SadhanaOriental Meditation and Christian Prayer
To pray with body (taking a breath)
[12]Entering the World of Emotions that Touch You
The subtle changes of the season in Japan, the impression that is felt has a potential to sharpen its exquisite sense
In the winter morning before you leave for school or work, the coldness felt in the air is sharp and painful. You normally feel that the midst of winter has gone. Furthermore, as the season changes, you feel the early signs of spring when you wash your face and take by surprise the lukewarm water. Though the trees are still grey, winter is about to end.
Winter or spring, the sunshine felt is a happy feast. You want to bathe yourselves to the fullest. This sunshine, too, bathing in the winter sunshine and that of spring is completely different. When spring comes, you feel the pressure of the brightness and the warmth on your skin and you even perspire a bit.
Humidity is high in Japan, but after the dry days the rain moisturizes the air and calms your mind and heart.
When the flow of air is strong, you feel it as wind. However, there is also flow of air indoors. Try to feel that flow as often as possible, the air that leaks from the small opening and the air that flows through the hallway.
If you touch the things in the room, some are surprisingly and unexpectedly cold. And others may be warm, from retained heat in the room. Valuable articles surprisingly feel heavy in your hands; on the other hand, plastics are surprisingly lighter than it looks.
You constantly feel even synthetic things. You feel to know whether it is clothing, a book, china, a bag, a telephone, a string or a sofa.....you should live by feeling whether these things in the house are cold or warm, dry or moist, soft or hard, smooth or rough. Live also by feeling the changes of texture as we touch them from time to time.
You also have many opportunities to touch cloth. Some are soft and adaptable to the skin, others are uncomfortable. Furthermore, cloth texture changes greatly before and after they are washed. If you wear them after they are washed and dried fully, you can feel them crisp and refreshing. Towels, too, after they are well washed and dried, you can feel its softness and richness.
At the meal table, uncomfortable feelings remain when you carelessly spatter liquid food. When the table is clean, such comfort makes you happy.
Walking outside, you feel the surface of the road through the sole of your feet, such as the asphalt and concrete road that seem to strongly repel back to the feet. Occasionally, you feel the softness walking on places where the soil is exposed.
At the shopping arcade downtown and in public facilities, your footsteps are insecure when the surface is so smooth that it seems slippery. (People walk by kicking the ground, thus it is said that if people continue to walk daily on stone made surfaces that strongly repels back to the foot, their mind and heart loses its softness.)
The autumn mountain path makes your steps nice and happy. As you walk on tons of uncountable amount of falling leaves, you feel their springiness. You also hear the sound of the breaking dry leaves as you step on them as you walk.
The impressions you feel on your skin strongly influences the person. With such realm of impression and as you add the many events that firmly move you, you deepen your life. Whether you experience deepening such realm of impression or not, there will be a great difference in how you perceive life and the richness of one’s mind and heart.