Senses are often seen as something contra-spiritual, as agents of the devil in the human system. Senses, the creation of God, are in fact a portal to a full life. They are therefore of value to the spiritual and the non spiritual. Such full experience of life through the senses is the privilege of everyone, regardless of class, caste, color, gender or nationality. Where then does one err, and how can the senses be used in an optimal way for a fuller experience of life?
The error most commonly lies in fragmented use of the senses. This perhaps could be at times a fallout of education. We are taught, for instance, that the rose is red. In the mind, rose gets associated with red. It gets restricted to red.
The fact is that the redness is only general; in fact no two red roses are of the same hue. The shades are endless. The eye must be sensitive to the subtle differences in colour and be able to see a rose as the rose, something unique. Poet Hopkins called this focused habit of appreciating particularity as seeing the 'this-ness of this'.
The rose is more than mere colour. If you see the rose only for its beautiful colour, you are in effect under-experiencing it, because you are using only your eyes, only one out of five senses. The rose has an architecture, a feel, fragrance, sweetness, a whisper. Did you experience these? Did you hear the whisper? Experience the rose fully. Bend down to it, dive into it. You may see the cosmos in it. See your self in it. Commune with the rose as if it is God.
When you learn to do this, you will stop using the expression of "seeing" a rose. You will use the more comprehensive expression of "experiencing" the rose (or any other thing).
You must experience the rose with all of your senses, but the various senses should not work sequentially. It is not that first you see the rose, then you move to feeling it, and then try to listen to its whisper: No! All senses must act together and at once.
This must happen as a reflex response. At times, let the senses interchange their roles: let the eye taste the sweetness, or the ear feel softness!
Making a habit of cohesive perception for total experience is something we are all born with. The circumstances of growing up often tend to incapacitate us by fragmenting our responses.
The habit of total sense experience is not for select and special experiences only. It is also (more so) for the most humble of everyday experiences. This habit adds value to, say, your eating an apple at breakfast; or absorbing the panorama of life as seen on the road when you ride to your workplace.
Emerson described a poet as a person who can go tipsy on a glass of water! This is only to indicate the degree of sensitivity we are all capable of. The same world, the same surroundings, objects and people acquire a new, romantic charm once you re-activate your faculties to live as you were designed to live - that is, with all your senses alive and acting optimally in unison for a complete experience of whatever lies immediately before you at any point of time.