Freedom

[Seamist]

HI Deborah,
A day at the Lakes sounds lovely! Hope you've had an enjoyable day.
Cat is slowly improving,thanks.

I can’t know apple which is a label, symbol or concept but if I touch it I know a sensation, if I smell it I know its smell, I look at it and know colour and shape. As I really look hard at it I know its isness

I like this, great.

Next....
Bring up a thought about a character labelled "friend".
Then bring up a thought about a character labelled "stranger".

Compare these thoughts.
Is there a difference in these thoughts?
Is there a true difference or is it just different content?

Now, bring up a thought about a character labelled "friend".
After that, look at a thought about the character labelled "me”.

Is there a difference?
Is there anything special about thoughts with the content "me-character"?

xxx

[Debtfree]

Weirdly when I think of a particular friend and just think friend it is just a pictorial image in the same way that comes up thinking a thought of stranger. They’re essentially kind of card board cut outs...images and actually there’s not a great deal of difference because a thought without feeling is pretty basic, it’s just a thought and not fleshed out in any way. Yes, just different content especially with a friend as I know more about them. But both words as thoughts are fairly neutral.

The thought about a friend is more ‘over there’ but one about me is far more solid, intimate, cosy, ‘at home’ feeling. If , on the other hand, I thought of a friend as ‘mine’ or my friend it would share a bit of the solidity of ‘me’. Funnily, I feel more love around the words me, mine and my! But of course any fear around me or mine would have more charge.

[Seamist]

Hi
It doesn't make much difference whether you label then "friend" or "stranger", is that right? But when it's "me", there's much more emotion attached?
Is the thinking process itself different?
x

[Debtfree]

Hiya, yes that’s right. Even before getting to the emotional level the thought of me is quite different with a very deep grounded solidity. Weird as until I did this exercise I wouldn’t have realised it. Makes me realise how, in a way, a thought can be so ‘thin’ and nothing but if it’s a thought connected in any way to me it can take me very high or low depending on the thought.

[Seamist]

Interesting, no?
More tomorrow

[Debtfree]

Very revealing. Thanks so much. X

[Debtfree]

PS. Just playing with the ‘Me’ thought and how I was feeling about it was that it was less of the separate self, ego me and more the I AM.

[Seamist]

Hi Deborah,
Really interesting, what you're finding, I think ... I hope you're finding it so yourself!

I'm hoping that you now that you're looking at this on a screen where colour will show up - let me know if you're not, as then I'll find another exercise instead.
But, assuming you have, do this one next:

There is a belief that labels have a one-to-one correspondence with ‘reality’. But there isn’t. Just like it is a generally accepted belief that labels like ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are inherent characteristics of ‘things’. But actually, they are not.

When you look at the word label ‘GREEN’, what is the actual experience?

Is the colour red ‘experienced’, or is the colour green ‘experienced’ as the label suggests?

Does the label ‘GREEN’ have a one-to-one correspondence with ‘reality’? Or does the label suggest something else other than what is here now (red colour)?

Is 'green' associated in any way with the experience of the colour red; or is green just a label that overlays the actual experience of red?

If the label ‘GREEN’ is replaced with the label ‘GOOD’ or ‘BAD’, is the redness affected in any way as the labels suggests?

Does redness become ‘good’ or ‘bad’, or do the labels have no affect whatsoever on ‘reality’?

Let me know what you find xx

[Debtfree]

Morning Sioned!
No , Red is seen even though it says green and the redness is not affected by th label green. The word green written in red does not have a one to one correspondence with reality. The colour red is experienced.
Green is not experienced with colour red, green is an overlaid label on an experience of red.
If good or bad is written in red, redness still remains and it’s colour is not affected by what the words say. However, I might buy into or get a visceral charge from the words of good or bad but that doesn’t alter the redness of the word.

[Seamist]

Straightforward, then.
Ok.
Next!
Get a sheet of paper and draw a line that divides that sheet in half. Label one half 'self' and the other side 'other'. Sit down and start a timer for 5 minutes. Every time you have a thought make a mark on the sheet. If that thought is about the self put a mark on the self side, if it’s about something else, mark the other side. If a thought about food occurs due to feeling hungry, mark that on the self side. Any thought that refers back to a self should go on the self side. (I'm bored, I'm tired, is the door locked (my safety) that video was funny (I was amused), my back hurts, I am frightened, etc.

Let me know how you go and what you notice.
xx

[Debtfree]

Hiya, there appeared to be a few more on self side but on the other I sensed that they still had a sneaky flavour of self, something that had a smell of self, however infinitesimal, so that there felt to be few completely neautral thoughts on the other side. I sense that the only things that should be on the other side would not be thoughts but rather pure appearances or things heard, seen or felt. But even then a thought might come up which would almost always reflect back to self!Anything to do with thoughts would invariably have to be, in all honesty, on the side of self.

[Seamist]

Hi again

I sense that the only things that should be on the other side would not be thoughts but rather pure appearances or things heard, seen or felt. But even then a thought might come up which would almost always reflect back to self!Anything to do with thoughts would invariably have to be, in all honesty, on the side of self.

Yes, I agree!

Next... (at your own pace, though, Deborah)
(This exercise takes about 20 minutes and you will need a pen a paper)

This exercise is broken into 10 minute lots. For each 10 minute period pay attention to any bodily sensation ie is there any tightening, or any relaxing?

For the first ten minutes write down what you are experiencing right now using the word “I”.

For example: I am sitting on a chair, I am hearing a clock ticking, I am looking at a computer screen, I am feeling hungry. Get right to the point, no past or future fantasy, just a plain description of your experience right here and now.

Then for the next ten minutes continue writing down what you are experiencing but this time without using the word “I”. Just describe the experience as it is happening using verbs. For example: sitting on a chair, typing, breathing, blinking, hearing the clock. (Again, watch what is happening in the body.)

At the end of the twenty minutes compare the two ways in which the experience was labelled and answer the following four questions:

1. Is one truer than the other, and If so, which one?
2. What is here without labels?
3. Do labels affect the experience or just describe it?
4. Did you notice any differences in the body?

xx

[Debtfree]

Hi, I’ve got a couple of friends over for the afternoon so I better leave this longer one to when they’ve gone as they might come fairly soon. But this is very revealing and really appreciate these exercises from you. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻X back late afternoon. X

[Seamist]

No rush, you're doing really well

[Debtfree]

I am feeling a heavy head with a head and neck ache. I feel I want to shut my eyes. I am needing to roll my head. I am feeling nerves in my stomach. I feel tingling in my head. I feel my jaw and throat tightening. When I breathe I can feel sensations in my nose.i feel sleepy and heavy. I feel energies down my legs and elsewhere. I feel tingling in parts of my body, I feel fizziness in my feet. I feel sensations where the back of me is supported by a pillow and mattress. I feel my fingers getting cold.i am sitting on bed. I hear some traffic. I hear the ticking clock. I see the view. I can feel the wind from open window. I am pressing my fingers to the keyboard. I am looking around the room. I can smell some scent. I see leaves blowing on the tree.

Breathing, sleepiness, tingling, head aching, typing, sitting on the bed, feeling where all back parts of body is touching pillow and mattress, top of body feeling colder than underneath. Left hand slightly straining from holding iPad. cold fingers, tickling on jaw and neck, blinking, scratching face, taking a deep breath, feeling a wave of nausea, feeling the wind, feet getting colder, feeling heavy, rolling head, tingling in nose and eyes, panicky feeling, relaxing, tingling lips dissolving of the body, an emptiness sensation as if the body melting into spaciousness around it.Aliveness without form. Listening to clock, hearing noises outside, hearing clicking of keypad. Seeing branches move on tre, seeing cows in field. Seeing sun on wall. Seeing reflections in mirror.

1. I think using I feels truer as it’s owned and without the I it feels as if it could be descriptive of anyone‘s sensations.
2. Nothing..... just sensing, seeing, hearing, smelling (unless they are labels too)
3. Labels affect experience if attaching to I. Otherwise all that’s going on is describing. (If no words are used for describing anything then there’s left with nothing.)
4 When I concentrate on answering 1-4 questions I’m not aware of the body somehow unless a sudden sensation breaks through concentration on what I am writing.

Phew .....took a bit longer than 20 mins!
This was a bit tricky??! Xx