‘Seeing is believing - but touch is the real thing’

When we can’t believe our eyes we ascertain by means of touch. A blind man is forced to depend on touch out of sheer necessity.

Touch is so fascinating that it keeps the world enslaved to it. The Buddha has declared that out of the five senses, the sense of touch is the most infatuating. He says that those beings who are spell - bound by touch, are fully in bondage.

Touch is also regarded as one of the four nutrients which sustain beings, and the other three are: material food, willing of mind and consciousness. The Buddha gives a ‘touching’ simile to make us ponder deeply on the nature of touch - the simile of the skinless cow.

If a skinless cow should stand leaning against a wall, the creatures that live on the wall would bite her. If she leans against a tree, the creatures that live on the tree would bite her. Wherever she stands, her skinless body would be the target of pricks and bites.

The skinless cow has to suffer because she has a wound as big as her body. We need not consider ourselves more fortunate than that cow simply because we have a bandage on the wound - the skin.