The Returning: The Way of the Sensate
“The senses are the gateway between the internal and external world. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and hearing give us a constantly changing inner matrix of the world around us.”— Andrea Judith, Eastern Body Western Mind
The Sensate meets God through the senses — through color and fragrance, through texture, taste, and sound. For them, beauty is not ornamentation; it is revelation. The Sensate pathway is for those whose bodies remember what their minds may forget: that the world is charged with the grandeur of God. It’s for the ones who feel God in the warmth of sunlight on skin, in the aroma of frankincense, in the first note of a song that makes their skin tingle.
The Body as Sanctuary
We have often been taught to seek the sacred by leaving the body behind — to rise above it, transcend it, tame it (which is a very dualistic viewpoint). But the Sensate knows a deeper truth: that the body is not an obstacle to God, but the temple through which God is encountered. Every sense becomes a doorway. Sight, touch, sound, taste, and scent — each one an invitation to Presence.
The flicker of candlelight becomes prayer.
The smell of burning incense becomes remembrance.
The taste of bread and wine becomes communion.
In this way, the Sensate lives within a theology of incarnation — the knowing that God took on flesh, and in doing so, blessed our humanity as holy ground.
The Fragrance of Worship
Just as the ancient Israelites meticulously crafted the Tabernacle to God’s specific instructions, rich in incense, so too can we cultivate spaces where the senses and worship intertwine. The Sensate pathway invites us to engage fully in embodied spirituality—allowing sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch to guide us deeper into communion with God. The people of God understood that scent could carry prayer, that aroma could awaken memory, that what is invisible could still be deeply felt.
The fragrance of cedar, frankincense, or lavender can become more than atmosphere — it becomes invitation. It reminds us that worship is not confined to words or walls, but to the holy exchange between earth and heaven that lingers in the air long after the flame has gone out. More than ritual, it is intimacy made tangible.
The fragrance of worship is what remains when the song has ended — the unseen experience of communion.
“You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause My Name to be recorded and remembered [through revelation of My divine nature] I will come to you and bless you.”—Exodus 20:24 AMP
Palo Santo incense from the AWAKEN Rewtreat 2025
The Nondual Lens: No Separation Between Spirit and Flesh
To the mystic, there is no division between the spiritual and the sensory, between heaven and earth. The same Presence that breathed life into the cosmos now hums within every atom of creation — including your own skin.
The Sensate pathway invites us to experience this truth firsthand: God is not only in the temple but in the touch of linen, the sound of rain, the glimmer of light across a table.
In the words of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” To awaken to that grandeur is to realize that there is no place God is not — that every sensory encounter can become a moment of worship.
Instruments of worship in the tabernacle at House of Loto
Practicing Holy Attention
For those walking this pathway, awareness itself becomes liturgy. The invitation is not to seek louder, brighter, or grander experiences, but to become exquisitely attentive to the sacredness already shimmering within the ordinary.
Smell the bread before you eat it.
Touch the earth with bare feet.
Notice the light in the room as you pray.
In this way, beauty becomes the teacher, and the senses become the scriptures.
Reflection Questions
Which of your senses most often awakens you to God’s Presence?
How might you honor your body as a sacred vessel of awareness rather than a distraction from it?
Where might beauty be inviting you into deeper communion with Jesus?
A Morning Altar made by our Founder, Jennifer Axcell
Suggested Practice: A Sensory Prayer
Prepare a small altar with five simple elements — one for each sense. Perhaps a candle (sight), a small vial of oil (scent), a piece of music (sound), a soft fabric or stone (touch), and a morsel of fruit or bread (taste).
Spend a few moments with each, breathing slowly and inviting awareness to awaken through your senses.
As you engage each one, whisper softly:
“Christ within, Christ around, Christ revealed.”
Let this embodied prayer remind you that every sensation — every flicker, fragrance, and flavor — is the language of God made tangible.
Jennifer in the wilderness of Sedona, AZ
Founder’s Note:
My journey has been one of learning to listen — not only with my mind, but with my whole being. The more I have healed, the more I have come to sense God in the taste of tea, the texture of clay, the sound of wind moving through trees. These moments are not separate from prayer — they are prayer.
Many of our offerings at Loto are designed to awaken this kind of embodied awareness. From our artful worship gatherings and contemplative retreats to our guided meditations that invite you to breathe, feel, and sense the sacred — each experience is a return to Presence through the body.
If your senses are how you pray — if beauty draws you closer to the Divine — you’ll feel at home here. Come create, listen, and be still with us.
With Love, unconditionally— Jennifer
Next in The Great Returning
Some find God through the senses — in the fragrance of worship, the sound of rain, and the taste of beauty. Others find the same Presence in stillness, in solitude, and in the quiet discipline of simplicity. In the next post of this series, we’ll journey into The Way of the Ascetic — where silence becomes sanctuary, fasting becomes freedom, and the empty space makes room for the fullness of God.
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The Sensate meets God through the senses — through color and fragrance, through texture, taste, and sound. For them, beauty is not ornamentation; it is revelation.