Jerry,
Thank you for your diligence and daily check-ins. I wish you all the best. Blessings on your journey. Ping me if I can be of assistance.
Warmly,
Jeff

Hi Jerry,
Perhaps try looking in the mirror from almost no distance. If you're close enough, you'll see just a blur of colors. Is there any information intrinsically in the blur that tells you it's an image of a part of a body? If you had never seen a photograph or a mirror before, would you know ...

If you pay close attention, you may see that images are constantly arising from memory. Among these images are those labeled "body" but they are too tenuous to intrinsically signify "body" in the absence of a label.

Feel better soon, Jerry.

One thing to notice is that the image in the mirror is just blobs of color. Is there any intrinsic identity in those blobs? Or is identity just a thought?

Thanks for the update, Jerry.

When your attention is only in the sensation and there are no thoughts, do you find any information about position intrinsic to the sensation, or is the position a thought? Do you see yourself in imagination overlaying a visual image of a body with a visualized hand in relation to the visualized ...

Thanks for checking in, Jerry. Good work.
Jeff

Take your time and repeat as needed. Just observe. What are you seeing?

Deeper Body Investigation

Here is an even deeper investigation of the body. Please follow each step, don't leave out any. Take your time. Don't move to the next step until the previous one is clearly seen. Repeat the exercise several times.

Stand in front of a bigger mirror.

(1) First, close the ...

I think you're doing great, Jerry. Is there some aspect of the sense of self that persists? Or would you like to try an exercise from the "book"?
Jeff

Great, Jerry! So would you agree that it's thoughts all the way down? That's a reference to a joke. A man expresses the opinion that the world is supported by a turtle. His interlocutor asks, "Well, what supports the turtle?" The man replies, "Another turtle." "And what supports that turtle ...

Very good, Jerry. No one is lost in thought. Without a judgment about it, is there such a thing as being lost in thought? Can you find, at the moment it happens, the moment where "being lost in thought" begins?

Great, Jerry. I've been trying this myself lately:
Whenever you notice that you're lost in thought, consider that it's a wish to be somewhere other than Just This. Then ask, "Is there anywhere else to be? And, can the one who wishes he were somewhere else be found?" Let me know how it goes!
Jeff

Okay, will wait to hear back from you.