Are thoughts arising, is labelling happening?
Yes, thoughts are arising. Not so much labelling perse, but rather associations. For example, I see clover in the lawn, and I think about how it's time I should mow it. I see a particular plant, I think about how bad it looked in winter and how well it recovered. When I put explicitly think about labelling things, I do attach labels the moment I see something, but this is again associative behaviour because I just thought about doing that. It doesn't come naturally as much though.
Are labels required in order for the seeing to happen?
No, not at all.
Imaging you forgot the name for the object (eg apple), would seeing still occur?
Definitely, and my brain would be working overtime to either find the name (if I'm trying to talk about it), or if the item is unknown, figure out what it is.
Take time to explore the process of perceiving the object, where is the perceiving happening. Is the perception happening in a single place, a single point?
Not really. I got the feeling it's just happening. It's everywhere. There is a clear focal point as to where the eyes are aiming, but overall I got the feeling that the seeing just "is".
Is there an "I" found in this process of seeing the object? Is there a seer separate from the seen?
I cannot find one.
If you get overwhelmed by thoughts you can try moving back to 'wide angle' mode for a while and then slowly refocus back on the object and explore more.
No, it was a good experience, with a lot of clarity. If just gazing in a general direction, I find that random thoughts often start creeping in and while the seeing is still there, the brain decides to shift its attention towards those thoughts. This is then easily interrupted again by seeing motion, or hearing a sound, which shifts the brains attention to that particular object or to the direction of the sound.
But my overall impression was that seeing just happens, and the brain tries hard to interpret and associate what is seen with something it already knows.
