The Gate

Thank you Magdelena,
I was only able to access your response yesterday for the first time. Technical blip. I am traveling but will be sitting with your guidance as soon as I am back home tomorrow. I wanted to share a couple of dreams I have had this week. The first involved me having therapies to my body, like a massage and after I noticed that a necklace that I wear always and 1 earing were missing. In the dream I was contemplating if I was upset about loosing these items that I am always wearing and wondered if I should find a replacement but then settled with I don't need them anymore so i just walked around with 1 earing on. The second dream last night took place in a library. I was standing looking at the books and several people in the room kept telling me that I just needed to change my perspective and move a little to see what was really there. I moved to a new spot and could see that the books were not really solid, like looking at it straight on it looked solid but moving to the side you could see it was an assembly of thin layers. It was an encouraging dream to me. I will be back in contact after I sit with your guidance.
Samantha

Dear Magdelina,
I feel like I have lost some progress. I have been immersed in family events (college graduation of son). It has been so difficult to settle in stillness with all that has been going on, but I now have a clear path for the next month.

Can it be known—from sensation alone—how tall “you” are?

No

Do sensations tell you your age? Your gender?

No

Is there any boundary between “you” and the chair?

There does feel like a boundary exists between me and the chair. There is pressure, texture, temperature differences that I sense.

Between “you” and the keyboard?

The keyboard is also sensed as a different temperature, cool, solid, shape differences.

Can the sensation of hands by itself prove the existence of hands?

If I am having sensations in hands when they are typing on the computer then they are existing. If I hold my hands free of other surfaces like they are suspended in space then no the sensation of hands cannot be proven to exist.

That pressure in the back— does it say “back”? Or does that word only arrive later?

The pressure does not say back, my mind gives it a label later.

Are you seeing a hand?
Or are there just colors and shapes?

I am still seeing a hand.

If “hand” appears, does it exist before the thought names it?

I worked with this one several times and the label "hand" shows up after it is named.

Thank you,
Samantha

Dear Samantha,


You’re noticing that sensations don’t tell you anything about “you.”
No height, no gender, no self.
Labels come after. They’re mental. They’re not part of what’s here.


Even the sensation of “hands” vanishes when there’s no surface or task. And that boundary between “you” and the chair? Pressure, temperature, texture—yes. But look again:

Where does “you” end and “chair” begin?

Can you find a clear line? Or is it just difference—without ownership?

Does that sensation of pressure belong to a body? Does that sensation of pressure belong to a body?

Next time you feel the keyboard, don’t rush to label it. Don’t rush to say you’re touching it. Stay with the raw textures, the coolness, the resistance. Where is the one doing the touching?



What you’ve written isn’t lost progress—it’s the clearest seeing yet.
There’s no regression here.
The story of “progress” belongs to the seeker.
But what’s left now is just this. Ordinary, unlabeled, obvious.There’s nothing more to get.
No state to maintain.
No need to stay “clear.”


Just… live. Without commentary.
Let the river be a river, and a hill - a hill.

And when the thought comes—“Is this it?”— just laugh.

The only honest thing that's left:
Stop trying.

Stop looking for confirmation.
Stop trying to measure “it.”
Stop waiting for stillness to feel a certain way.
Stop acting like this has to mean something.

You see the body label fall.
You see thoughts arise from nowhere.
You see the story of “Samantha” dissolve when you aren’t feeding it.

And yet life still moves. Emails still get typed.
Sensation still flickers. Roles still play.

No one’s doing it.
No one ever was.

There’s nothing more to get.
No state to maintain.
No need to stay “clear.”


It is all good.