I try to form and maintain intentional connections with nature and the universe itself, from the trees, grass, and animals, all the way up to the earth, the water and the sky. Even my spiritual ancestors, the universe at large, and the Ultimate Divine are touchable when I turn my mind and heart to them.

 

By David Jones

What does it mean to mindfully touch something or someone?

Touch is one of our most important senses, and one we often take for granted. We touch stuff all day (including our faces, way more than we realize), and rely on our sense of touch constantly in life. But for me, “touching” can mean something else.

When I worked for the government, people would come by just to say “Hi” or have a brief chat. They’d often start by asking, “So how’s it going?” or, “What are you up to today?” Since I was often doing things outside my actual job description, it was a fair question.

Then when I told my wife about it later, I’d say “Remember her? She came by at lunch today. Just to touch.”

I don’t mean she actually touched me physically. It’s more like stopping by to chat as a way of “staying in touch.”

It’s about the connection between people, and often the rest of the universe as well. It was an acknowledgement of our shared experience, our connection to each other in a work context. And if we’re friends, that’s part of it too.

We like to “stay in touch” with people who are important to us in some way. The telephone company understood that when they encouraged us to, “Reach out and touch someone.” Aunt Patty and Uncle Ray are all the way across the country, so how can I touch them? Simply by picking up the telephone (and trying to remember their phone number). We could “keep in touch” with grandma or grandkids, old friends and new workmates, no matter where they lived. Social media offers the same.

I try to form and maintain intentional connections with nature and the universe itself, from the trees, grass, and animals, all the way up to the earth, the water and the sky. Even my spiritual ancestors, the universe at large, and the Ultimate Divine are touchable when I turn my mind and heart to them.

Mindfulness allows me to touch everything and everyone when I become aware of them and honor that bond. Even in my ignorance I’m connected to the entire universe and all that exists in it.

Thich Nhat Hanh taught a lot about Interbeing, that we aren’t all separate beings but are part of each other and of everything. We’re always touching everything and everyone. But we forget our connections when we focus on the “otherness” of others, on our differences whether social, political, religious, or physical.

I’m called to be a peacemaker; I’ve vowed to assist innumerable beings on their own path to enlightenment as best I can, and to do any of that I need to remember my kinship to all of them despite everything that threatens to separate and divide us.

So when you meditate, when you pray, when you think about or encounter others, I encourage you to touch them mindfully—to remind them and ourselves of our natural connection to each other, a limitless thread that transcends all our differences.

 

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Photo: Pixabay

Editor: Dana Gornall

 

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