1.4. Sense of Smell
Meditation on the sense of smell
Smells are obviously not available to experience all the time. So, this meditation is perhaps best done while eating. Or, it might be helpful to get up and walk around in nature, it's full of smells. Alternatively, light a stick of incense, or create any artificial 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 go and 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. --- Immediately notice how different the sense of smell is from the sense of sight or hearing. --- 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. --- Notice how different the sense of smells is when inhaling compared to 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 flavours. --- 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?