The Gate

What brings you to Liberation Unleashed?:
A sense of intrigue and a desire for even greater insight. To feel a sense of unblocking and to experience true flow.

What is your background in terms of seeking and inquiry?:
I have read parts of the forum and 'Gateless gatecrashers'

What do you expect of the conversation on this forum?:
I expect it to be challenging, but ultimately a vehicle to an improved and more connected sense of being

I should add that I would very much appreciate a guide through this process.

Hello, would be pleased to Guide you if that is OK for you.

Hi Q, that would be very ok, wonderful even!

Ok great. Off we go.

To begin, I will share some guidelines to make the process clearer for you. Please read them and respond back to confirm you are comfortable with them.

1. This is your journey. I am a Guide. I am not a teacher, guru or therapist. We walk together and I keep pointing the way. You make the journey. My pointing mostly will take the form of questions that I will ask and you will answer.
2. I am in the Mountain Time Zone in the USA. I will read your posts in the afternoon my time, consider them, then pose the questions and make comments once per day. I would like to do this in a way you will have time to consider the questions before you respond. Please confirm back your timezone so we can coordinate this well.
3. Confirm you will be able to post once per day. When posting, you are committed to responding from direct experience (felt senses and observed thoughts). You understand that long winded analytical or philosophical answers are best avoided and may even hinder progress.
4. You commit to responding to questions with utmost honesty.
5. You are comfortable setting aside all other teachings, philosophies and “isms” for the remainder of this investigation. This means you will put all your effort and attention into seeing reality as it is here in this investigation. If you have a daily and essential meditation practice, it is fine to continue that.
6. Please read our disclaimer and have a look at the introductory materials: http://www.liberationunleashed.com/

The quote function helps smooth the communication process. Instructions are here: "viewtopic.php?f=4&t=660” Try it by “quoting” the items 1 through 6 back to me and confirming you are comfortable with the guidelines.

As a small administrative tip, on the bottom of the page in the blue navigation bar you will see a link that says “Subscribe Topic” just to the right of where it says “Board Index.” If you click that you will get an email when I post a response for you. I enable it and find it helpful.

I look forward to working with you.

1. This is your journey. I am a Guide. I am not a teacher, guru or therapist. We walk together and I keep pointing the way. You make the journey. My pointing mostly will take the form of questions that I will ask and you will answer.

Understood.

2. I am in the Mountain Time Zone in the USA. I will read your posts in the afternoon my time, consider them, then pose the questions and make comments once per day. I would like to do this in a way you will have time to consider the questions before you respond. Please confirm back your timezone so we can coordinate this well.

My current timezone is UTC in the UK, so this should work well.

3. Confirm you will be able to post once per day. When posting, you are committed to responding from direct experience (felt senses and observed thoughts). You understand that long winded analytical or philosophical answers are best avoided and may even hinder progress. 4. You commit to responding to questions with utmost honesty.

I can post once a day and understand that honesty and brevity are important to the process.

5. You are comfortable setting aside all other teachings, philosophies and “isms” for the remainder of this investigation. This means you will put all your effort and attention into seeing reality as it is here in this investigation. If you have a daily and essential meditation practice, it is fine to continue that.

Understood.

6. Please read our disclaimer and have a look at the introductory materials: http://www.liberationunleashed.com/

Done!

I look forward to working with you too.

P

Done!

Great, thanks for going through that.

You said in your original post on the Forum that you expected this process to be:

ultimately a vehicle to an improved and more connected sense of being

Question: What will be different for you when you have a more connected sense of being? What does that look like?

I'm not sure it looks like anything, it's more a feeling of flow, less governed by thoughts, an unlocking of a swell that sits within me. That's what I feel.

Here is my Direct Experience right now: Couch pushing against my sitting bones, keys clicking under fingers, TV to front right making noise and images, coffee cup to right steaming, bang of door slamming to left outside window.

When I asked about your expectations of this process and what it looked like you responded:

a feeling of flow, less governed by thoughts, an unlocking of a swell

Exercise: Describe the feeling of flow less governed by thoughts with an unlocked swell - in Direct Experience. Reference my example above to help steer you.

Thanks

My fingers hover, rest around the square keys and then press in bursts. Music waves out of the speakers, undulates to my ears. My eyes move to the darkened window, autumnal leaves brightened by the electric street lights. The light of room diffused by the more dominant darkness infecting and seeking to overwhelm.

Just before I engage my thoughts beyond this description there is a feeling of energy at my skin covering an indescribable feeling of warmth. As I write there is a minor battle between feeling and thought. I can't quite type without thought, but I try and push it away to allow these words to arise.

This feels momentarily like a feeling of flow, but as I move away from it, I feel the heaviness of scrutiny and analysis what I feel may be the prison of the self. When I want to examine this and imagine existing without it, I feel further from the feeling of flow. How would I work, how would i exist without the internal arbiter, the judge, the voice, the I?

Good. Some examples of Direct Experience:

My fingers hover, rest around the square keys and then press

Music .. out of the speakers, undulates to .. ears.

darkened window

leaves brightened by the electric street lights

energy at my skin covering..warmth

Example of thought, story and poetic imagination:

darkness infecting and seeking to overwhelm.

there is a minor battle between feeling and thought

I can't quite type without thought, but I try and push it away to allow these words to arise.

This feels momentarily like a feeling of flow, but as I move away from it, I feel the heaviness of scrutiny and analysis what I feel may be the prison of the self. When I want to examine this and imagine existing without it, I feel further from the feeling of flow. How would I work, how would i exist without the internal arbiter, the judge, the voice, the I?

Exercise: Explain the difference between the two.

Thanks!

[Before I start I just wanted to check how you would prefer me to refer to you. I previously and presumptuously used 'Q', is that ok?]

Exercise: Explain the difference between the two.

:

1.

examples of Direct Experience

These are unvarnished descriptions, unadorned observations of things in the moment.

2.

thought, story and poetic imagination

These are interpretative, an infection of the self?

I would just like to conclude by acknowledging your, very apparent, precise guiding skill! Thank you!

I have a follow up question if I may, Gateless Gatecrashers and the LU Forum talks a lot of 'seeing'. Is that very distinct from 'feeling' or are they in effect interchangeable in the context of passing through the 'gate'?

refer to you...

Given name is Paul, and 'Q' is cool for its Star Trek & James Bond references :)

Describing Direct Experience

unadorned observations

Good

Describing story

interpretative

Right direction. And a bit more. Stories are descriptions of things that are not real.

You asked

Forum talks a lot of 'seeing'. Is that very distinct from 'feeling' or are they in effect interchangeable

Feeling is a sensation that can be described in Direct Experience. Like "warmth in chest."
Seeing is not about your eyeballs, it is knowing the difference between what is real in Direct Experience and what is story and thus not real. And our walk to the Gate is about seeing the truth about the self or the "I".

Exercise: Three things - a table, the University of Sheffield, Santa Clause. Which is real and which is story?

Checking in. All ok?