Shift your focus from thinking to direct sensation. Closing the eyes helps. Focus on the pressure of buttocks against the chair, the movement in the chest that is breathing.I can wonder if I am simply 'playing with words'. I try to set that aside and concentrate on experience. Even so - words are still with us.
On radio 4 at 1100 there was a science programme on the cellular nature of the human body. Only one in ten of our cells are human - the rest are ancient colonies of bacterial cells that have travelled with us down the aeons. That gives a fresh view of what and who we are.Hi Harry,
Shift your focus from thinking to direct sensation. Closing the eyes helps. Focus on the pressure of buttocks against the chair, the movement in the chest that is breathing.I can wonder if I am simply 'playing with words'. I try to set that aside and concentrate on experience. Even so - words are still with us.
In Direct Experience, are there words? Or is there simply experience.
Notice what happens to focus when you check for words.
love
Nona
GOOD! Really good noticing!! Experience of pressure is also referred to as sensation. This sensation is directly known; it doesn't require a Sense-er to do the feeling of the sensation.On the pressure of buttocks on chairs... I find, in focussing on this, there are no words - just experience of pressure on buttocks. The knowing, or thought of 'pressure' might arise, but it is a wordless experience.
Very good noticing!!! Word-making, also called labeling, occurs after the event, as mind attempts to put together a seamless Story of experience. But in reality, direct experience is not seamless; it is full of gaps and holes that thought plasters over with words. Check it!!Today I mowed the grass. There was mainly just the mowing, the experience of perspiring, the taking off of a jersey. Finally the experience of satisfaction. Word making began when I noticed a pair of courting toads in the garden pond
Yes. And check for the opposite; when focus on experience sharpens, what happens to naming and description?As the mind begins to name and describe - focus on experience loses sharpness and fades.
Slow it down, and Check carefully: is there an actual decision being made by something in control of those activities? Or do the activities just happen, without a controlling decider, and mind attaches a thought "I did it" after the fact?All those activities of life proceed quite well in the absence of a "self". Alterations in activities come about without self - though there are times when 'willed' action intrudes and makes a decision. I assume this 'will' is mind.
What else are you believing that is not happening in your direct experience?That is most interesting. I've checked it and find it as you say.direct experience is not seamless; it is full of gaps and holes that thought plasters over with words.
Great!! Do you see how Harry is also a character in a story that is growing? Outside of a body, is Harry associated with anything "real-er" than are the characters in the novel? Check this closely!In the writing, I was immersed in the experience of a growing story inhabited by developing characters.
Excellent. Please notice how Life happens, including decisions happening, without an I, without a wordsmith, without a decider, without an experiencer, without any of these jumping in to take over and orchestrate an event. No separate Harry is required for Life to simply happen as it does. Check it!After three hours I was surprised at the swift passage of time. There was wordsmithing going on, brain was active, decisions and reversal of decisions were made - but no definite experience of self.
"Yes. And check for the opposite; when focus on experience sharpens, what happens to naming and description?"As the mind begins to name and describe - focus on experience loses sharpness and fades.
"Slow it down, and Check carefully: is there an actual decision being made by something in control of those activities? Or do the activities just happen, without a controlling decider, and mind attaches a thought "I did it" after the fact?All those activities of life proceed quite well in the absence of a "self". Alterations in activities come about without self - though there are times when 'willed' action intrudes and makes a decision. I assume this 'will' is mind.
"What else are you believing that is not happening in your direct experience?"That is most interesting. I've checked it and find it as you say.direct experience is not seamless; it is full of gaps and holes that thought plasters over with words.
"Great!! Do you see how Harry is also a character in a story that is growing? Outside of a body, is Harry associated with anything "real-er" than are the characters in the novel? Check this closely!"In the writing, I was immersed in the experience of a growing story inhabited by developing characters.
"Excellent. Please notice how Life happens, including decisions happening, without an I, without a wordsmith, without a decider, without an experiencer, without any of these jumping in to take over and orchestrate an event. No separate Harry is required for Life to simply happen as it does. Check it!"After three hours I was surprised at the swift passage of time. There was wordsmithing going on, brain was active, decisions and reversal of decisions were made - but no definite experience of self.
Good noticing!!!Naming and description 'switch off'. Focus on experience brings a sensation of ease. Even little niggles of pain become less."Yes. And check for the opposite; when focus on experience sharpens, what happens to naming and description?"
So are decisions made by an "I", a "self", or a Harry? Or are they simply happening as part of Life, with no decide-er jumping in to do the "deciding" at all?Nona, this is quite an exercise - it leaves me with wet eyes. I don't find a decision making entity, but have noted (by retracing the decision process) that the decision has a trigger 'thought' or 'mental image' in the early part of its history."Slow it down, and Check carefully: is there an actual decision being made by something in control of those activities? Or do the activities just happen, without a controlling decider, and mind attaches a thought "I did it" after the fact?
Do you actually observe a decision being made? Or are you assuming you are making decisions because you believe you are personally responsible for your actions?"
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this.if we include thought as experience of mental activity. There is perception and experience of perception; mental events and perceptive experience of them. Self seems to emerge when all that is 'appropriated'.
Are any of those characters, the ones in the novel and the one called Harry, not fictional? Is there an "I" or a "myself" that is not fictional??I do see this - I'm a character evolving. As characters develop in my writing I can become embarrased by how much they are aspects of myself."Great!! Do you see how Harry is also a character in a story that is growing? Outside of a body, is Harry associated with anything "real-er" than are the characters in the novel? Check this closely!"
I'll agree with that. I call what I've described here Life, and Life is the very act of creativity.I think what you describe, Nona, is the very act of creativity.Please notice how Life happens, including decisions happening, without an I, without a wordsmith, without a decider, without an experiencer, without any of these jumping in to take over and orchestrate an event. No separate Harry is required for Life to simply happen as it does. Check it!"
Self is a concept that exists only in thought. There is no self to block writing at all; you can't get it out of the way because it is only a thought, a word, a label that occurs after an event and refers to other thoughts, not to any real entity. There is no such thing as an actual entity self. Go back and read the descriptions of what was happening, with and without the use of "I" and "me". Did the use of the label change what was actually happening at all?It keeps occuring to me that 'self' is a hindrance to creativity. 'Self' is probably the source of 'writer's block'. I must get it out of the way.
"Are any of those characters, the ones in the novel and the one called Harry, not fictional? Is there an "I" or a "myself" that is not fictional??"Hi Harry! Welcome back!
"So are decisions made by an "I", a "self", or a Harry? Or are they simply happening as part of Life, with no decide-er jumping in to do the "deciding" at all?"[
..... I don't find a decision making entity, but have noted (by retracing the decision process) that the decision has a trigger 'thought' or 'mental image' in the early part of its history.
Reflecting on this, and looking further, there seems to be no centre to 'my' experience that can be labelled an 'I', a self, or a Harry. There is just experience and decisions arising out of experience - the decisions are a phenomena of experience.
Nona writes:
'Certainly there is experience of thinking; we notice we have thoughts. What is key is that the content of those thoughts is not experienced directly; the content of a thought is imaginary.
For example, Think of a cup. See it in your mind's eye: its size, shape, volume, colour, decoration, whether or not there is a handle...
You notice you have a thought: there is a sensation of thinking. But the cup that is "seen" in the mind's eye cannot be seen directly with the eyes in the head. It is imaginary.
If you go to the cupboard and take out a real cup, you can pour something into it and drink from it. You cannot do this with the imaginary cup.
So yes, there are mental events, and we notice them: to that extent we have direct experience of them. But we do not have direct experience of the content of those thoughts.'
Understood. The thought 'cup' is imaginary and cannot be used as a cup, because it is of imagination and not matter.
As characters develop in my writing I can become embarrased by how much they are aspects of myself.
"Self is a concept that exists only in thought. There is no self to block writing at all; you can't get it out of the way because it is only a thought, a word, a label that occurs after an event and refers to other thoughts, not to any real entity. There is no such thing as an actual entity self. Go back and read the descriptions of what was happening, with and without the use of "I" and "me". Did the use of the label change what was actually happening at all?[
It keeps occuring to me that 'self' is a hindrance to creativity. 'Self' is probably the source of 'writer's block'. I must get it out of the way.
Indeed.All the characters in the story are fictional constructs of mind; likewise the writer, being a construct of mind is also a fiction. This is not only logical, but it is true.
Dear Nona,Dearest Harry,
Indeed.All the characters in the story are fictional constructs of mind; likewise the writer, being a construct of mind is also a fiction. This is not only logical, but it is true.
Have you SEEN that "self" is a mental construct? That it is a label for a thought about other thoughts and not an entity in reality at all? Have you seen through the illusion of a separate self?
Check!
love
Nona
SEEing it in your direct experience, vs understanding it in mind, are as different as the label and the thing. Have you directly experienced as a fact that "A separate and distinct self is an illusion"?I have perceived and understood that 'self' is a mental construct and is merely the consequence of applying labels (and thingness) to thought. A separate and distinct self is an illusion; this has become obvious to me.
Do you notice any separation between Harry and the curlew, Harry and the swallow, Harry and any of Life happening, at all?the curlew is back on the hill - whauping and whooping. On retreat I saw a solitary swallow heading north.
"Do you notice any separation between Harry and the curlew, Harry and the swallow, Harry and any of Life happening, at all?"Dearest Harry,
"SEEing it in your direct experience, vs understanding it in mind, are as different as the label and the thing. Have you directly experienced as a fact that "A separate and distinct self is an illusion"?"I have perceived and understood that 'self' is a mental construct and is merely the consequence of applying labels (and thingness) to thought. A separate and distinct self is an illusion; this has become obvious to me.
Yes, I have experienced it as a fact. I make an effort to express this without copying your own phrasing. Language is, by its nature, dualistic. We use subject and object to communicate even though both are empty self nature. In the end the most valid response might be silence.
the curlew is back on the hill - whauping and whooping. On retreat I saw a solitary swallow heading north.
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