Senseless: Lacking common sense, wildly foolish.
Sensible: Done or chosen in accordance with wisdom or prudence, likely to be of benefit.
Come to your senses: to start to understand that you have been behaving stupidly.
There is often wisdom in traditional sayings and expressions and even embedded in everyday words.
What does it mean to come to our senses? In an everyday use, it means to perceive and act in a more grounded and sensible way. There is a literal truth in that expression. When we are caught in thoughts, we can get a bit loopy and insane. We live in abstractions. We take our own imaginations, our own mental images and words, as reality. We make ourselves crazy that way.
Coming to our senses means to bring attention to our senses, to sensations, sights, sounds, smell, and taste. And also to our imaginations as what they are, recognizing them as mental images and words (imagined sounds and mental images). When we bring attention to our senses, the mind is incapable of simultaneously be caught up in stories and content of thought. It’s either one or the other. (Unless we do both half way, in which case we are still caught in stories and imagination.)
The more we bring attention to our senses, the more we make it into a new habit, and the more we have an actual freedom in shifting attention between our senses and occasionally into stories. Now and then, we do need to bring attention into stories to function in the world. Using stories in this practical sense is natural and kind. And we can do it as needed and while recognizing these stories as imaginations.
There is some effort here in terms of intentionally bringing attention to our senses. And over time, it becomes more and more effortless. Even the recognition of imagination as imagined becomes more effortless more often.
…….
…….
…….
Initial notes……
- coming to our senses
- coming to sanity, grounding, balance
- come to your senses
- bring attention out of stories, to something that’s clearly here and now
- when caught in stories, then caught in imaginary past, future, and present – creates stress, suffering
- when bring attention to senses, goes out of stories, and shows us the contrast between the two – can become a new habit
The more we bring attention to our senses, the more we make it into a new habit, and the more we have an actual freedom in shifting attention between our senses and occasionally into stories. Now and then, we do need to bring attention into stories to function in the world. Using stories in this practical sense is natural and kind. And we can do it as needed and while recognizing these stories as imaginations. They are helpful in a practical sense, but not more real than that. They are not the reality they may seem to be about.