Does the “I” exist at all? Where? When? How?
Where are “you” here and now, as you feel it, not as you think about it?
Does “self” exist in any form other than a word, thought or images? Consider every possibility.
Is there anything special in the thought “I,” or is it just another thought?
In what kind of form does the ‘I’ exist? Would it be possible to show it to me if we met in person?
Which one of these is “I” the closest to? Please choose from the below three:
2. visual image
3. bodily sensation
At that very moment of experience, do you think of … ?
One funny thing about thoughts is that, when you say “I believe in A,” that “A” is another thought (or image), not the actual A. You don’t really believe in the actual A!
Can any thought be relied on as being 100% true?
When a concept is based on other concepts, does it make a thought less confused, or closer to reality, compared to thoughts that are less conceptually entangled? Aren’t thoughts just thoughts, no matter what they are based on?
That’s where concepts feel like something real; in contrast and conflict.
What are you, when you don’t think about what you are?
Is the thought of yourself “yourself” per se?
You wrote that lots of thoughts pop out in a certain situation. How can that lead to the conclusion that there is a “you” that is “lost” in it? Tell me what “getting lost in thoughts” means. How is it different from thoughts just appearing and disappearing? Also, please have a look if there is anyone there to be lost in thoughts.
Which sentence is closer to the actual experience of seeing a flower?
2. The eyes are seeing a flower.
When touching the display, which one of these three is the most precise description of the direct experience of touch, here and now?
1. I am touching the display
2. A finger is touching the display.
The next time a part your body feels itchy, try to see if that part is feeling itchy, or it is like this: ITCHY.
What is the difference between “my finger hurts” and “ouch”?
Please touch some very cold water. You could make it extremely cold by putting some ice in it. Which sentence describes your direct experience, right at the moment you touched it, more precisely?
1. My hand feels cold because I touched some cold water.
Observer and Observed
Please close your eyes and listen to any sound; then tell where the hearer of sound is.
Please close your eyes and touch any object, feel its texture; then tell where the feeler of that texture is.
Are the thinker, thought, and thinking separate?
When seeing something, is there any division between seeing, seer, and the seen?
Are these three separate?
Can a thought see, touch, hear … ? Can a sense see, touch, hear … ?
What makes … happen?
Look at the clouds in the sky. Are they moving according to anyone’s direction?
How is the movement of fingers different from the movement of clouds?
Can the thought “I move my hand” move the hands?
Do labels perceive labels?
Stripping off the Labels
How would you describe the experience, without the thoughts about … ?
What if you took the label “ … ” away from that which you’ve been referring to?
Pretend that you know nothing about what a hand is. With your eyes closed, can you tell where the hand is?
Observe it anew; pretend that you are a baby.
Does this mean, even before you learned how to talk, you knew that ” … “?
Is it “my” body, or is it just a body?
Choice / Chooser
Please put two objects in front of you, then pick up one or the other, while paying attention to the whole process of choosing. Was there a chooser in choosing?
Can you control thoughts?
What binds things and their name together?
Can the … of “others” be directly experienced?
Can you directly experience “others”?
“Still Not There”
Is there a self that is thinking “still not there”, or is it just a thought?
Is a thought “still not there” attached to that sensation, or is that sensation itself “still not there?”
To whom is this a problem?
Please recall a scene from the past. Try grasping the scene with your hand (literally). What happened? Could you grasp it?
Is ” … ” a group of thoughts about something, categorized as one category, or is it more than that?
Can there be awareness without objects?
When you are walking down the road, are you always “aware” that you are walking?
You are aware of the letters on the screen now, right? Are awareness and letters separate? Letters wouldn’t exist without awareness. Now, would awareness of the letters exist without the letters?
Does … have a fixed location?
Where is “here?” Where is “there?” Where is the reference point?
Please look at the computer (smartphone or tablet) display before you. Now, could you tell me from where you are looking at it, and what is there? Is there a “you” in that direction? What do you see?
Cause and Effect
Can you sense “cause and effect” with any of your five senses?
When you are angry, try to keep being angry for as long as you can, without even a second of forgetting that you’re angry.
Look at two objects at the same time. Keep looking, without trying to look. Don’t watch nor stare. Look at them just like when you hear sounds. Hearlook them.
“Seem” is unclarity. “See” is clarity. Please see.
When you drive a car, do you constantly think about the separation between your car and other cars? If not, do you often get into an accident?
Is that “aliveness” any kind of object or subject? Is it even a human?
Is it what you’ve taken as “you”?
Is the movement of life separate from life?
Isn’t … a form of life?
Cause and Effect
“Having a cause” and “having a subject to cause it” are different.
Which one suggest reality and which one doesn’t?
How is it possible to “maintain” something when you are present? Present moment is just one present moment, and has anything to do with a duration of a certain state.
Yes, and it’s imaginary, just like all the borders between countries are imaginary.
Please keep feeling that sensation, and also please note any thoughts that come along with it.
Reality is so clear and simple that it can be best seen without any glasses worn. People tend to imagine that they need a special glass to see Truth, but any glasses will, on the contrary, make it unclear … just like when a person whose eyesight is normal wears glasses and can’t see things clearly. From the beginning, we are not shortsighted, but we imagine ourselves to be so. Just take of the glasses and it is seen.
That sounds like the case in which an optical illusion turns out to be an illusion.
You know it is an illusion, but it can look the same even after truth about it is known.
When a baby boy is crying, the mother observes him and takes every possibility into consideration. She will change his diaper, give him milk, or she might take him to a doctor. Then, she knows that her child is safe, yet he is still crying. She doesn’t know why the baby boy is crying, but she can now relax and just be with him, even if he keeps crying, because she knows that there is no danger to the baby. When Truth is known, you’re like this mother.
“It feels like all these words are like boxes; the “mind-box” holds this and that, and the “body-box” this and that. But in reality these things can’t be separated! They work seamlessly together, there is no line between those things either! There really aren’t any boxes. There just seems to be those boxes.”
Do you remember when you learned how to ride a bicycle? At first, you couldn’t ride it. Then, there a was a moment when you suddenly succeeded in riding it. Then for the first two or three rides it might have been a bit awkward. Then, it becomes so natural that you don’t care about how to ride it anymore. You simply ride it, and it’s indeed simple!
The very effort to see it makes this simplicity difficult to be seen. It’s like going out of your home in search of your home. The further you go, the further your home is. And it was OK to make efforts, seek, because it made you get tired of seeking, right? Made you want to come back to the original place, right?
Have you ever seen a Kanizsa Triangle?
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/ent … a_triangle
What if the link you perceived is just like the above; an optical illusion?
It’s like you are suddenly told that you’re a millionaire with billions of dollars in
your bank account. You still know nothing about how to withdraw money from
your account, nor how to utilize it.
In a virtual reality, within a story, all of those magics are possible; a boy can make a broom fly, and at the same time, a boy can make a bird NOT fly.