Emptiness is the track on which the centred person moves. - Tsongkhapa.

[IainB]

Hi John,

Who are you when not being 'Iain'?

Iain is pretty just made up. He’s got quite a few tricks up his sleeve to make him seem real, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s just a ghost hovering around all these thoughts and feelings.

I’m still sat with Iain here, he feels like a real thing! It’s really time for Me to do one, and be seen for what it is.

Iain isn’t true. Take Iain away and there’s only truth. There may be thoughts, sensations, memories but these are not Iain.

Love, Iain

[s-p-a-c-e]

Who are you when not being 'Iain'?

Iain is pretty just made up. He’s got quite a few tricks up his sleeve to make him seem real, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s just a ghost hovering around all these thoughts and feelings.

I’m still sat with Iain here, he feels like a real thing! It’s really time for Me to do one, and be seen for what it is.

Iain isn’t true. Take Iain away and there’s only truth. There may be thoughts, sensations, memories but these are not Iain.

No, Iain IS true. Leave Iain there.

When I was a kid, I had a Tom & Jerry hand-held slide projector. I'd lie on my back on the bed, and project onto the ceiling, popping in different slides to show scenes from the cartoon.

The projections of Tom & Jerry are real. The projections of Iain, are real.



As you sit with Iain, speak with him directly.

"Iain," you say, "John says you're real. If that is so, prove to me you are real right now. I want you to speak, right now. Show me you are real. You have 10 seconds, go!"

...and wait.

See what happens,
John

[IainB]

Hi John,

I’ve been asking Iain to present himself for inspection. However, when addressed directly there is a resounding silence. When the idea of a name fades, there are sensations and thoughts and ideas left to arise, but no Iain.

At other times, the Iain illusion continues to flicker brightly, either out of the corner of my eye or at times directly in my face.

Love, Iain

[s-p-a-c-e]

I’ve been asking Iain to present himself for inspection. However, when addressed directly there is a resounding silence. When the idea of a name fades, there are sensations and thoughts and ideas left to arise, but no Iain.

At other times, the Iain illusion continues to flicker brightly, either out of the corner of my eye or at times directly in my face.

Look forward to seeing the Iain-illusion flicker. Gives you another opportunity to watch the Iain-projection in action. Invaluable.

Or is the projection still you?

best wishes,
John

[IainB]

Hi John,

I had some useful experiences recently. It was as though life was all ready to happen and that there was little way to predict what experiences may come next. As though my mind is a blank canvas ready to be struck by whatever paint flew its way. This unpredictable immediacy seemed to make sense…how it has been all along. The Iain-illusion-projection might be an attempt to apply continuity to that which is unpredictable. Maybe it comes from fear that life really is flying at us and can’t be tamed as we might like.

When I’m not being Iain there is this opportunity to see how life washes over us, untamed, uncontrollable, neither benign or threatening…simply life in all its energy.

Love, Iain

[IainB]

Hi John,

I contemplate a layer of thoughts.

There is a layer of sensations underlying these.

There's a temptation to tie all this all together with some open ended internal dialogue seemingly to want to perpetuate a me dialogue. Why I don't know - familiarity and fear would seem to be the order of the day.

So there I am a bit confused.

Love, Iain

[s-p-a-c-e]

Hi Iain,

It's common - as you know - for us to grow up embroiled in an idea of ourselves, as Iain or John or Mary.
This idea plays itself out in the everyday narrative.

I am walking, I am eating, I am reading this.

Let's inquire. Let's inquire into: I am breathing.

Sit for a little while and - for a minute - notice the rising and falling of the chest.
Now, bring in the idea: I am breathing.

Inquire...
In looking for am breathing - we can notice the rising and falling of the chest.
In looking for I - where do you go for that?

Share any discoveries.

/John

[IainB]

Hi John,

How are things with you? I hope you had a wonderful and fulfilling summer. I continue to be inspired by the LU community, and friends nearby who are liberated.

I still seem to be spending all of my time with will-o'-the-wisp Iain, Mr Assumption.

Anger and fear seem to love to keep check that Me is lurking around, and breathe life into it, not that that’s any excuse.

I am watching my thoughts, and examining where they arise from.

I’m asking Me to pick mental numbers, and look for who did the choosing.

I’m watching my breathing, as an invitation to checking for the I that is breathing.

I’d love some more guidance.

Love, Iain

[IainB]

Hi John,

I made my way amongst my thoughts and perceptions but without creating some sort of ephemeral empty void me

I fell into the trap of focusing on the void from which my thoughts seem to arise and identifying that as the absence of me, no me. As you said before, that’s not what we’re doing.

It is looking at my sensations and thoughts that I can maybe see that there is no me in there alongside them.
Instead when Iain is apparent, I examine the sensation and thought combination which seems to hover around me at that time as me, and look.

It seems to have a subtly different flavour every time. It’s strange that, how it seems to keep changing. This big feeling assumption of me.

Love, Iain

[Nina45]

Hi Iain,

John has decided not to guide for the moment. I have agreed to take over if that is OK with you?

Daily posting is sort of essential - are you up for that?

Best wishes

Nina
Xxx

[IainB]

Hi Nina,

It's delightful for you to offer to guide me. Thank you.

I cherish the opportunity to look and post each day - I will certainly try to.

It feels as though life is rushing towards me, and I relish the opportunity to see who is actually there, taking it all in.

Love, Iain

[IainB]

Hi Nina,

I spent yesterday immersed in busyness, rather a typical Saturday afternoon. I’ve kept an eye on the flood of sensations and thoughts. There’s been a lot of I somehow held between the sensations and concepts.

At times there was a slight pressure in my head, with that old busyness. When looked at the thoughts have dropped away, and it has felt silly that the pressure sensation had somehow ended up being an assumption of me.

At other times there was the sensation of the hours of a Saturday afternoon falling away. Somehow attached to the sensation of time passing was the emotive thought of I missing out. They flared up, mixed together.

There are always physical sensations going on, and usually I'm in the midst of a stream of thoughts. Somehow the two get combined and a Me assumption takes hold. It's quite convincing.

Love, Iain

[IainB]

Hi Nina,

I'm sat in my room, watching a shirt being shaken quite vigorously by the breeze entering a nearby window.

I make the assumption that wind is a real thing, but come to think of it, the only evidence I can see if the movement of other more solid items.

Iain is a bit like this. I assume he is here. Doesn't he own these thoughts, doesn't he choose these movements, doesn't he feel these sensations?

But I have no proof of this, like with the movement of the shirt. All I can see is what is actually there - the fabric beating. I can feel sensations and watch the play of thoughts, but there is no Iain.

At work today I felt immersed in busyness but did try to watch my behaviour as I answered a phone call. There was a rush of self-consciousness as I energetically gave my name and shtick, but I was able to see that leap out as a pattern. It didn't seem rooted and requiring a Me to come out.

Love, Iain

[Nina45]

Hello Iain!

Sorry - I was indeed watching for notifications that did not arrive. I will check daily now I know!

Please explain exactly what is happening at this moment in actual experience.
Sensation - what is here?
Thought ...
Colour....
Sound....
Smell....
Taste.....

Very best wishes

Nina
Xxx

[IainB]

Dear Guide Nina,

Please explain exactly what is happening at this moment in actual experience.

I feel my arms resting as I type.

I have a vague sensation of my body sat here. I can feel where it makes contact with the floor, chair and so forth. This sensation is like an energy flowing that I interpret as my extremities.

Light floods in through my eyes. Colours, movements, objects, and the sounds of my environment.

The objects in my environment suggest there are things to do, behaviours to follow, triggering thoughts to follow.

Lunch is lingering in my mouth. The sensation of breath at the tip of my nose.

But as for thought:

Busyness…my daily addiction.

But when quietened there are more distinct ideas, concepts, emotions, memories, plans, motivations…and for some reason they all seem to come with this tinge of Me. Hard to pin down, but Me seems to be sliding around in there with those thoughts from the moment I wake!

Love, Iain