Passage Meditation by Eknath Easwaran

Author:Eknath Easwaran
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nilgiri Press

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Chapter 5

Training the Senses

Everybody, I think, values excellence. When the great masters in any field appear, we catch fire. I have always been interested in sports, and I still enjoy watching the Olympics or championship tennis on television; I am intrigued by the way the top athletes have trained their bodies, judgment, and endurance. Those excellent swimmers in their middle teens, those gymnasts who surpass circus performers, must have begun at a very early age. How much dedicated effort all this must take! It is hard not to admire the discipline and enthusiasm behind any performance that captures a gold medal.

Just as the body can be trained for virtuoso skills in the pool or on the uneven bars, so our senses can be trained, immensely benefiting ourselves and those around us. Then the senses become our trusted servants. But when they are untrained, as we shall see, they become the most oppressive masters.

Saint Francis of Assisi put the matter well. He used to speak of “Sister Moon” or “Brother Wolf” as though they were close relatives, which indeed they are; and with the detachment of a great mystic, he spoke that way about his body and senses too. “This is Brother Donkey,” he would say, “and I’ll take good care of him. I’ll wash him, feed him, and give him rest. But I’m going to ride on him; he’s not going to ride on me.” Imagine walking along a country road in Italy when over a rise comes a peasant bent nearly to the ground by the donkey on his back. A ludicrous picture! But isn’t that what we do when we let our senses and body take charge and issue all the orders? Believe me, they don’t make kind masters; they are very demanding, very hard-riding. Through training the senses, we climb out from under them and regain our proper role as their master.

To put it another way, our senses are like puppies. If you have had a pup, you will recall how they seize a slipper and growl and tear at it until it’s shredded. We expect that of puppies, but we don’t want the dog acting that way when he grows up. To make a good companion of him requires training; fortunately, he loves to learn. Similarly, the senses can be the best of friends if they receive some training. But if we let them run loose without any training, they will simply turn against us.

How to Begin

We begin the training of the senses by denying them things that injure the body. We wouldn’t drive into a service station and ask the attendant to fill our gas tank with thirty-weight oil; the car wouldn’t run. To operate a machine we have to use a particular type of lubricant, fuel, coolant, or whatever, and we do. But regarding our own bodies, we are not so careful. We put in all kinds of things that nutritionists – and plain common sense – tell us impair the body’s smooth functioning, mainly because they taste pleasant.

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