Dear Jadzia
I've been taking time with this as I've wanted to work with the exercise not just as an exercise but apply it, like you suggested, to daily living and I have.
Awareness tells me there is pressure (where bed and body meet but it is just pressure), there is breath, there are sounds BUT there is absolutely no sense of distance to a ceiling from a body because in actual awareness (being really strict) that's all there is: the breath, the pressure and sounds.
There is an awareness of something called sensations, to tell what the sensations are is story telling by thoughts.
. Yes.. I get this - amazing, yes even sensations can't be without some thought/label in our mind can they (laughing here). I really get this :-).
Lets look at breath, breathing.
There can be something called air in and out of nostrils.
And something called movement of ribcage.
But with closed eyes one can only be sure of what?
Still using labels for the moment (air, rib cage etc) - with eyes closed one can only be sure of movement.
Here is something else to try, this body excercises are so much fun:
Please find a quiet place and a quiet time.
Sit or lay down and relax. Close your eyes and relax.
Can you attend to sensation exclusively?
Not minding thought babbling about this and that?
Not minding thought labelling sensation for a bit?
Thought may tell: "I am lying here" or "My body is lying here" or "A body is lying here".
But could this be known from pure sensation?
Thought might suggest: "There is a soft pressure against the back".
But could you know about "pressure" or "back" from pure sensation?
This is weird to experience (I think 'mind' wanted to block this work. It was as if it was saying "oh, this is too tiring to think about"!!!!! I caught it in it's attempt to trick me though!) Sooo...basically from pure sensation, without thought/labels, all there is is awareness of sensation and I don't mean "
I am aware of sensation" - I mean there is a sense sensing sensation. So no...sensation can't tell me "I am lying here" or "there is pressure against the back". All sensation does is sense what is. That is what I experienced while washing up, going downstairs to shut the door when the dogs came in, hoovering etc.
Once arrived there, while ONLY attending to sensation, please have a look at the following questions:
Can it be known how tall the body is?
No. With eyes closed and ONLY attending to sensation, there is no possibility of knowing/experiencing how tall the body is.
Does the body have a weight or volume?
This couldn't be known through pure sensation alone. This can only be known by applying 'thought knowledge'.
In the actual experience does the body have a shape or a form?
No, no shape or form can be found. This also cannot be known in AE without 'thought knowledge'.
Is there a boundary between the body and the clothing?
Is there a boundary between the body and the chair/bed?
This was really interesting and strange to experiment with because 'thought knowledge' got really got tricky while I was exploring this.
Stroking our dog, Molly, I focused on my fingers holding her skin and fur. Trying to sense whether there is a boundary between fingers and fur caused quite some difficulty.
Firstly there was "well I know where my fingers are and I know what fur feels like and that is different from what my fingers feel like so of course I can know a boundary between the two"!!!
Secondly, I stopped listening to 'thought knowledge' and labels and just focused on sensation. This was hard because I was aware of sensations feeling different - sensation of one thing moving on another thing so that felt like there could be a boundary.
THEN I thought "well...boundary is a label" so I explored what it would be like if I didn't know 'boundary'. If there were no labels then it would just be movement - one thing moving on another thing. I can't know this but I did wonder if, without words/labels/thought, sensation of different textures would be experienced at some level inside.
Eventually a picture of stone age man, before language, appeared out of nowhere using hand to hold stone to break something - all just movement and a question, also appearing out of ???, asked me "would s/he experience an objective difference between these 3 things and would there be a sensation of 3 boundaries if s/he had no 'thought knowledge'?"
To be honest Jadzia this did my head in!!!! It's like trying to imagine being blind - so hard to know something not known and so hard to not know something known - aaarrrrrgggghhhh!!!!!
And so the exploring continued....
As the day went on (until writing this) I just let things happen, trying to sense where/if there was a boundary.
Where I am at RIGHT NOW is this: like the stone age man, everything is flowing without needing to 'know' anything - it is all happening and there is no sense/need for a boundary thought sooooooooo......
Sensation might experience warm thing touching cold thing but there is no knowing of 'difference' or 'boundary' so my answer now is:
NO BOUNDARY CAN BE KNOWN IN AE - phew, how hard it is to find what is simple!!!!
Is there an inside or an outside at all?
For some reason this was easier to realise. Closing my eyes and trying to sense where 'inside me' ends and 'outside me' starts, no different experience or boundary could be found - everything just is as it all is - all just one together, inside me and outside me all one, not even merged into one because merge implies something was separate but this doesn't feel like anything is separate at all - it's all just as it is in one.... oh lord...
What does the word/label ‘body’ ACTUALLY refer to?
This was unbelievable: When I say the word body and try to incorporate everything 'I' live in - I couldn't make sense of a whole thing that I could see that solidly and tangibly says body. I don't know what 'body' ACTUALLY refers to. Perhaps, a bit like the tennis ball, there is ....hmmmm, now I can't find what I thought was showing up - lost it!! So, no, here and now as I type in AE I see movement (fingers and words appearing). There are sensations of cold and some aching but with no thought stories about sensation, I can't find what the word refers to.
What is the ACTUAL experience of the body?
Haha...this is fun :-). After all of this (above), all I can find is movement or not movement. Things moving or not moving, things happening or not happening, things being what they are being. That's all folks :-)!! No Jadzia, after all this exploration, I now can't find anything other than this moving or not moving when there is only sensation and no thoughts/words/labels.
Finally, there is this sense of sensing sensation but I'm not doing it, there is no doer of this sensing so I don't know how the presence of sensing is there or what it is but it's like a base level of being in being and sensation.
This is my offering to you, my exploration into the unknown and I just find that what is known isn't what is happening - oh lord...there is a 'head' ache happening now (laughing)!!!
Thank you Jadzia
Love
Sara