There doesn't seem to be a clear emotion or label to the sensations, just a vague "resistance" or "discomfort".
Beautiful noticing Chii.
Holding those vague feelings of resistance and discomfort lightly is so necessary. Along with the question " What is this?" can yield real treasure. Just because there is a vagueness about them doesn't mean they are not important. In fact because they are vague (perhaps we could say subtle?) they are all the more important
This resistance or discomfort is what holds so much of the conditioning in place. And again softly attending to it is another way of expressing the way to see this clearly. That's all that's needed - CLEAR SEEING, softly attending with alertness
So let's turn to the red green exercise again. You say.....
The redness of the text is not affected. The labels "GOOD" or "BAD" appear as a voice in the mind over the top of the experience of red text.
Here the thing. The mind dictates and EXCLUDES so much of what we are actually seeing. This such a subtle aspect of BELIEF that we are not typically aware of until it is pointed out.
Would a baby see what you've described or actually be experiencing something else?
For ease of reference here is the sentence again so we can investigate experiencing directly
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If the label
‘GREEN’ is replaced with the label
‘GOOD’ or
‘BAD’, is the redness affected in any way as the labels suggest?
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As you LOOK at the sentence above and without any reference to thought, what is actually SEEN?
So, looking at the sentence again what do you actually SEE?
What is directly seen here is red, black
and white is it not? It can actually feel like a trick question because while it's such a simple exercise, it can powerfully demonstrate how quickly thoughts can sabotage and hypnotize
As a side note (and you may have experienced this already) if you show someone the page of any book and ask them what they see, invariably they will say something like words or letters. Rarely does anyone say "I see the white of the page." And yet the white is what takes up most of the page and we could not read the words without it!
And I'll ask you to look again because in fact what is really SEEN when we are looking at the sentence in this exercise, we also see green (lines delineating the sentence) and also blue (the color of the text in the question) even though we are not focusing on it per say, it is still SEEN.
Now hold your gaze on the sentence again and without moving your eyes or your head.
Are you not also aware of the oranges, greys, blacks of the LU website background behind the white text panel?
Now again without moving your eyes or head let your gaze soften even more and be aware of your peripheral vision.
Are you actually seeing more colours than you initially THOUGHT you were which are part of your computer screen or device and out into the room where you are?
Take a couple of minutes with a soft gaze to simply be open all that is seen in this moment.
How would you describe what you are experiencing if thought is not entertained?
As you let your gaze soften and your eyes de-focus even slightly, what happens to thoughts?
First of all, let’s remind ourselves what this exploration is all about. It's about finding out whether this notion of a “me” is actually true or not. For the purposes of this exploration we define this "me" as an independent entity that exists separate from the flow of life.
Now, rather then paying attention to what you are looking AT, turn your attention to the SEEING itself, to what you are looking FROM, as you LOOK.
Can you find a specific place from which SEEING arises?
As you continue to look can you find a “me” that is in control of the SEEING?
Can you choose to stop SEEING?
While everything in the visual field is continually changing does the SEEING ITSELF change in any way?
Going back to the moment when you became conscious of the white background (and then the other colors) which was not noticed till it was pointed out, what changed to bring that realization about?
Was there any figuring out to be done or was it simply SEEING what was there?
So explore the SEEING that is happening with these questions in mind and tell me anything else about your DIRECT EXPERIENCE that you are noticing
We are not inducing anything here that is not already happening. All we are doing is taking a close LOOK at what is actually happening in the visual experience. And in doing so are starting to reveal and investigate some of the assumptions we have made about our visual experience.
Next time you go for a walk check in with what is happening with labeling and interpreting as you walk. Just look with curiosity as to what is happening as you pay close attention to visual experiencing.
I’d love to hear. What happened?
No need to rush. If you feel you need extra time please just let me know.
And let yourself be curious with all this without trying to figure anything out !!!!
