The Inner Dimensions of Sensation

The world of sensation is a world of great power and mystery, a world filled with the
potential for rich, informative perceptions and impressions of many different kinds.
Most of us, however, make little use of this potential. To be sure, we take in many
impressions through our "external senses," through seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling,
and touching. But there is another aspect of the world of sensation that many of us
have little conscious experience with. This is the world of kinesthetic and organic
sensations, the sensations that put us in touch with the inner dimensions of our own
bodies. Because we are often more attracted to impressions coming from the outside,
and to the thoughts and feelings that arise in relation to them, we generally take these
internal bodily sensations for granted. We pay attention to them only when we have an
intense physical experience of some kind—pleasure, pain, discomfort, and so on. This
is unfortunate, because these internal sensations are constantly speaking to us,
constantly telling us about our relationship to ourselves, others, and our environment.

When we reflect on the meaning of this kind of sensation, most of us think about it in
one-dimensional terms. "Sensation is sensation," we say to ourselves. "It feels good, it
feels bad, or it feels neutral." But for those who have started on the journey of self-
discovery, the picture changes dramatically. As we begin to sense ourselves more
intimately, we discover that our internal sensations of ourselves have many different
densities and levels. We learn that these densities and levels often correspond to the
underlying densities and levels of matter itself. We can discern, for example, solid,
earth-like sensations; liquid, water-like sensations; and gaseous, air-like sensations.
We can experience the dense, contracted sensation of pain, the fluid sensation of
pleasure, and the spacious sensation of joy and love. We can even experience the
"empty," open sensation of inner freedom, freedom from our self-image. In this state
in we experience ourselves as pure receptivity.

The world of sensation is also the world of energy. For it is through the sensations of
our body that we can experience the various energy exchanges and transmutations that
are needed not just for ordinary life, but also for spiritual growth. The great spiritual
pathfinder G. I. Gurdjieff was perhaps the first teacher in the West to teach in depth
about the relationship of inner sensation to the transformation of energy. Some
teachers within the world’s great traditions—including Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism,
Christianity, and Islam—have gone deeply into the alchemical relationship of
sensation and energy. Until recent years, however, these more "esoteric" teachings
were only revealed at crucial moments in the teacher/student relationship or in special
groups working together for spiritual development. Certain Taoist teachings, for
instance, speak of transforming our heavy densities of sensation and energy into
higher frequencies of vibration. We may be asked to locate any sense of contraction in
ourselves and to experience this as "ice." We may then be instructed to use our
awareness to dissolve the "ice" into "water" and the water into "gas."

Whatever words we use to describe this transformative process, what we are talking
about here is, at least at one level, the process of deep relaxation, of loosening the
energetic knots that keep us bound to our present perceptions. It is through deep,
organic relaxation that we learn to untie these knots and to let go of what is
superfluous in our lives, the unnecessary structures of thought, emotion, and sensation
that we have constructed to support or defend our self-image. These structures not
only consume our energy, but they also keep anything new from entering. Learning
how to see and let go of these unnecessary structures not only has a beneficial
influence on our health and well-being, but it also helps conserve and produce the
energy we need for a work of inner transformation.

The Work of Self-Sensing

The practical work of discovering the inner dimensions of sensation begins with
learning how to sense our body more accurately, both in stillness and in motion. As
we sit with ourselves or undertake a physical activity such as yoga or qigong, we learn
to quiet our minds and to actively engage our attention, directing it inward toward the
body. As we work in this way, we can discern many levels of sensation in our
immediate experience. These levels, which may take weeks, months, or even years to
observe fully, include the dense sensation of superficial aches and pains; the
contracted sensation of unnecessary tension in our muscles, tendons, and ligaments;
the compact sensation of the weight and form of the body; the more subtle sensation
of temperature, movement, and touch; the tingling sensation of the totality of the skin;
the living, breathing sensation of the inner structure and pulsations of the fascia, the
organs, the fluids, and the bones; and the integrative, vibratory sensation of the body’s
energy centers and pathways.

There is one more level of sensation, however, that we are given as our birthright, an
all-encompassing sensation of expansiveness, of openness. As our awareness of
ourselves begins to deepen, as we sense a broader frequency of vibration in our inner
experience, a vibration that includes instead of excluding, we come into touch with
the sensation of the energy of life itself—before it is conditioned by the rigid mental,
emotional, and physical forms of our self-image. As we learn more and more about
how to allow this direct sensation of life into our experience of ourselves, we will feel
a growing spaciousness, a sense of wonder in which the restrictions of our self-image
can begin to dissolve. It is the organic experience of this essential spaciousness that
embraces the various polarities and contradictions of our lives and allows them to
exist side by side in our being without conflict. This inner, organic embrace, this
sensory acceptance of everything that we are, frees not only our body, but also our
mind and feelings, bringing us a new sense of vitality and wholeness.

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