Not to see but to sense

"This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand." ~ Source: The Bible, Matthew 13:13

The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense. That is why many people, "see"; but proceed to see not, fail to see about or to see through. Humans are supposed to be sensible beings; but insensibility seems to be our attitude. How; why; in what manner: However, did it happen? The answer to that can best be, only an act of conjecturing. All we know is that it is an age-old malady: to see, but to sense not. Humans are yet to find a cure even after the lapse of thousands of years; and in spite of the fact, many noble and enlightened souls have shown the way "to see and to sense."

To see and to sense requires sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. In other words, we need common sense: the sense of things in common between disparate impressions - which is the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way.

Common sense is good sense, folk wisdom. Yet, often ideas that may be considered to be, true by common sense are in fact false.

Conversely, certain ideas that are subject to elaborate academic analysis oftentimes yield better, and superior, outcomes via the application of common sense.

Difficult

Nevertheless, identifying particular items of knowledge as 'common sense' is difficult.

Common sense remains a perennial topic in epistemology: that branch of philosophy, which investigates critically the nature, grounds, limits, and criteria, or validity of human knowledge, also known as the theory of cognition; many philosophers make wide use of the concept, or at least refer to it.

To see is to perceive with the eyes, or the mind; to gain knowledge or awareness of, by means of one's vision, or mind; to find out or ascertain; to have experience or knowledge of; and to meet, visit, or receive someone; and to take care.

Sense is the faculty of sensation; sense perception - any of certain agencies by or through which an individual receives, not only the impressions of the external world; popularly, one of the five senses; but also rational perception accompanied by feeling; comprehension, understanding, realisation, and discriminating cognition: as in, a sense of wrong. Sometimes when we say: the fellow has no sense; or when used in the plural: "she has come to her senses"; it implies the normal power of the mind or understanding; sound or natural judgment.

Sense can also mean, based on the usage and the context: opinion, view, or judgment of the majority as in "the sense of the meeting was manifest."

That which commends itself to the understanding as being in accordance with reason and good judgment: "to talk sense," is also sense.

Again, it can also mean the capacity to perceive or appreciate something: "a sense of colour." There are more and many other uses for the word 'sense,' as in: the five senses; special senses; sixth sense; sense, and sensibility; etc. denoting other meanings.

In fact, what constitutes a sense is, still a matter of some debate, leading to difficulties in defining what exactly a sense is; even though the above given explanations are commonly accepted.

If I have dwelt upon, and delved into, the meaning of these two words extensively, it is to show the wide usage and interpretation these two words possess. 'See' and 'Sense' have such an extensive array of application and significance; but humans, more often than not, tend not to see, nor to sense, properly, events within human experience.

If one is to sense, one ought to sense something; not just feel the diversity of sensible phenomena.

We humans have lost that tacit sense and collection of spontaneous judgments, which all men possess by nature, and which permits them to discern good from evil.

On the other hand, animals, not possessing rationality, nevertheless required the use of the common sense in order to sense, the difference between this or that thing and not merely the pleasure and pain of various disparate sensations.

A sheep, for example, is able to sense a leopard; not just 'see' the colour of its fur; or hear the sound of its growl; or smell its odour; and other sensible attributes.

Animals have receptors to sense the world around them, with degrees of capability varying greatly between species.

Humans have a comparatively weak sense of smell and other senses because they have failed to train their receptors.

While some animals may lack, one or more of the traditional five senses; species of animals are able to sense the world in a way that humans cannot. Some species are able to sense electrical and magnetic fields, and detect water pressure and currents.

Lifestyle

Our lifestyle has drawn us further away, and affected the divinity with which we were born: the attributes that made humans divine creatures in the first instance.

As a result, we have lost many of our inborn abilities.

Due to excessive attention to the external senses, we have lost our inner sensation; whereby, the various objects of the external senses are united and judged. Too much emphasis on the enjoyment of the external senses, have deprived us of the common-sense morality based on individual moral intuitions. Sense perception relies on the mind rather than on the body. According to Descartes, "perception is neither a seeing, nor a touching, nor an imagining.

Rather, it is an inspection on the part of the mind alone." René Descartes was a French philosopher, writer, and mathematician who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic.

Descartes equates mind, intellect, understanding, reason, and soul, with thinking. He further argues that we can use our senses to help us understand the true nature of things, but the senses alone are inadequate to determine truth. We use our mind to understand abstract things such as the truth, but it is with the senses that we explore and examine physical things.

Hence, while 'not to see but to sense' is adequate; it is best to possess both faculties - 'to see and to sense' - in order to avoid the swing of the pendulum, oscillating between sense and nonsense, right and wrong, truth and untruth.There is a moment, just before a pendulum changes direction, when it is perfectly still. It is, precisely, that moment that marks the end of an old way and the beginning of a new one.

Likewise, the movement from sense to nonsense, right to wrong, truth to untruth, is also marked by a moment: that instant of stillness in which the mind, before it oscillates, vacillates: A weakness possessed by all humans; and perhaps, it defines them best.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking; keep laughing.

Life is mostly about these two activities.

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