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?

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