As I continue my recovery from covid, one of the impacts I'm aware of is the impairment of 3 of my key senses:
- taste - smell - hearing
From about day 6 of the illness, all of these senses became muted:
I couldn't smell anything I could barely taste anything and Both my ears became partially blocked, meaning I couldn't hear as well as usual either.
As a sensualista, who loves the feminine tantric way of merging with God through life and a sensitive in whom each of these senses is normally acute, this has been interesting !
Life has given me the opportunity to practice a tantric meditation of closing off the senses called pratyahara.
What's surprised me is that my delight in life is not diminished.
I honestly thought it would be.
I mean, I LOVE food. I LOVE aromas and scents. I LOVE music. And each of these is an easy route to ecstasy for me.
LIterally - orgasmic waves engendered by sound, taste or scent. Transcendence through the senses.
Any opportunity for embodied bliss and I'm there. LOL !
But what this new situation is gifting me is the realisation, that the bliss I feel internally remains - even when my senses are impaired.
It's not dependent on sensory delight, even as that is a wonderful path to God and a joyous blessing of being human.
What I'm experiencing is the tantric truth, that whether we dive inwards - towards the Source of all - or outwards - into the manifestation of all, we end up in the same place.
The nectar of beingness.