Ministers Of The Soul

Ministers Of The Soul

From our friend, Charles R.

We see, we hear, we touch, we taste, we inhale. Through our five senses we navigate our external world, most of the time oblivious to the myriad details of our surroundings. Each of our senses is a doorway, bringing us to the threshold of self-remembering. No impression experienced by the four lower centers via the five senses is too small or insignificant to usher in the third state.

This evening while composing this post, I happened to glance at a packing box that has yet to be opened. It is nothing special. A brown cardboard box with a description of the contents in plain lettering with the words ‘length’, ‘material’ and ‘color’ printed on it. The box is simply a box, an unimportant item in the room. At least it seemed that way until I saw the color of the word ‘color’. In that moment, attentiveness to my external world and self-awareness expanded. Walt Whitman must have had countless similar experiences when he expressed ‘… it may be something regarded by others as being very paltry, inadequate, useless….’ We often harbor this attitude regarding our own relationship to those ‘paltry, inadequate’ impressions.

There are so many other examples of these small, seemingly insignificant impressions that are available to our all our senses. Looking out of a window, I was able to see at least five different shades of green among the trees, bushes and plants rather than just trees, bushes and plants. There’s the distinct taste and texture of the skin of a baked potato, and the cool touch of the aluminum of the laptop I’m using to write this post. Shakespeare called these many and varied impressions ‘the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to’. These ‘natural shocks’ are the fuel that allows the Steward to introduce presence and our being to prolong the state.

And what of the individual who has made the necessary efforts to awaken that are available only in a school? The student who has experienced the mystical marriage of higher centers, the permanent fusion of higher emotional and higher intellectual centers? The impressions he encounters he imbues with consciousness, and the consciousness of the impressions he receives informs him of the objective reality of the cosmos on all scales.

The fifteenth of this month was the anniversary of Leonardo’s birthday, so is it is fitting that we acquiesce to him and receive his birthday gift to us:

“The five senses are the ministers of the soul.”— Leonardo da Vinci

Join the discussion

An Allegory Of The Five Senses, Follower of Nicolas Régnier (French, 1591-1667)