A logical mind seeks freedom and joy

[Narracja]

I find it hard to consider the body as just an experience with a label. Any advice on that?

[EmptySet00]

Sorry I've been away for so long! Once again, I haven't been getting any notifications.

Hold your hand in front of you and look at it.

What makes one part of what you see, your hand, part of your body, and the rest of what you see not you, or not your body?

There are other exercises for looking at this too, which I will post tomorrow.

[Narracja]

Ok, I'll have a look, thanks!

[EmptySet00]

Here is another exercise about the body:

With the eyes closed, sitting still, without relying on thoughts or mental images:

Can it be known how tall the body is?
Does it have a weight or a volume of the body?
In the actual experience does the body have a shape or a form?

Is there a boundary between the body and the clothing?
Is there a boundary between the body and the chair?

Is there an inside or outside?

What is the body in the actual experience?

Let me know how this goes, and also the previous exercise.

[Narracja]

For the previous exercise, touch sensation seems to be a major factor; I feel sensation in the skin of the hand but not in the bed it lays upon. If I have thick jeans and my hand on my thigh, the bare hand seems more "body" than the trouser-covered leg.

[Narracja]

I'll return to the other stuff on Friday!

[Narracja]

Didn't have a chance to investigate this in depth yet, been really busy, will report later..

[Narracja]

Can it be known how tall the body is?

- looks like perception of tallness is a visual inference.

Does it have a weight or a volume of the body?

- Weight is inferred by the amount of pressure against what's beneath the body, volume by boundaries that are given by sensations on the skin.

In the actual experience does the body have a shape or a form?

- body position is a part of the experience, it seems, and that's then combined with interoception to end up with a perception of shape and form; so yes, kind of...

Is there a boundary between the body and the clothing?

- skin seems to be the boundary, or the sensations on it.

Is there a boundary between the body and the chair?

- same as the last one (skin), but in addition, there's the feeling of pressure in the muscles, as gravity does it's thing.

Is there an inside or outside?

- yes, whatever's sensed by the body feel/interoception feels like inside (e.g. pressure from the chair on my butt), and things I can't feel (e.g. the chair's experience of pressure from my butt) seem like the outside.

What is the body in the actual experience?

- hmm.. sensations; tingling, pressure.. position, temperature, pain.. So, a collection of feelings, perhaps.

[EmptySet00]

Let's look a little more closely at touch sensations.

Put your hand on an object such as a table, where it can rest. Then close your eyes.

Is there a boundary between you and the object in the touch sensation itself?

[Narracja]

Sorry for the delay; super busy week and no notification again.

Well, at least the sensation gets interpreted as boundary... I guess that in sensation there is only sensation.

[EmptySet00]

Take a couple of minutes to do this. If you're too busy to do that, wait for a time when you have a short break, like when you're waiting for something.

Put your hand on a surface and close your eyes. Feel the sensation. Is there a boundary in it?

From the sensation itself, can you tell the shape of your hand, or even how many fingers are on it?

Do you notice mental images of the hand and surface being generated?

[Narracja]

I get the impression of a boundary; it's partly mental imagery. I feel like I can deduce the amount of fingers and some general shape of the hand from the tingling I perceive on the skin is.

[EmptySet00]

Can you distinguish the sensations from the mental images of the hand? Sit with your eyes closed and your hand touching something for a few minutes. Pay attention to what you would label "hand".

Describe the sensations.

Then describe the associated mental images.

[Narracja]

There's temperature, pressure, but felt only on the side that is facing the surface (not on the back of the hand). Whenever I place attention on the hand, a subtle mental image appears, associated with it is sensations of the skin..

[EmptySet00]

Where in all this is a sense of a boundary?