Is emptyness and calm worrying or something you are not so used to?
There's fear there now that you bring it up. Fear that maybe I'm not doing enough. Traced it back, sat with it, didn't take me long. Concluded that it stems from my parents always wanting me to be active, to always be doing things - an overbearing pressure.
Packaged with it all is a fear of disappointment - stemming from them as well - specifically fear that I'll be disappointing you, me, and my friend that showed me this site. I guess thoughts latch onto activity or movement or disorientation a sense of progression, of change, so when things are calm and empty, thoughts patch it up to complacency. And then from there, a fear of the rock rolling back down the hill.
Lets look at the first one - look at something, take the something in, and while doing so:
Is Arthur the one seeing the something or is seeing happening?
I was walking just now and there was a sense of stillness, of watching a movie. It's kind of annoying though actually since everytime something like that happens, thoughts jump up to start weaving a post for you haha. I just kind of look at it as that though, just thoughts. It seems a bit easier now actually. Some thoughts aren't that easy to detach still but patience is key.
Seems to be that both is applicable? As though I'm both the audience and the actor to a film. An ebb and flow between the two.
The second one - you already answered it earlier with the picture of an empty boat no on who steers it, but look again.
Is there any way in which the Arthur can influence what happens?
Following the film analogy, the thoughts are the script. But now that a layer has been peeled, it's more of an interactive film? As in, the audience knows it's just a script now and since it's both the actor and the audience, it's no longer tethered to its linearity.
So this is actually pretty cool. Since the character Arthur knows he's merely that - a character/an actor - the script changes - i.e. the thoughts that appear - to complement or to make sense of the newfound perspective? With that, there is a subtle influence the character Arthur can apply. Like you said at the very beginning, there's a change and no change at the same time. Now that the character knows it's a script he's not bound to, it's easier to not be so overwhelmed by what the script brings, yet he still plays along.
In essence, there's only a subtle influence on what Arthur can bring. And this was only possible due to seeing how thoughts aren't meant to be followed or aren't who he is. It's the knowledge of it that can change the character.
There's no radical shift, no doer still, no experiencer, no chooser, but with the knowledge, it changes the choices, the happenings, the experiences.
