Four Hundred Texts on Love (Fourth Century) 35

74.  The senses belong to a single family but are divided into five individual types. Through the apprehensive force particular to each individual type, the deluded soul is persuaded to desire the corresponding sensible objects instead of God. Hence the man of intelligence will choose to die voluntarily according to the flesh before the advent of that death which comes whether he likes it or not; and to this end he will completely sever his inner disposition from the senses.

I find this text intriguing. Through our senses we come to desire the things we experience through them over God. To me, at least, there is a sense of timelessness in this quote. We are embodied beings created to turn our being toward God. Instead, our perceiving, receptive mind which both interprets the input of our sense and is our vehicle for experiencing God is overwhelmed, distracted, and eventually consumed by the sensory input it receives. We have all followed that course to one degree or another. This lies close to the heart of our universal fall. We are consumed by all that rushes at us through our senses rather than ruling over them in the constant experience or perception of God.