The Common Sense

We see, hear, taste, smell, and touch the world. Equipped with five senses we observe things around us. But mere observation is not enough, as such observations are merely mechanical. They tell us only a part of the story. When our awareness is soaked with emotional sensibilities we  understand real meaning of a  thing. In a way, senses are mere instruments, if emotions are not attached to them. Without emotions a sense is just like a machine. It can collect information but wouldn’t know what to do with it. It is like looking at a thing for the sake of ‘looking’ but not for the joy of ‘seeing’.
E. F. Schumacher writes: “Our five bodily senses make us
adequate to the lowest Level of Being – inanimate matter. But they can supply nothing more than masses of sense data, to ‘make sense’ of which we require
abilities or capabilities of a different order. ….. Without them we should be unable to recognize form, pattern, regularity, harmony, rhythm, and meaning, not to mention life, consciousness, and self-awareness.”
If we want to look at a thing, both objectively and subjectively, we need  another sense; some call it conscience. It is the sense of ‘mind-in-action’. It is the sense of right and wrong. It is the policeman of the community of senses. Its voice is ‘voice within’. It can prompt different people in quite different directions.
And if we want to live ‘with our whole bodies’, we need yet
another sense. Unless we have this sense, the other six senses are of no use. You guessed it right. It is Common Sense. Each man’s perception about the common sense varies. It varies according to the size of her/his head.
Common sense has two  siblings, common nonsense and uncommon sense. Uncommon sense, being the older sibling, always thinks ‘out of the box’. They are serious types. They are so deeply in the box that they often find difficulty coming out  of it. The younger sibling, common nonsense, is a reflection of a flawed brain with a capacity for being interested in more things than it can comprehend.