soul can seem mysterious and insubstantial, slippery, shrouded in mist and fog.

And yet the Soul also includes the personality, and all the sub-parts of the personality, those characters that we manifest in different parts of our lives. Soul has its physical, emotional and mental aspects as well. All of these and our eternal essence comprise the whole person we are.

Here, I explore ways we can focus on the Soul and as the Soul.