A Journey of Self Discovery
Looking for Ourselves
Most of what we believe about ourselves has been handed to us. These writings do not ask you to believe anything new. They ask you to look, and to check what you find against your own experience.
The Question of Separation
We take it for granted that each of us is a separate someone, set apart from everything else. It feels so obvious that we rarely think to check it.
Yet when we look for the place where we end and the world begins, it is surprisingly hard to find. The sound of a car outside is not over there while the hearing of it is in here. The two are found together, in one place, with no line between them.
Much of our seeking starts from a gap that may never have been there. If that is so, the search does not need to be finished. It only needs to be looked at.
Looking Rather Than Believing
Nothing here needs to be accepted on trust. A belief can be argued with, defended and lost. Something you have seen for yourself needs none of that.
So every claim can be tested in a moment: in a sound, a sensation, a thought as it arrives. What cannot be found in our own experience can simply be set aside, however wise it sounds.
A Few to Begin With
Each piece ends with a question. None of them needs a good answer. Ask one, quietly, and notice what is present in the moment after you ask.
Look at something near you, a cup, a window, your own hand. Which comes first, the seeing or the word?
Don’t try to answer it well. Just ask, and notice what happens in the moment after you ask.
Listen to the nearest sound. Where does the sound end and the hearing of it begin?
Look for the line between them. Take your time, and see whether one can be found.
Are you aware? Notice how you knew the answer before you thought about it.
The answer came from somewhere quieter than thought. Stay there for a moment.
Can you find the edge of the one who is looking?
Not an idea of it, an actual edge. If none turns up, simply notice that.