Vision and Touch

By Anonymous -
In Professor Nelson’s lecture, he explained that vision can be a synesthetic experience. One of these connections is between vision and touch is expressed many times through language, using specific phrases such as, ‘I felt his/her gaze’.  This expression uses language of touch to express the feeling of being watched or observed by another individual.  Diane Eck discusses the connection between touch and vision in her book Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India.  She explains that the eye of the devotee touches the deity to understand what is being touched; in fact they are ‘touching truth’.  The Vision group spoke extensively on this subject during their presentation, describing it as ‘an exchange of glances’.  The exchange is a contact between devotee and deity that takes place through the eyes of both individuals.  Eck describes the eyes of Gods as unblinking and there are ceremonies that surround the ‘opening’ of a deity’s eyes.  She describes seeing as an act of making through imagination rather than solely being images taken into the eyes.  Seeing becomes not only touching but also away of knowing, which is done through the exchange between devotee and deity. 




“The day to day life and ritual of Hindus is based not upon abstract interior truths, but upon the charged, concrete, and particular appearances of the divine in the substance of the material world” (Eck, 11). 

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 21, 2015 at 1:23 AM

    I am sure you have heard that "eyes are the windows to the soul". Do you think that this ties into what you are saying at all? Furthermore, since most people are uncomfortable with eye contact what to you think about the idea that eye contact makes people uncomfortable because it is in fact like someone is looking into your soul which obviously would make someone feel a certain level of vulnerability and therefore a certain level of discomfort...What if someone never heard this expression before? Do you think they would be more apt to make strong eye contact when conversing with others? or tend to shy away just the same?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amidst the Pandemic

By -
Image
I think having the opportunity to take Smells and Bells and then experiencing a worldwide pandemic came with good timing. Oftentimes, we’re so rushed to get from one one place to another that we miss out on what happens around us. We’re so accustomed to the lifestyle of being busy that it has become the norm for many of us. However, the pandemic has forced us to slow down. We’re now appreciating everything that we had previously taken for granted and noticing things in our surroundings that we have never noticed before.  Take this quarantining/social distancing as an opportunity to be more aware of what you experience through the senses. I don’t think my senses have necessarily heightened over the past 5 weeks, but I am actively making the choice to pay more attention to what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I like going on nature/mindfulness walks and basking in the sunshine out in my backyard. This morning, I could hear a faint noise from the wind, hear the birds chirpin...
Read more

Food in the Afterlife

By -
Image
In Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions , Perez talks of Ashabi and her grandchildren providing food offerings to their ancestors. This immediately reminded me of the practice of food sacrifice in early China. I've taken Chinese language classes for about 7 years now and in one of the lessons, we learned about food as well as the history of food in Chinese culture. Ashabi and her grandchildren would give food offerings to their ancestors every day. This included nine beverages (coffee, liquor, and water mixed with sugar and molasses) and nine square pieces of coconut topped with red palm oil and guinea pepper. The offerings would also include whatever food was dropped on the ground. In their house, food dropping on the floor signified more than it would in common American households. It signified that the ancestors wanted that food and had willingly made it fall to the floor. They also used dishware that had been chipped which was...
Read more