Life comes in Flavors!

I think about things a lot. As a short explanation, as anyone reading here wouldn't likely know about my meanderings, one of my current foci for meditation is on sensory development. Honing the 5 sentences and the murky ones not well-defined in our modern science/understanding.

To that end I've spent a lot of time focusing on the sensory experience of, well, everything. Looking closely at things, soft focus to take in more and pick out details quickly. Smell, period. Take in the smells of people, appreciate the faintest of odors and the most pungent of smells. Listen carefully, speak softly, and build an appreciation for the simplest elements of sound. Feel everything, you're wrapped in a sensory organ. Savor food, experience the full distance of the flavor don't just swallow it whole.

I've been using taste as an example, as a microcosm (not truly a simple metaphor), as it is one of the few senses that people really are encouraged to use. Though we still don't, not really, not most people.

The fact of the matter is that every sense can have lengthy experiences beyond just a flash. The most carefully crafted foods you can savor for a flavor that travels over the course of minutes, not seconds. The fact that so many never do so, and still more that it's not often 'ok' to stop and do so, does not serve to encourage this practice.

Suffice to say, if you take the time to savor and pay attention, you can taste a world more in every bite than you already likely do. In the same way, the world can be perceived with that sort of depth. People, places, moments in time. Each and every piece has a world of depth that is easily glazed over as we race on to the next moment.

The concept goes farther as well. A question to ask yourself:
To what degree is your world flavored to taste with natural and artificial flavors?

I'll be more specific.

Things in the world have their own elements. They don't require us to have their own experience. This is natural flavor.

We don't often experience the world as it is, instead it is filtered through our mind, through our conscious thought, our carefully constructed filters, and we shape our perceptions in reflection based on our established notions and sensibilities about what is and what should be. This is artificial flavor.

To use a strongly polarized subject to illustrate my point, if you were to meet a child rapist, how good are the odds that you would actually be open to just experiencing them as a person. To enter the conversation without heavy pre-conceived notions about who they are and what they've done? We create context for the world we live in, and sometimes we forget to see the real thing for the expectations or memories that led to the new moment.

Don't misunderstand me, these filters, these spices and flavors have their value, and they have a non-insidious root, but they do distract and reduce our attention from reality. And what's more they can obscure reality if we let it go far enough, if we lose sight of these things for what they are: artificial flavoring. This is where I think we start to actually lose out on life, when we cease to experience life as we live it and instead start dwelling within the world we expect.

A thought to take away from this:
There are no repeat experiences. Each moment, each thing you encounter, every person is unique, in each and every moment you encounter them. Things only become "repeated" or "redundant" or "been-there-done-that" when we stop paying attention and let our brain tell us it's all been done.

If you need a quality demonstration, take a puppy for a walk...