Senses of reality

What do we see when we open our eyes? The actual world is set out before us, but our blunted senses barely comprehend it. We see the part that is most familiar to us, and we look with whatever is strongest in us: what we are sensitive to, what we care about.

The five physiological senses do not register all of reality’s dimensions. The whole range of things we see are real, a portion of the truth. This is why our perceptions are so convincing. We are quite capable of perceiving what corresponds to or injures our own interests. It’s easy to perceive physical beauty, especially of the young. But it’s harder to perceive inner beauty. It’s easy to sense when those we love are injured. It’s harder to understand the suffering of those we don’t love.

We spend most of our days lost in the present. While we are skimming surfaces, we dimly make out another dimension, and feel the ache of a loss that we do not comprehend. We suffer from forgetfulness, and cannot fathom the connections or the results. It is as if we were blind. We wander about, bumping into subtleties, knocking over truths.

We feel for shape of things, striving to understand their actual form. We appeal to a standard, though we do not know what it is. As confused as our experience is, we know that the wider world of beauty and truth exists.

It is this conviction which gives birth to the profound senses. Whenever there is sufficient commitment to perceiving reality, the capacity arises. The appreciation of a thing IS the sense that comprehends it. We perceive a facet of reality simply in virtue of tuning in to it, of aligning our receptivity to its existence. We need only follow the course of its effects in reverse: looking more deeply into causes, until we reach the origin.

Multi-faceted reality cradles us, but it is the state of our self that determines the substantiality of our own identity. We ourselves partake less or more in reality. There is an aperture which closes or opens, shutting out or letting in the true light. The scope of the reality we see depends on the development within us of the profound senses. This exquisite aptitude is the universal birthright of humanity.