Sage, hi!

On Wednesday while hiking some very beautiful direct experiencing happened. Seeing the trail, hills, fog rising, trees, birds, sounds, movement ... pure seeing, seeing as experiencing, not me inside and the world outside, no separation. Seeing becomes more intimate, no thoughts are needed ...

Sage, hi!

I know you're good at analysis and tend to default there.
Would you believe that I am an IT analyst? :)

1) Is there a separate entity 'self', 'me' 'I', at all, anywhere, in any way, shape or form? Was there ever?
No, there is no separate entity "self", "me", "I" at all, in any way ...

Sage, I will reply tomorrow. It was a busy day today :). Soj

Sage, hi!

Is the "self fragrance" evidence of a self? Does it give you any doubt that you haven't seen through the illusion? Do you still believe in a separate self entity in any way?
No. No. No.

From what part of experience does the self fragrance originate?
Feeling followed by the thought ...

Sage, hi!

Do you have any expectations now about how life will be experienced in the future?
I did not think about that really. I will see what will come. There is a change in experiencing already and if anything I would be glad for that to continue.

If you find at some point in the future that ...

Sage, hi!

During the hiking today there was so much more of pure looking. Thoughts do take over from time to time. A thought came this morning "All right, you made it. Task accomplished. Now let's go on the old way." No way back, however!

There are tasks to attend to, relationships ... a normal ...

Sage, hi!

Let's look at this feeling of incompleteness. Is it the thought that without looking at the story the experience can't be understood?
Yes, it is the thought.

What is missing, right here, right now?
Actually nothing is missing. Only a thought suggests that something is missing. How ...

Sage, hi!

In my previous post I once again wandered out of DE. Sometimes I don't know when to also look into the story of the thoughts and when to just stay with DE.

There are some "big" questions arising about concepts like liberation, reincarnation, love, deep sleep, continuity in experiencing ...

Sage, hi!

Good! And did you just find out that there is no decision or did you see that there is no decision?
I have seen that there is no decision to be found in DE.

Go into your direct experience and look into the apparent paradox. Separate out the concepts and assumptions underneath these ...

Sage, hi!

So what is it that you're trying to make sense of here? The relative importance of labels? Is the "I" label more important than the "red" label? In direct experience is any label more important than another?
In direct experience no label is important. In direct experience there are no ...

Sage, hi!

You are right about the thinking. And thank you so much for sharing this with me.

But of course!!! It would look like it already is. Without labels. :)
And this was my clumsy on-the-fly way of describing the realization that DE does not need labels to be as it is.

Without the ...

Sage, hi!

But sight and touch tend to be the most sticky for people in maintaining the illusion of duality.
Yes, it is so.

So now, in direct experience can you find an organism labeled "Soj"?
I am not sure, how to answer. A similar question would be "In direct experience can you find an object ...

Sage, hi!

Sorry, busy day yesterday. I did not want to send half-baked cookies :).

In DE, can you feel a boundary between your fingers and your arm? Can you feel where one ends and the other begins?
There is a feeling of pressure, a feeling of cold fingers on warm forearm, a feeling of softness ...

Sage, hi!

I did your exercise. I was looking at the pen for 20 minutes or so. I have seen what you have been describing. But then these thoughts and questions came. Even colour was doubted. And I agree with you that there was so much thinking and supposing involved. Anyway I think there is now more ...

Sage, hi!

Look at the pen as if it's a photograph, flat. ... What's the real shape in vision?
Yes. I understand. There is a lot of thought interpretations while looking at the pen. We humans also have a stereo vision that helps with depth perception, so actually there are two images that we see ...