Ready.....

[Matthew]

Please have a look and check this one again. Thoroughly!


Can the entirety of actual experience be described with the terms
the Seen
the Heard
the Sensed
the Smelled
the Tasted and
the Cognised (thought)?

Do you experience anything beyond or besides those terms?
If so, please describe what it is and how exactly it is experienced.
Be alert!
What seems to be beyond or besides those terms could also be thought about such a thing, right?

[Lerae]

Ok....it makes no sense that I would focus on awareness when it’s all the focus of awareness...there is no separate me to focus on anything. All is happening within awareness...the thoughts and feelings, but awareness is not disturbed by any of it. So what is disturbed? It feels like I’m going in circles!!

[Matthew]

This all has nothing to do with my question.
Please focus and answer the highlighted question!



Can the entirety of actual experience be described with the terms
the Seen
the Heard
the Sensed
the Smelled
the Tasted and
the Cognised (thought)?

Do you experience anything beyond or besides those terms?
If so, please describe what it is and how exactly it is experienced.
Be alert!
What seems to be beyond or besides those terms could also be thought about such a thing, right?

[Lerae]

I had answered that question. "There is an aware stillness behind the experiences of sight, sound, felt, smelled, thought, however it is not separate from these things as we typically perceive it to be....it permeates all things. All things arise within it." I don't know how else to desribe it other than "all encompassing and expansive". It is every where at all times.

[Matthew]

Yes of course! Of course there is awareness all the time everywhere.
Right now we're looking very briefly at the content of awareness.

So it is perfectly crystal clear to you that the entirety of actual experience consists only of
the Seen
the Heard
the Sensed
the Smelled
the Tasted
and Thought?

This is important.
Please confirm if it is clear or not.

[Lerae]

Hmmm....ok...I was confused on the question. I thought I was looking beyond these things.

[Lerae]

Yes..it is clear that in regards to the content of awareness, seeing, hearing, sensing, smelling, tasting, and thinking are all that is experienced.

[Matthew]

Alright!
Maybe the question was formulated unfortunately.
Anyway, let's continue!

This segment might seem rather technical, but it's really important.
I'm trying to give you a universal multitool to see experience for what it is.
So that you won't get fooled by all this wild apparent stuff anymore that you've mentioned in your previous post.
To acquire this tool, however, there is some work that needs to be done.

Yes..it is clear that in regards to the content of awareness, seeing, hearing, sensing, smelling, tasting, and thinking are all that is experienced.

Alright good!

It seems to be experienced as the disruption of peace

So looking at the terms above,
What is the actual experience of "disruption of peace"?

Can it be seen?
Can it be heard?
Can it be sensed?
Can it be smelled?
Can it be tasted?
Is it a thought?

the thoughts and emotions

Looking at the terms above,
What is the actual experience of "emotion"?

Can it be seen?
Can it be heard?
Can it be sensed?
Can it be smelled?
Can it be tasted?
Is it a thought?

[Lerae]

Thank you for your patience and for any tool you can provide. I actually thought about where emotions fit into it all after I responded to your email earlier....I had a feeling you were going to ask about them. Near as I can tell, they are a sensation, so I would say they fit into the sensing category. We feel them and notice them usually within the body as it responds to the sensation or stimulus which is usually thought or habit.

[Matthew]

First and foremost, have patience with yourself!


Remember these?

Imagining being a newborn

Imagine that you are just waking up from a coma. You have suffered a total amnesia.
Nothing left. No memories at all.
No name, no age, no gender, no story, no nothing.
You have no idea where you are and no idea that you are lying.
You don't know what "lying" is.
You don't even know that you have a body or what a body is to begin with.

They might come in handy for the next excercise. The excercise was just for your enjoyment a week ago.
Now we need it!



Sit or lay down, close your eyes and relax. Relax.
Can you attend to sensation only?
Thought might tell this and that. It might tell about yesterday, about tomorrow. It might also tell stories about a body, subtely labelling sensation.
Can you ignore that for five minutes and be calm with sensation only?

While attending to pure sensation, investigate:

Can it be known how tall the body is?
Does the body have a specific shape or form?
Is there an inside or an outside? (If so, inside or outside of what exactly?)
How many toes do you have?

Please answer the blue questions individually.

Enjoy!

[Lerae]

Can it be known how tall the body is?

No, the body is not felt. There is only breathing happening.

Does the body have a specific shape or form?

The body is not felt at all. There is no shape or form, just breathing taking place and another type of sensation, maybe tingling.

Is there an inside or an outside? (If so, inside or outside of what exactly?)

There is no inside or outside. There is only an experience of being.

How many toes do you have?

There is no experience of there being toes or fingers. There is peace. :)

[Matthew]

There is no experience of there being toes or fingers. There is peace. :)

Sounds good!!

There is only breathing happening.

1. How do you know about "breathing"?

2. Please describe the sensation labelled "breathing" without the word "breathing"!

[Lerae]

1. How do you know about "breathing"?

I only know about breathing from memory/conditioning.

2. Please describe the sensation labelled "breathing" without the word "breathing"!

There is a sensation of movement.....it appears to be in the background when I am still.

[Matthew]

That's alright for now.
You can try something for fun:
While looking at sensation labelled "breathing", what happens when you even drop the term "movement"?
What happens when you forget about ALL terms and only attend to the bare experience of sensation?
And isn't even "sensation" itself just a label?
What is left here when even the idea "sensation" is absent?

We can dig deeper here at a later point!



For now:

Can you find "emotion" amongst raw sensation?
Does pure sensation tell anything about "emotion"?


What exactly is "emotion" anyway?
What's the difference between an emotion-thought and a thought about ice cream?
Is there a difference on the most fundamental level?

Auxiliary means:
What is the difference between a game show and an action movie?
Is there a difference on the most fundamental level?
The first answer would be: "The difference is that one is a game show and the other one is an action movie".
But no. That is not the fundamental level in which we're interested here. That answer still concerns only the relative realm of content.
There ultimately is no difference between a game show and an action movie since
both are -on the most fundamental level- just light and sound.
You see?

[Lerae]

If we drop all terms...there would be no way to communicate. If all labels are removed whatever is....just is. There is no differentiation and no division.

Does pure sensation tell you anything about emotion? No, pure sensation just is. Emotion comes in when we take things personal or make them personal.

I see that there is no difference between one type of energy over another...such as anger is energy, just as excitement is energy if that’s what you are saying.