The Gate

Only a "self" can label a simple contraction/no feeling as "frustration. " It is part of the unlearning.

Ah, right. Emotion = sensation + thought. (Or so I've been told, and this seems plausible enough and helpful.)

The "no" is there is no self. Whenever you have a thought based on self, such as the idea of frustration, you will feel "no."

Hmm . . . Will continue to examine that.

You kind of have it backwards.

I don't want to still be viewing the world as if there's a "self" separate from "my" experiences.

But you are. That's the no.

Right. I don't want the "self" overlay on my experience.

There is already no "self."

Will keep on trying to LOOK and see that clearly . . .

Good.

Did about 25 minutes of ButtChair. The main thing I noticed was that I have a much harder time keeping sustained attention on bodily sensations than on visual or auditory sensations. Wait, actually, that's not right. Attending to breathing is attending to bodily sensations, and I do okay with that. Well, anyway, I have a hard time keeping my attention on the butt-on-chair sensations for more than one or two seconds at a time.

That's fine. This is not a marathon.It only takes a couple of seconds of honest looking to see the truth.

You must stay relaxed.

Loving

I contacted Christiane Michelberger. She isn't running groups anymore. Here's part of her response:

I focus on mentoring new guides right now. We are a team of guides though, one of them offers group meetings. She is very experienced, her name is Steffi Mania. You’ll find her here:

https://stromeintritt.org (bilingual)

On her website, you’ll see different offers for group meetings. Once a month, I join a communal group.

There's a flag in the top-left corner of the home page to switch between German and English. Here's the English version of the home page: https://stromeintritt.org/en/through-th ... awakening/.

Great.

Anyone Christiane recommends will be good, too.

I really didn't mean to include her.I usually suggest fetter work after you're finished here.

Loving

I’ll probably check out one of Vince’s groups soon.

Great

Did about 15 or 20 minutes of ButtChair just now, and my mind was a lot quieter than usual, so I was able to spend more time with the sensations.

I realized that the visual metaphor of LOOKing was giving me a sense of observing the sensations from the vantage point of my eyes, so I changed my reminder to myself from LOOK to SENSE or FEEL, which reduced the sense of there being a separate observer.

Also, I remembered your repeated encouragement to relax and tried to have a sense of sinking into the sensations like sinking into a hot bath.

Okay.

I'm not sure about Sensing & Feeling, but let me know.

10 minutes of ButtChair: Mind quieter than usual. Trying to relax into the sensations and observe them with a bit of a sense of scientific curiosity and precision.

That's good, particularly the relaxation.

Loving,

Did another 15–20 minutes of ButtChair this afternoon. Nothing new to report.

Participated in one of Vince Schubert’s Zoom groups this evening. I plan to participate again.

That all do a good.

How was the group?

Loving,

How was the group?

I like Vince. There weren’t many people there, especially at the beginning, so he spent a lot of time interacting with me. I think we were mostly getting a feel for each other. I’m not exactly sure how the group will help, but I’ll drop in at least another time or two.