Eyes and Ears in your Hands

Sense of touch:

Having eyes and ears in your hands

 

This was a great way to explain the sense of touch in this moment of communication. Touch helps you to feel and understand the story of your cup, a Wabi Sabi style or maybe even kintsugi style cup that has a rich history to it. Looking and seeing, hearing and listening, and touching and experiencing enhances the experience of the moment in time to be unforgettable, because an ichigo ichie reminds you that this moment is like no other, and can not happen again. 

 

Another aspect of touch is the texture. We will tackle taste soon, but texture is important. The choice of the texture the “tea master” choose to offer can be a sign of respect for the guest, and also a form as anticipating the things the guest would like, almost like entertainment, showing that the time being spent is very special. 

 

There are neural pathways all over your body, but your brain pays way more attention to what you feel with your hands, lips, and tongue. The receptors here can directly link to emotions, and emotions can ultimately influence your reality. 

 

Emotionally linked touch will make your experience with an object more meaningful (or not), so being together and sharing time and space needs to be an orchestrated positive experience. 

 

Think: touching a book at a bookstore may help you select that book. Touching that same book title, will be totally different if given to you by an old friend you haven’t seen in years, or maybe as a gift from someone you’re in love with, and that they wanted to give you something you’d like. 

The book probably feels the same. But the emotions and experience attached to the object makes the object more important to the history of you.