Federica wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 2:22 pmAshvin,AshvinP wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 2:10 pm
Federica,
Since our normal habit is to limit sensory perception to the 5 'outer' senses, I think the term 'bodily sensations' helps us also encompass the sense of warmth, balance, and life that inform the intuitive context experienced by ordinary consciousness. Of course, the more 'inner' senses are generally dulled out by the outer senses in our ordinary state, but they can quite easily be traced when we stop to pay attention. We could also call these 'sensory perceptions', as long as understand they are inner senses not taking place through the familiar sense organs.
I am not sure a novel reader would have a chance to grasp a reference to the 12 senses as presented by RS, just because the expression "bodily sensation" is used. My guess is that, instead, one could wonder why it's referred to things such as the sensation of our heartbeat, or the sensation of the air inflow in the lungs, things like that. But I may be wrong of course, that's why I put a question mark. (For anyone new to these things, there are still clearly separated inner and outer worlds)
In the context of this brief post by Cleric, you may be right that it is sufficient to highlight the patterns we are sucked into by ordinary sensory perceptions. For a more complete picture of our ordinary consciousness, however, I think all those bodily sensations should be understood as comprising the contents of our 'soul space'. One doesn't need to be familiar with any esoteric science to trace the sensation of warmth and balance, for ex. It is a phenomenological reality. Even the sensations of airflow and pulse are important. When our breathing changes or pulse increases, these reflect unfolding patterns of our soul-spiritual activity. All of these sensations play into our experience of our soul space and therefore our understanding of "me" and "reality" at the stage of ordinary consciousness.