The Gate

Is there ANYTHING else going on that's not these?"

I notice two things. Always the underlying peace that runs behind everything else going on, but also physical sensations that are a result of the DE. Eg touching something sharp will produce an experience of pain in the physical body.

I will keep practicing DE whenever I rememeber.

I forgot the most important thing! Recognising all thoughts, small or ahas, as equally empty gives us freedom !!!! When we don't buy into thoughts, they can't hold us back, keep us stuck or limit us.

I will keep practicing dropping descriptive words in my DE.

So far there are no feelings of abruptness but rather a gentle nudging to go in the other direction when I start going to lalaland.

❤️ Just checking in. How's it going?

Good thanks!

I was hoping you would get back to me with some comments on my findings of "is there anything more".

I gave you 3 things. I found a 4th. Another thing I see is that there can be emotional responses in the body as a result of what is seen - eg feeling good when beauty is seen and appreciated, feeling compassion when seeing others in pain.

Am I on the right track with any of my findings?

Thanks Ankita.

I notice two things. Always the underlying peace that runs behind everything else going on, but also physical sensations that are a result of the DE. Eg touching something sharp will produce an experience of pain in the physical body.

I will keep practicing DE whenever I rememeber.

Woops, missed reading this one.
Can you describe this peace in your direct experience? Is it a sensation?
Physical sensations are still sensations, so they will fall in our 6 DE categories.

Another thing I see is that there can be emotional responses in the body as a result of what is seen - eg feeling good when beauty is seen and appreciated, feeling compassion when seeing others in pain.

I feel you, however notice that these too can be fundamentally broken down to: sensation, thought labelling sensation as 'good', 'compassion', and another thought saying 'beauty caused it', 'seeing others in pain caused it'.
So essentially in DE, this would be:
feeling: simply sensation
'good feeling'/ 'feeling compassion': simply thought (content irrelevant)
'beauty caused it', 'seeing others in pain caused it': simply thought (content irrelevant)

Notice how sneakily this was brought to your attention as if it is not simply DE, but something 'more'. The mind hides here.

I gave you 3 things. I found a 4th.

Hmm, not sure if I am able to keep track -- quick recap pls? What would these 3 or 4 things be? :)

When I ask "Is there anything more?", I am essentially trying to let any teeeny tiny expectations still lingering back to the surface. Is there an expectation of some underlying peace? Some woo-woo around concepts of 'consciousness', 'ether' etc? Any spiritual lalaland stories?

When you fully experience a moment, ie when this moment is all of your DE, is there anything more yet to experience? Is there anything else apart from this moment?
Is there anything to seek?

Am I on the right track with any of my findings?

Always.

There you are ☺️ We seemed to have fallen out of sync, it will be great to get back on track.

The 4 things were:

1. Freedom from the limitations thought puts on us once it is realised that thought content is irrelevant.

2. Underlying peace which you have now explained.

Can you describe this peace in your direct experience? Is it a sensation?

It is a different sensation from the DE senses put out but it envelops everything all at the same time regardless. This is not a woowoo thing that has been learned but something I sense is beneath and behind everything else that is going on.

3. Emotions which you have now explained.

4. And physical responses happen as a result of DE - eg pain is felt when something sharp is touched. Which you have now explained.

When you fully experience a moment, ie when this moment is all of your DE, is there anything more yet to experience? Is there anything else apart from this moment? Is there anything to seek?

No, there is nothing more. Thought just makes it seem that there is. (Other than the underlying quiet of peace which is always present, rarely noticed.)

Question: I mentioned Kabbalah studies some time ago, and you were going to look it up. I know seeking ends once we are through the gate but will spiritual practices such as Buddhism, Christianity or Kabbalah have any value on the other side?

Thanks Ankita. I was going to wish you well for Easter then wondered about such "religious" observations. Hence the question ;-)

There you are ☺️ We seemed to have fallen out of sync, it will be great to get back on track.

I will do my best. Let me try to catch up to your speed on this x

1. Freedom from the limitations thought puts on us once it is realised that thought content is irrelevant.

And what is this freedom in DE? A sensation?
Try a quick one: Choose any object around to gaze at, something that is used a lot and has some ownership attached ("my" phone, "my" cup), and notice that its just a visual with a thought label. Isn't it?
Watch your heart, your chest, your gut -- is there a sense of expansion? Is there a loss of rigidity? Is there a dissolution of a heaviness that was always experienced in a certain area?
Are all of these simply not sensations? A felt sense?

What makes a sensation of expansion different from 'freedom'?

(Other than the underlying quiet of peace which is always present, rarely noticed.)

This is also quite interesting. Is there any way to experience this peace that is not through one of the sense gates? You have a lot of conviction here, so please describe this peace as vividly as you are able to.

Question: I mentioned Kabbalah studies some time ago, and you were going to look it up. I know seeking ends once we are through the gate but will spiritual practices such as Buddhism, Christianity or Kabbalah have any value on the other side?

Religions have a way of becoming "obedience, without intimacy", in a way that rituals themselves start to curtain the essence behind them. If anything, seeing reality for what it is simply brings back this lost intimacy, makes it all deeper, richer, profound. The stories fall away, and if religion for you so far has been mostly around thought stories, it may start feeling lighter. From my personal experience, they look like little poems celebrating what-is.

I was going to wish you well for Easter then wondered about such "religious" observations.

Many greetings :) It is all welcome. Hope you had a joyous one.

We have run through many exercises, and from what I can tell, there is some familiarity established with DE now, but there is still thought content muddying some seeing -- especially when visceral reactions are involved with little time to notice what really happened, for example: pain. Pain too is simply a sensation, with a label. Is it not?

Lets continue seeing, and I believe the most helpful exercise still is to break down activities into DE lists. See if the mind suggests there's something happening that's more than DE, beyond DE or outside DE. Pls write them here once a day, because writing can often have a way of pulling attention in a sharp focussed way.

Look forward to hearing from you Stacy :)

Thanks Ankita :)

Watch your heart, your chest, your gut -- is there a sense of expansion? Is there a loss of rigidity? Is there a dissolution of a heaviness that was always experienced in a certain area? Are all of these simply not sensations? A felt sense? What makes a sensation of expansion different from 'freedom'?

Yes, freedom feels like expansion and lightness, a deeper layer of sensation to what is experienced through DE.

Is there any way to experience this peace that is not through one of the sense gates?

When everything goes quiet - no thinking, no DE - that peace can be experienced. It is also sensed, to me at least, as a deeper layer than DE. It is always there but rarely noticed because of the noise and busyness of life. Even when I do DE exercises, I am going to my head to write it down for you.

Question: where will all this DE practice get me? Through the gate? What I most long for is to experience all as one - no subject, no object, no inside or outside, and all that goes with experiencing non duality.

DE activity for today - going to gym

Seeing equipment, other people - simply seeing
Hearing conversations, music, equipment clanking - simply hearing
Working out, butt on seat, muscles aching - simply sensations
Smelling antibacterial spray - simply smelling
Tasting water - simply tasting
Thoughts arising - content irrelevant

Yes, freedom feels like expansion and lightness, a deeper layer of sensation to what is experienced through DE.

Lots to unpack here.
First, what is DE? and what is not DE?
Anything that you can possibly experience is DE. It is a direct immersion into what-is.
How can anything be experienced and still not be your direct experience? Is it your indirect experience?
For you to even know this freedom/expansion/lightness, it must come into your experience. Then the thought labels it as "freedom", "this is beyond plain ol' DE", "this is a deeper" etc
Do you see this? Don't go into thoughts, look at the what we are calling lightness. What about it says to you "I am a different sensation than others"?
Once again, no intellectual understanding, only look.

Secondly, regarding it feeling like a "deeper layer of sensation" -- understand that any comparison ever can only come from the mind. All comparison must invoke memory: "this used to feel like this, but now this feels like this new thing", this is the mind going to a memory thought -- which we have seen to be unreliable, and as always, the content of all thoughts is irrelevant, including this one.

So whenever there is a sense of "this is deeper", immediately WATCH for who just said that. It has to be a thought.

So lets practise this again. Invoke the sensation of lightness by dropping any belief, once again we can pick any object and gaze at it and dissolve its "object"ness by seeing its just visuals. Flatten the vision field into sort of a 2D experience -- all just visuals all around. Anything that brings the sensation of lightness back to be observed.
Now watch what the mind has to say about it:
"Where is this getting me.."
"Why am i doing this.."
"Will this get me closer to my goal.."
"Oh, this feels good.."
"But there's no way i can sustain feeling like this.."
"This feels better than the last time i practised.."
ALL of these are thoughts, content irrelevant. There are commentary, adding on top of what-is.
Are you able to see this?

When everything goes quiet - no thinking, no DE - that peace can be experienced.

Is it no DE or is it your direct experience becoming freer of habitual illusions, clearer? Is it not simply a direct experience of what was already there... that is now experienced as peaceful (thought label to the experience of what-is)?


This is important because attachment to the world of form is treacherous, but so is attachment to the 'formless', to the 'underlying peace', 'freedom' etc. So long as there is this very subtle clinging-ness, there is going to someone clinging to something, ie subject-object, and hence separation.

Question: where will all this DE practice get me? Through the gate? What I most long for is to experience all as one - no subject, no object, no inside or outside, and all that goes with experiencing non duality.

Your DE practice must ultimately subsume the entirety of life. Ultimately, only Direct Experience remains, no you, no I in it.
At LU, we say someone is 'through the gate' when their seeking drops. When they see that reality is playing out as it is, and there is nothing to 'seek' after, no spiritual goal. Simply what-is. We stop there, but the practice must still be continued by you (and continued for quite a looong time, depending on how much 'gunk' comes up to be cleared up), just without the seeking aspect.

Seeing equipment, other people - simply seeing
Hearing conversations, music, equipment clanking - simply hearing
Working out, butt on seat, muscles aching - simply sensations
Smelling antibacterial spray - simply smelling
Tasting water - simply tasting
Thoughts arising - content irrelevant

Perfect, pls continue clarifying DE.

Also:

Even when I do DE exercises, I am going to my head to write it down for you.

yes, indeed!
Great catch. Reporting here always has the element of redundancy, going to memory to refer to what just happened. All that matters is you practice DE in your day to day, repeatedly -- these reports simply help me see if any subtle thoughts are messing anything up. Allow them to fulfil that small purpose.

When practicing DE, does it work best if I see things as colours and shapes rather than label them with their conventional names? Eg see brown rather than coffee.

Today's activity - a visit to the zoo

Saw animals, trees, people - simply seeing
Heard people, children, birds - simply hearing
Smelt manure, animal smells - simply smelling
Ate salad, drank water - simply tastes
Feet got tired, granddaughter got heavy - simply sensations
Thoughts of compassion towards caged, bored animals - thought led to compassion and emotions. Is that content all still irrelevant?

I see how labelling sensations as "deeper" is just thought, it is adding commentary. Everything is DE but thought makes it indirect DE.

Invoke the sensation of lightness by dropping any belief, once again we can pick any object and gaze at it and dissolve its "object"ness by seeing its just visuals. Flatten the vision field into sort of a 2D experience -- all just visuals all around. Anything that brings the sensation of lightness back to be observed.

I don't think we have done this before but I heard a lady on a podcast say she suddenly saw the world in 2D. Is that actually how it is but our brains make us perceive things as 3D? I tried flattening the visual, tried just staring at it with a soft gaze, but all I could see was the object. The mind is saying I need to keep trying, keep working at it.

I see how labelling sensations as "deeper" is just thought, it is adding commentary. Everything is DE but thought makes it indirect DE.

Correct. And what about the underlying peace experience? Is it DE, and what is it in DE?

Is it no DE or is it your direct experience becoming freer of habitual illusions, clearer? Is it not simply a direct experience of what was already there... that is now experienced as peaceful (thought label to the experience of what-is)?

How do you feel about this please? ^

I don't think we have done this before but I heard a lady on a podcast say she suddenly saw the world in 2D. Is that actually how it is but our brains make us perceive things as 3D?

Lets jump past what someone may have said, or what goes on in the brain (all of these are thought stories) and immerse in experience. Boundary exploration is needed here.

Gaze at an object, and gently notice its boundary where the background takes over. What constitutes the perception of depth for you? What about this boundary says one "object" is infront of something else? In DE, when its all a soup of visuals, colors, shapes, what about the color/shape suggests to you that one shape is "behind" the other?

When practicing DE, does it work best if I see things as colours and shapes rather than label them with their conventional names? Eg see brown rather than coffee.

As long as you can see that they are colours & shapes with a thought label, we are all good either way. If the thought label is prominent (the mind says this is FOR SURE coffee, not just brown), then we should absolutely acknowledge the thought, because its arising is also as much our direct experience as the color brown.

Thoughts of compassion towards caged, bored animals - thought led to compassion and emotions.

This is: simply sensation (labelled compassion), and thoughts (not thoughts OF compassion)

Is that content all still irrelevant?

You tell me?

I

And what about the underlying peace experience? Is it DE, and what is it in DE?

Yes, it is. In DE it is a thought. I come to that conclusion by way of elimination as it isn't any of the senses and it isn't a sensation.

How do you feel about this please?

I feel tricked by the mind because underlying peace pre iously felt like a nice place to rest, now it seems to be a false belief.

What constitutes the perception of depth for you? What about this boundary says one "object" is infront of something else? In DE, when its all a soup of visuals, colors, shapes, what about the color/shape suggests to you that one shape is "behind" the other?

When I gaze at just an object and it's background, depth perception fades.

You tell me?

Yes, all thought content is irrelevant, regardless.

DE activity : crocheting

Holding the blanket, wool and hook, feeling the textures - simply sensation
Seeing colours change where wool has been changed, see blue hook - simply seeing
Hearing the wind and the clock ticking - simply hearing
Thoughts arising of other things I should be doing - content irrelevant

DE activity - typing this note

Watching fingers dance over the keyboard, noticing butt chair - simply sensations
Thoughts of when will all these DE activities cause a shift for me? - doubt, simply thoughts arising
Tasting oats I just finished eating - simply taste sensation
Listening to the wind and the clock ticking - simply hearing

Today's DE activity - having lunch out

Seeing people, decor, traffic - simply seeing
Hearing music, conversations - simply hearing
Bum on seat, cold drink, hot food - simply sensations
Pie, veggies - simply tastes
Smelling food - simply smell
Thoughts about being out, thoughts about conversation with husband, thoughts about "life lifeing" - content irrelevant

Thanks Ankita. Have a great day :)

Today's DE activity - relaxing at the beach

Seeing water, sky, people, sand - just seeing
Hearing seagulls, waves crashing, hearing quiet - just hearing
Smelling the ocean - just smelling
Tasting an apple - just tasting
Lying on tummy, sensing hardness of sand - sensations