Forever frustrated and still seeking

[Bassui]

I'm confused. I said I feel the sense of being is located in the body because everything comes into awareness through the body.

This is why I avoid the word "awareness" at all costs :)

Let's disregard semantics and roll with this small addition to your sentence: The sense of being is located in the body because everything comes into awareness (cognition/senses/consciousness) through the body.

I think we're on the same page here. Are you comfortable with this?

[SB1]

Yes, I am.

Whew, thanks for sticking with me. This process can be crazy.

[Bassui]

Yes, I am.

Whew, thanks for sticking with me. This process can be crazy.

I felt the same way :)
You're doing great work so far. Keep using your own direct experience and keep looking for yourself. Things will unfold exactly as they do. No need to force anything!

So this sense of being is located somewhere in that body.
Let's keep digging.

Are you sure that's your body?

[SB1]

Are you sure that's your body?

It feels like my body in that it's nobody else's. There are thoughts that have happened in this brain and sensations that have happened to this bone bag that have only happened in this brain and to this bag.

We've established that things like thoughts and actions just happen in the body, though, whether I want them to or not. So if being my body means I control it, then no.

[Bassui]

Since it's not your body, do you still want to declare that it's the center of the sense of being?

[SB1]

Since it's not your body, do you still want to declare that it's the center of the sense of being?

In a way it still feels like it is. Even if I don't own or control the body, all the noticing happens in or on the body. Even thoughts, which can be of a different time or place, still happen in the brain, which is part of the body.

[Bassui]

In a way it still feels like it is. Even if I don't own or control the body, all the noticing happens in or on the body. Even thoughts, which can be of a different time or place, still happen in the brain, which is part of the body.

Alright then, you've declared it! If the sense of being is centered in this body, what part of it specifically is located in?

[SB1]

It seems like it's in multiple parts, because the senses part of cognition/senses/consciousness happens in different parts of the body, while cognition happens in the brain.

[Bassui]

It seems like it's in multiple parts

Yup! Finding a sense of a center is no problem...there's one over here too. But a sense of something is not the same thing as the truth of something, keep that in mind as we go along here.

Do you have all of your arms and legs?

[SB1]

I do, yes.

[Bassui]

I do, yes.

I want you to go through each one and try to find the center to this sense of being there. Remember to make this intimate to your own direct experience. Don't just think about it, actually look. Take a few moments, bring your attention to each leg and arm one by one, and try to locate the center of this sense of aliveness there in each one.

Let me know what you find!

[SB1]

Take a few moments, bring your attention to each leg and arm one by one, and try to locate the center of this sense of aliveness there in each one.

When I do this, I don't find the center of the sense of aliveness/being. It doesn't seem to me that the center of the sense of being is in each limb or in any single limb. Rather, because I can feel sensation in each limb when I put my attention on it, that limb feels like it is part of the center. And because I can do this with every part of my body, and because thinking takes place in the brain, which is in the body, and because seeing and hearing and tasting take place in the body, and because these things are the mechanisms of noticing and the things that make up the conscious experience, the body as a whole feels like the center of the sense of being, or even the entirety of the sense of being.

[Bassui]

Yet if a part of that body was taken away, or diminished in some sense...imagine a tragic car accident where you lose a leg...would that sense of being still be there?

[SB1]

There would be no sensation in that leg anymore, so nothing would be coming into awareness via that leg. In that case, it seems that the sense of being would be in what remained of the body.

[Bassui]

In that case, it seems that the sense of being would be in what remained of the body.

We can whittle this down into nothing though and at no point would that sense of being be diminished in any way. It's still present to notice the whittling in the first place, so to speak.

Let's take a look at the body from another direction. What part of your body has been permanent your entire life?