How We Experience Life

Anton Wilhelm Amo was a Nzema philosopher who lived in the first half of the 18th century. He was brought to Germany from Axim (Dutch Gold Coast, now Ghana) at the age of four and, according to Wikipedia, "presented as a gift to Dukes Augustus Wilhelm and Ludwig Rudolf of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, being treated as a member of the family by their father, Anthony Ulrich."

He became a doctor of philosopy at Wittenberg University in 1734 and his thesis, On the Absence of Sensation in the Human Mind and its Presence in our Organic and Living Body, from which I suspect this week's quotation came, "argued in favour of a broadly dualist approach of the person. Specifically, he argues that it is correct to talk of a mind and a body, but that it is the body rather than the mind that perceives and feels."

The specific quote reads, "The person does not sense material things from his soul, but from his living, organic body." 

Yes, I agree, up to a point. It is through our five senses, sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, that we access the material world. As I have written before, "I am so grateful for eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell, a mouth to taste, skin to touch." Yet I also believe that our heart and soul are necessary to fully interpret what our senses bring to our attention. It is our senses which bring the glory of Creation into our experience, and our hearts and souls which enable us to be ready to receive and appreciate it.

If I stand outside in front of a tree, for example, I can see the beauty of its trunk and branches and leaves; I can hear the sound of the wind blowing through and around it, of birds singing in its branches; I can smell (almost) the greenness of its leaves, the sap flowing through its heart; and I can touch the smoothness of the leaves, the velvety furriness of new rhus branches, or the roughness of an oak's bark. All these are accessible to my "living organic body", as Amo says. 

Yet it is my heart and soul that glory in their beauty, that rise in appreciation of their wonder. My senses enable, my heart and soul interpret. That's as close as I can get to the duality which Amo speaks of, and which I think is not quite what he meant by it...

God Rays

 As soon as I saw the image on this week's postcard, my heart lifted. Such beauty. Golden sunlight shining through trees - one of my favourite things to see, always. I felt a rush of happiness at the sight of them.

Then I read the words which accompany the image, "Happiness shines back like the light of heaven", by the American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian and diplomat of the first half of the 19th century, Washington Irving. I googled him and discovered that he was responsible for the well-known stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Both of which have risen to the level of American folk tales.

"Happiness shines back like the light of heaven." I have experienced this sometimes. When I have been particularly happy, the world seems to come into clearer focus - everything I see around me is illuminated by its own inner light, which I am willing to believe is not objectively true, but a result of my state of mind influencing my vision. I think that for me, that is what makes a place, a memory, sacred. In my memory, it is lit by the rays of God, the light of heaven.

And because memory is faulty and will fade in time, I have sometimes tried to capture the essence of the beauty of what my eyes have seen by using the camera on my phone. My nearest equivalent to this picture happened one Autumn morning in Salcey Forest, when I saw this, and was filled with joy and wonder at the beauty of God's creation:

I am so grateful for eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell, a mouth to taste, skin to touch and a heart and soul to interpret and understand. I believe it is our senses which bring the glory of God into our experience, and our hearts and souls which enable us to be ready to receive it. It is what we perceive through our senses which brings us happiness, which reflects the light of heaven into our lives. And it need not be limited to natural beauty - I have felt the same thing when beholding the face of a friend or family member, when listening to something which speaks to my condition and so on. We are complex creatures and our responses to events and places and people will be unique to each of us. But I do believe that when we are awake to them, they can also point us to the presence of the Divine in our world.