Hi, Mike.

The entirety of what you just wrote boils down to this: You've predetermined that there's no validity to these questions, so you're refusing to look directly at your own intimate experience in order to find out. It's all an elaborate, thought-up justification for you to remain aloof from ...

Hi, Mike. Good. You're moving closer to what I'm inviting you to investigate.

If a feeling of doubt or disagreement isn't direct experience, then I don't know. What about being in a state of disagreement? Would that count?
"A feeling of doubt" is fine as a first approximation. We can work with ...

Hi, Mike.

I'm going to make a one-time excursion into philosophy in order to respond to some of your points. I wouldn't ordinarily do this, but I see that for you there are intellectual issues that are so tightly ingrained they need a little loosening before we can proceed. :-)

I'm emphatically ...

Hi, Mike. Let me see if I get what you're saying. You feel that the experience of thinking is ongoing, even when there's no thought content? Is that what you mean to say?

If so, please explain what observations lead you to that conclusion. What leads you to say you're experiencing thinking when ...

Hi, Mike.

...all of that would be one thought process because there's no "start" and "stop" of thought, there's only forward movement.
Interesting. Most people report that there are gaps, even if they're small ones, between thoughts. When you sit quietly for 15 minutes or so and watch your ...

Hi, Mike.

I don't know where they come from.
That would have been a good place to stop. :-)

Perhaps they come from my surroundings, eg I see a story about a mass shooting on the news and think about that. But that story came from an actual event, and the event is made up by people etc. so that ...

Hi, Mike. Good. We can work with that!

Today's exercises are about your experience of thoughts.

Sit quietly for a few minutes and watch the thoughts come and go.

Where do they come from? Can you see where they originate?

Can you choose which thoughts show up?

Now, as you go about the day ...

Hi, Mike. There's some good observation there. I'll cover some of your responses in a moment.

First, I can see you have a very logical mind and you prefer to know the logic behind what you do. We don't ordinarily explain the premises and reasoning behind the approach we take here, but there's no ...

Hi, Mike. Okay, good.

Let's try a different exercise. This one is about hearing. We can always return to feelings after you get the hang of it.

Sit comfortably and close your eyes. You can either focus on a specific sound that's already present (hum of air conditioner, twittering of birds) or you ...

Hi, Mike.

I'm asking you to look directly at the core of your experience, at what's behind the conventional, everyday descriptions provided by language. You're saying there's nothing more to know about the experience of doubt than the word "doubt," nothing more to know about the experience of ...

Hi, Mike. Thanks for your responses.

HOWEVER, I asked for direct observation rather than speculation or thoughts. And every single one of your responses is thought up, remembered, or speculative. There isn't one direct observation in the entire lot.

Using my "looking for milk in the fridge ...

Hi, Mike.

I feel a bit of doubt... I feel a bit of relief as well, if I were to completely agree with that statement.
Excellent. There's a lot to work with right there. Let's try a couple different angles.

First Angle: What's a feeling?
You mentioned doubt and relief as the names of feelings ...

Hi, Mike. Nice to meet you! Thanks for using the quote function. It makes this much easier.

I know you've gone over the guidelines before, so we'll take them as given. I'll usually post once a day, maybe twice if the rhythm of our conversation dictates.

I hope to be able to "experience" this "no ...

Hi. My name is Steve, and I'll guide you if you wish. Is there another name I can call you?

I see that you seem to have dropped out of a previous dialogue here a few months ago. Can you say a bit about what will be different this time? In other words, what's changed for you since March?

I'd also ...

Hi, Nancy! The other guides have no questions. Welcome home!

Once the admins have done their work, you'll see your screen name turn blue. This thread will be locked and moved to the Read Only Archives area. Expect some Facebook invites and a PM from me here with a link to further info for the ...