Magic of Essence

When we hone the skill of moving fluidly through life, with ease as well as clear direction, it is essential that we are sensitive to what is essential.

Without an eye to the essential, the beauty of necessity, we become confused between what is important and what is urgent, what is validating and what is interesting and what draws us towards our higher purpose in living life.

The more sensitive we are, through training and practice, the richer our sensory experience is. Our perception shifts away from rote actions, the mundane doings, and towards what we can sense. We learn to feel the subtleties, the essence of what is present.

We realize that everything has taste: a mouth feeling for words, for humid days, for memories and emotions. Sound comes to us as vibrations, as an energy with a mood and melody, a pace and rhythm. Breathing takes on the feel of music, as does all the layers of white noise, sounds that float through the windows, whether it is bird song or construction. We feel our skin as receptive not just to what touches but also to what moves over: the air, the clothing, the wind can all slip by, or sink in, or scrape at skin.

With this heightened sensitivity, is is natural to cross the threshold from mundane to magic, from here to high. From that state, boundaries are flimsy, we see the commonality between all things and people and plants. We sense the essence.

Sensitivity to essence requires that we drop into a time and space unmeasured, unqualified. When we do not consciously create that for ourselves, we are more attuned to the substance, rather than the essence, of what we perceive. We are drawn towards the unnecessary, the unessential, becoming attached to our possessions, our routines, our patterns.

The insensitivity allows us to to tolerate what we do not like. It is cyclical: we tolerate, we build insensitivity, and can tolerate more. On the other end of the spectrum, we seek out luxuries, the things that are unneeded but coveted, and seem important when we are insensitive to the beauty of simple necessity.

Sensitivity, seeing the essence, helps liberate us from wasting energy on running after the things we are liking and away from what we are disliking. Likes and dislikes are in the personal details, on the surface. The essence is deeper, and requires perception, awareness, and the ability to recognize the sameness that runs through everything in life.

Tuning into the essence, the oneness, the big current of energy, we are more open to seeing how much is unknown, rather than collecting data and details and imagining that we know everything.

When we realize that we do not know, then we open the door to mystery as well as the possibility of exploring and understanding.