Today’s letter is adapted from our new course on Buddhism in Stoa. Listen here.
Every day, our life is full of sensations.
Most of them we don’t even notice anymore: The noise from your neighbors, the texture of your shirt on your skin, the sensation of your watch on your wrist, the rumble of the car as you drive.
Our lives are made up of a series of sensations, and we don’t pay attention to them.
When we practice mindfulness and concentration on sensations, we can notice them for what they are. We become like the Buddha described when he said:
When feeling a pleasant feeling, one understands: ‘I feel a pleasant feeling.’ When feeling a painful feeling, one understands: ‘I feel a painful feeling.’
Majjhima Nikaya
In Buddhism a sensation is what happens when an external object comes together with a sense organ. In Buddhism there are six sense organs: the eyes, nose, tongue, ears, body and mind. These sensations come in three categories. They are good, bad, or neutral.
If that sounds simple, that’s because it is. It is not the case that I experience delicious, expensive crab meat. Rather, when I reflect on it, it is only that my tongue receives a good sensation. I do not hear an inconsiderate neighbor blasting their music. My ears receive a bad sensation.
One goal, in mindfulness of sensations, is to not add an interpretation or reaction to our sensations, but to see them clearly for what they are. Simply a good, bad, or neutral sensation to one of our sense organs.
Buddhism teaches that, unless we are mindful, we move from a sensation to craving, desire, or emotion. Mindfulness of sensations is, in part, about building a hard stop into an automatic process. If you are not mindful, an unpleasant sensation in your ear becomes anger at your neighbor for being inconsiderate again. A pleasant tongue sensation becomes craving for more expensive food, and the career that supports this lifestyle.
But we can just see sensations for what they are, impressions on the sense organs. Nothing more. This sets us free from our automatic reactions, interpretations, and stories. And in that moment of freedom, we can decide what they mean to us.