1.4. Sense of Smell
Meditation on the sense of smell
Smells are obviously not available to experience all the time, so this meditation might require a little external support, in the form of something to smell.
There are two types of smells to be recognized:
The first is what we normally think of as smells, which come from the outside world when inhaling. Lighting a stick of incense or going for a walk in nature will provide you with the opportunity to experience this type of smell.
The second type of smell, comes from food being chewed inside the mouth when we are eating. It only occurs when we are exhaling. We might normally consider this the 'flavour' of the food, but it's actually the smell of food being released internally. The sense of smell is responsible for the apple-ness of apples, an the pineapple-ness of pineapples when we are eating them.
If you are following eight or more precepts, you can easily chew on a medicinal stick of cinnamon, a cardamon seed, or cumin seed to appreciate this type of smell.
Transcript
Let's spend a little time with the third sense, the sense of smell.
Bring your attention to the olfactory field, this whole world of smells, scents, odours, perfumes, all the information coming in through the nose channel.
^^^ Straight away, notice how different the sense of smell is from the sense of hearing. Smelling is a totally different type of experience to hearing.
Some people have a very strong sense of smell and are easily overwhelmed by smells. Others have a very weak sense of smell and only notice smells when they are very near and very strong. If you have a strong sense of smell, you should have no problem bringing your attention to the smells in your environment. If you have a weak sense of smell, perhaps you can actively sniff scented objects.
If you find it useful, note to yourself, "smelling", or "smells", or "nose channel", or whatever language is useful to help bring your attention to this sense field. Use noting or labelling to support your attention, especially when it is easily distracted from the simple act of smelling.
Notice that there is no real directionality with the sense of smell. In order to get a bearing on the source, you need to physically turn your head. If you've ever watched a dog, which has an acute sense of smell, even they have to move their head about and stick their nose into things to locate the source of smells.
Find something to smell externally. Notice that the smell comes from inhaling.
Chew on your herbal seed to generate a smell internally. Notice that the smell comes when exhaling.
When you are around food and drink, it's a really good time to actively engage with the sense of smell. Most of what we call flavours are actually smells. There's no pineapple flavour, there's only pineapple smell and the accompanying sweet and sour tastes.
When you engage with people, notice how strong smelling they are. To hide the fact that they are strong smelling, they use even stronger scents to mask their natural odour.
Notice that smells are an entirely separate field of experience from seeing and from hearing. Smells are entirely within their own domain, and there's no crossover between smells and sights and sounds, at the sense level at least.
Notice the smells that you like, and the smells that you don't like. Notice the smells that you can tolerate, even if they are strong. Notice the smells that you can't tolerate, even if they are weak. It's helpful to see that liking and disliking occur in the mind, not in the nose.
Keep coming back to this sense of smell. Give it your full attention.
Please continue studying the sense of smell until you are familiar with its basic details, then move on to the sense of taste.
Q&A
Q: Do you have any questions or doubts at this point?