Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Experience Is...

As we know from Ch. 3, the Self is nothing more than an idea; an idea we mistake for the origin of our consciousness. I think that part of the reason it can be difficult to let go of the Self, however, and accept that it is only an idea, is in the mechanism of our thought.

Thought is an exercise involving language. When we think about things, we do so by "speaking" to ourselves, in our minds, listening to what is spoken, then responding. And the way we structure ideas is the same way we structure language, in a Subject-Verb-Object form. For example, when you say, "I walked to the store", the subject is "I", the verb is "walked" and the object is "store."

When we apply this structure to experiencing things, it follows the same logic: "I (subject) see (verb) a tree (object)". Just "see a tree" doesn't make sense. There must be a subject to carry out the verb of experiencing, and that ends up being the Self.

Aside from reinforcing the need to accept this idea of Self, this presents another problem. It distorts the process of actually experiencing things, by superimposing a complex idea on everything we experience. Experiences aren't experiences in themselves, but rather experiences as they relate to self. This tends to conceptualize the experience pretty quickly. Instead of just taking in the moment as it comes, there is a process of identification, evaluation, and relationship creation (all ideas) to "make sense" out of the experience. Instead of being in the moment, you are lost in thought.

So, here's an idea about re-connecting with experience, either in a meditative sense or in any moment. Instead of asking yourself, "What am I experiencing?" instead try, "The experience is..." and let the attention move directly into looking, listening, etc. Treat the experience as if that's all there is, and there is no Self experiencing it. The experience is... and THAT is all there is to reality, no complex structure of ideas necessary to support it. Just the experience.

Jim