Photo: ‘Leaves Between Leaves’ by Jeon Sang-O – Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/photos/wood-the-leaves-twig-leaf-texture-2249363/
In our Adventures of Knowledge class we briefly practiced the following exercise from the book, ‘Love of Knowledge‘…
PRACTICE – LOK Ex 14 – Moments Between Moments
Observe in your own experience the flow of time from one moment to the next. If the mind is calm and alert, you may notice that between two initially observed moments A and B lie other, intermediate moments:
A .____a1____a2____a3____a4____. B
Practice observing from moment to moment in a way that makes available, on an ever ‘smaller’ scale, moments ‘between’ moments.
My practice notes: Exercise 14 – Moments Between Moments.
Taking a ‘moment’ to mean ‘a span of mental or self concern’, I noticed the flow of activity. Input as the multidimensional play of the senses became evident such as sounds: far-off traffic, computer noises, distant lawn cutting sounds, tinnitus ringing in my ears, etc., were all noticed individually as moments of concern, and then the memory of them as another ‘noticing’. Other sensual inputs arose too: the feel of sitting in my chair, the cool air on my skin, the feel of breathing… each noticed individually or simultaneously with other sensual inputs. At some point I seemed to involuntarily relinquish the active noticing of these specific moments that might ordinarily be considered as ‘intermediary moments’ or events between thinking about what I was doing, like the act of narrating the story of these arisings to myself within an online class.
Noticing intermediary moments was like a cut between an ordinary train of thought in linear time. These cuts were like boundaries between ‘things’ noticed. But when the involuntary relinquishing happened it was a letting go of boundaries between things and linear moments… leaving a kind of undifferentiated or non-defined display of continuous arising appearances. Relinquishing was letting go of the tension of trying to self-control what I noticed. There was a feeling of freedom and a vital sense of feeling alive… but only for a second or two… then back to controlled noticing of moments as things.
Thank you, David, for describing your experience with Ex. 14 in such a helpful way: the letting go of tension and vital sense of feeling alive, coming back to controlled noticing….