The Gate

Big gaps like that break up the momentum.
Just go over the last two pages before replying on Monday OK?
Mbx

Hi MB, yes I agree big gaps stop the flow. I'm going back to BCN on Weds and I'm going to start work plus I've got a steady stream of visitors till the end of July. So I think I'd better call it a day as realistically I'm not going to have the time to give this justice. Thank you so much for all your input and consistency. Much gratitude to you. MG X

OK, I will see you back here the next time you feel like giving it another shot.
That is great news about the job as it will make such a difference to things generally.
With much warm metta.
Mbx

Great to have you back Gitana!
By Email you said:

"Am aware that about 95% of my experience is dukkha, mind made, mainly pushing things away. Feels like I'm rubbing my nose in pooh a lot of the time. Think its good though as I'm so aware of it."

Firstly, I don't remember who said; 'Abbreviation is a lie' but I agree. So do remember I want to see complete sentences in standard English with no words missing OK? It is just one of the limitations of this medium that any truncations make interpretation a matter of guesswork. I probably guessed every missing word accurately in your above sentence but I don't want to have to do any guesswork at all, nor do I want to have to read a line two or three times, trying out different possible interpretations. Bad spelling is completely OK though, as it does not create those sorts of problems.

OK let's go!
Just sit there in front of your screen. Feel yourself into your seat. Take six kindly breaths. Notice the ebb and flow of each one.

In Direct Experience right now is your experience Dukkha?

Just speak from Direct Experience OK?
Mb

The dog is barking outside, there are the voices of my partner and his father in the next room, the sensation of my feet on the cover of the bed, slight ache in my fingers, my tongue touching my teeth, slight buzzing in my ears, silence now the dog has stopped barking, feeling of warmth where my back and bottom is resting on the bed, my stomach rising and falling with each breath. There is no dukkha present. There is just awareness through the senses. MG

Lovely this is excellent stuff, excellent observation.
I want to ask you to do another of those, just sitting in DE but only do it for ten minutes. Just set a timer and do ten minutes in the knowledge that you only HAVE ten minutes to observe. Just noticing how features of the soundscape of Barcelona come and go, ebb and flow. Noticing how passing aeroplanes just pass. Really notice when the sound of a plane is starting to emerge, when it is at its fullness of robust health and how it soon weakens fades and dies from the skies, 'til the next one. You can do it in the morning if it is too late now.
Mb

I will just say more about this Plane Sitting meditation:

Just sitting there you will regularly hear planes arriving and departing at El Prat. I want to ask you to allow all the other elements of the Barca soundscape to just drop in significance as you give yourself to the sounds of these planes; the very gradual arisal and departure of their engine sounds The relative silence of any aero engines in between them, is one of the best bits! However, happily for the purposes of this practice a new plane comes along with its song!


Is there an actual aero-engine or is there instead just sound?
Is there a 'hearer'? Is there an actual experiencer of the sound that you could actually put your finger on, or is there just sound itself?

Just listen. Just Look.

Take a few kindly breaths before hand and just set a timer for 15 or 20 mins and tell me how you get on with the above questions.
Mb

I've replaced the plane noise with the sound of a tractor in a field. I'm not in BCN but staying on a Polish wheat farm.

There was the sound of the tractor getting louder then disappearing and with a very small gap of no tractor sound. There is just sound coming and going.

Sound is just happening. I can't put my finger on an experiencer experiencing it. MG

Hey great work with that tractor there soldier!
And a good result too. You did not get that before!

OK I now want to ask you to do the same thing with taste.
The same set up procedure, the same questions; allow the sense of taste to come into consciousness, then,

Is there tasting?

Is there a taster?

Or is there instead just taste itself?

(This is a personal fave of mine as this is what did it for me. I just 'popped' and laughed in disbelief and swore my head off!)

A minor problem with taste is that we do not always have one in our mouth, It can mean moving the tongue around 'til we find something mildly astringent or tasty in some way. A safe bet can be to just eat something and then just tune into the residual taste which remains ten or fifteen minutes later. So not the immediate taste, ( it was the mild remainder of a residual coffee taste from half an hour previously, [which no longer tasted like coffee at all] that did it for me. It was mildly unpleasant, but it was very definitely a taste!)
Mb

I cleaned my teeth about half an hour ago and my immediate sense of taste was very weak. Then I run my tongue around my mouth and the skin around my mouth and the taste sensations were varied but definitely tangible compared to the inside of my mouth. Different areas had different tastes and there was a distinct contrast. I did it a few times as I was surprised by how much taste there was. I got excited by it. Little explosions of taste. There wasn't a taster, there was just an awareness of taste.

Harvest has just finished so celebrations this afternoon. Champagne and plum tart to taste. MG

There wasn't a taster, there was just an awareness of taste.

OK nice.
However, I now want to ask you; 'WHAT was aware of taste?'


Just take a breath or so and take this real easy. Go to the current taste in your mouth and report from that.

I've just eaten a slice of fresh bread that I'd made an hour ago.I used small chunks of salt instead of fine salt so there is a strong after taste of salt in my mouth. There is just taste, an awareness of taste. Awareness is aware of taste. MG

There is just taste, an awareness of taste. Awareness is aware of taste.

OK great, that is looking lovely, more from me later this evening.
Mb

1) Describe to yourself, in detail, the process by which you create a thought, or make a choice. You have been doing it all your life apparently - so you must know exactly how you do it. So how do you do it? How do you create a thought? How do you think?

2) Think of a 2-digit number.


Why did you choose THAT number?

Why not the previous number, or the next one? Do you know? If not, why don’t you know? if you are the thinker of thoughts then you must know how you create them. Or do you?
Repeat the experiment as necessary.

I don't know why I chose the number, it just appeared. I didn't think about it.I don't know how I create a thought. They come and go and come and go.I just told myself to have a thought and nothing happened. I asked myself what I was thinking and there was nothing. But I know there are no thoughts because I experience lots of thoughts throughout the day. MG