Distance and Intimacy

I like the image in the reading (p. 93) of VOK of consciousness “erecting sheltering walls.” Experientially it raises at least two questions: 1) can we discover those walls in our own experience; 2) what are we sheltering (protecting) against.

As to the first, this is something like an archaeological dig: we are trying to find walls built long ago. The difference is that the walls are still there; it is just that we no longer notice them. Another major difference: the walls that consciousness erects also protect us from immediate experience. It is as though we build those walls anew in each moment. And indeed, most of the reading is about the various ways that setting up subject and object closes us off from experience.

All this leads naturally to the practice of Ex. 25, Intimacy as an antidote. Notice how the instructions make the link between this kind of intimacy and a different kind of time. Perhaps it would be helpful to maintain a sense of time passing while you do the exercise. That is a thought rather than advice based on my own experience. I’d be curious to see how it goes.

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