We undoubtedly regard a sensation as something taking place worldwide or on a large scale. It is some fame, usually resulting from films, literature or music, receiving enormous attention from many people that transcends nationalities or cultures. However, what we actually need, i.e. what we need to create, might be a new sensation that is caused by the mind rather than such large scale sensation.
Image source: Le Petit Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (first published in 1943) keeps its reputation as one of the most beloved literature around the world. A thin book with unique and innocent illustrations gives an impression that it is a children’s book. But in fact, its contents are deeper and more profound than any other philosophical books.
The little prince comes from Asteroid B-612. He leaves his asteroid and travels around the Earth where he meets the narrator. He tells his story to him. The little prince has a rose to keep and so he must return to his asteroid to keep the flower. However, his body is too heavy to return there. The little prince eventually meets a poisonous golden snake at a dessert and asks it to bite him.
What the little prince shows is not only the side of an innocent young boy. He knows to sacrifice himself for the rose he loves. He gives up his rather too heavy body and finally returns to the place where he comes from, the place where a rose is waiting for him.
Image source: Le Petit Prince
The little prince gives us a chance to think whether the true meaning of sensation is to give up the whole of the self as the little prince did, rather than achieve the fame that many people applaud and love. Being able to give up his whole heart and body for another being shows that the little prince must be much more mature and noble than the average person.
The little prince could actually abandon everything of him to devote it for the existence that he loves – for the existence that is more precious than him. Just like he eventually abandons his body to return to asteroid B-612, to his precious rose, we will also be able to return to our origin that we came from, that is, the place where the loving existence is waiting for us, just by abandoning ourselves.
During the short meeting with the little prince, the narrator, who lived having forgotten about innocence, was awakened; the action of the little prince – abandoning his self and returning to a rose he loves, the place where he comes from – also makes us realize that we have lived having forgotten about where we came from and the true meaning of life.
Image source: Le Petit Prince
It might be the first sensation that we need to accomplish in this generation: abandoning all of ourselves and returning to our origin where we came from. And probably, this would be the way to return to the most precious existence that we love but have forgotten about.
