Dhamma Tracks
This somatic sense is a bodily sensitivity that’s not about physical contact; it’s the sensitivity that is attuned to perceptions - felt interpretations of the world. By means of this, the body senses that it’s in danger, or can relax and feel uplifted. Emotions arise as the mind scans that. Famously, the psychologist William James noted that if attacked by a bear, we run first and get frightened later. I wouldn’t recommend finding a bear, but when you’re re-united with an old friend, or receive a loved visitor when you’re sick, or win at a performance, or get wrongly accused – nothing touches your body, but there’s a somatic flush. This is not a minor detail, it’s how we soft-skinned clawless creatures survived, and can survive in the wilderness, and how we bond. This somatic intelligence tells us immediately what moves us - but it doesn’t always sense things clearly (maybe the bear is a man wearing a costume). This is because it is attuned to perceptions, which are always mental interpretations of experience. The first point of meditation then is to steady and clear your attention, to clean out the dullness, tension and spin that perceptions of past events and behaviour have left as in your system. Along with that, tune in to somatic presence, to how the body feels internally when it is disturbed, when it is appreciated and when it is free from constrictions.
Ajahn Sucitto
Recorded Teachings
Guided Meditation - Realization of Anicca (45:40) Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery online teaching; 29 May 2021
The realization of changeability can be transformational and liberating. When we deepen into presence, we can review the contents of the mind with spaciousness – without identifying with anything, without creating a self. With this quality of relinquishment, wonderful dhammas arise – spaciousness, clarity, compassion – the ending of suffering.
Inclining the citta towards goodwill (23:39) IMS Forest Refuge, USA; 27 Nov 2022
Practicing to experience energies which are subtle and supple, physically and mentally. Goodwill allows the citta to flow and release stuck states.
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