Hi Wesley,
How you are interpreting/thinking about someone may always be that they have a self. But what's important is that if you pay attention to what you actually see, is there a self? Can you physically see the self that they have? If you can't, then where is this coming from?
No, I can't physically see others' selves, I just see bodies moving and talking and assume they have selves, so this is just a thought.
I'd like to you again pick up an object near you, perhaps something that's always there resting for you to pick it up when you're in doubt. Look at the object and concentrate on the raw sense information of it. What does it feel like? Does it taste like anything? Smell? What can you see? What can't you see?
I pick up a pencil sharpener that sits on the desk. It is brightly coloured and feels smooth, cold at first and warming from the heat of being held. It smells of pencil shavings and tastes metallic. All I can actually see is colour, everything else is a thought description; nothing can be described without thought / words. Even 'colour' is a thought description, actual experience is indescribable.
AND...What is added by thought? While doing this, notice what role thoughts are playing. If it's a mug that you pick up at look closely at, notice how at first it may just seem like a normal mug, there may be all sorts of thoughts overlaying what's there. As you continue to look, just focus on the "what is seen/heard/smelled/tasted/touched" and "what is thought".
Everything is added by thought, the description of colour, shape, size, texture, smell etc, plus comments about how long I've had it, the slightly dusty top that could do with a clean, the fact it needs emptying... It's hard to take in the raw experience without thoughts describing what is seen and felt. By rotating the object in my hands the experience becomes more abstract somehow and there is a pattern of sight and sensation without as much thought.
Then do the exact same exercise on the self - where is it? What can be seen/felt/heard/tasted/touched, and what is thought? You may even became aware of the absence of a self through noticing the absence of a "mug" when looking at a mug. Just what's really there...But in the case of self, what's not here ;).
Eyes shut, the first thing to happen is a thought 'what is the self', nothing is seen, bodily sensations of warmth and pressure are felt. noises are heard, an incessant ringing in one ear which provokes the thought 'I need to get this bloody tinnitus sorted out'. Breathing, clock ticking, more sensations. Eyes open, colours and thoughts rushing in to describe what is seen. Another thought 'there's just experience' hmm this is still more a though than an actual experience....There's just the indescribable feeling of being alive and thoughts add everything else.
Hug,
Nina
