Hi all,
 First, my apologies for not posting till today. Normally I’m more active, but I have been having some serious computer problems. Even now, I’m writing under somewhat awkward conditions, with a backup computer.
In the online program last year, participants preferred that I write posts rather than comments to individual messages, so I will do that in this course too, pending feedback to the contrary.
First, as to David’s post, I am delighted to see others responding substantively to what David wrote. I strongly encourage this kind of interaction, because that is how the program will overcome the restrictions imposed by our highly mediated format.I know David from last year’s program, and his reflections are always highly perceptive and thoughtful. In this case, I wonder, David, if you are not staying a little too abstract. Speaking very generally, there is direct experience and then there is reflection on that experience. The moment we describe a direct experience, we are also reflecting on it. Still, it can be helpful to try to stay close to the specifics of the experience and to try to share some of that through a description.Let me go a bit further. The purpose of reporting on an experience is to communicate to others, but also to continue the inquiry for yourself. Writing, like reading (at least in TSK) is another kind of practice or exercise, and the immediate experience of working out a description is at least as important as the ‘accuracy’ of the description.
So, to return to your immediate post, the description of tasting the coffee stays the closest to your experience, and I would encourage more of that. The later material, while people clearly find it helpful, is already pretty removed from your experience. (But perhaps that’s just the part you chose to share.)
I liked your seizing on the expression “open uncommittedness.” Later in this program, we will look at what TSK says about taking positions, which is pretty much the opposite of this openness, and is also precisely what the self likes to do, or needs to do. To be a subject is to take a position over against an object.
Now, as to Susan, welcome! First names are definitely fine. The serendipity of your drawing class is great: seeing the space around an object, and seeing objects as space (a little different from seeing space as an object) are both very related to TSK.
You mention a couple of times feeling anxious at the sense of losing something solid (frozen). That’s not unusual, but it’s good that it comes up for you so clearly right at the outset. There is a very strong emphasis in TSK (as in meditation) on letting go, and this anxiety is something to let go of. The TSK exercises are great in giving you ways to do this. For instance, the present exercise, 9A, asks you to be aware of the one who is doing the exercise as part of the body-mind-thought interplay. Trying that out in a playful way immediately puts any tension or anxiety in a different light.
Finally, let me share one thought from doing these exercises myself. To be aware of the self as doer has two phases or levels. One is when you have the experience and you look for the one who has the experience. My own experience is that this is a fruitless quest. Then there is the one looks for the one who has the experience. That seems much meatier.
I look forward to hearing from more of you.
Jack
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