COMING TO MY SENSES

I watched my mind formulate this nice observation as I sat in meditation this morning: I was "coming to my senses."  I realize that the goal is to wake up from that coma that so easily overtakes me, cocooning me from what's going on in my own body and mind, let alone from what's happening in the world out there. So the sensation I worked for this morning, with conscious breaths, was total sensory awareness.  I soon arrived at a very pleasant tingling sensation at the surface of the skin, a sense of the body being awake to itself and it surroundings.

When the body wakes up, the mind is bright, too.  When I come, literally, to my (physical) senses, I realign my thought process, too.  Things snap back into a proper, clearer perspective.  And it's good to note that words--the formulation of words into thought--can be very helpful in meditation, even though they can also be a distraction.  I suppose it's a matter of using them skillfully.  Words have the ability to get the mind focused on a particular approach, a new apprehension that can cast things suddenly, brilliantly, in a whole new light.  I'll try reminding myself to come to my senses again soon...