The intent was to call up a memory, and I think what arose were those images that unfolded as well as the contextual space in which they unfolded. That contextual space was a sub-space, if you will, of a much more encompassing space in which all of my individual senses unfolded, and where other activities were going on. It is possible the holes in the memory, in its context, were moments when I was not fully present to the experience of my trip down the isles of Home Depot, and that when I called up the memory of that trip, the loss of connection in the moments of presence were called up as non-content, darkness around the edges, and blanks, or a particular space within the context of that memory – a limited space. As Rinpoche says:
“The tight focus on substance that characterizes our ordinary ways of knowing turns space into the absence of ‘anything at all’.” He goes on to say, “Now, as we question space nothingness, we make space itself available for inquiry. We invite the reappearance of space as an active element in our human reality.” He asks, “…could we discover ‘another kind’ of nothing, more fundamental than either substance or empty space?”  DTS p.8
It seems that I can remember space as dark or light depending on the context of my memory.  Because memory turns ‘space’ into an object in order to bring it forward, space can be interpreted as distance between objects, or it can be a darkness or blank.  When it’s a dark or blank within a context, like my Home Depot example, it was like holes or static in the flow of the memory, because my focus was ‘thing’ oriented, turning even space into a ‘thing’ and automatically assigning it the quality of darkness. When I remember space as empty, but ‘light’ it’s usually associated with the memory of fully present, meditative experiences where there are little or no objects. Even remembering ‘the spaciousness’ of the Home Depot warehouse was not a dark memory, that impression was full of color as I experienced it, and I think that’s because I was fully present to that moment when I entered the building, so recalling it was remembering the ‘open presence’ of that moment, and not interfered with or interrupted by distractions.
Being fully present space seems to be ‘openness’, where distance seems to evaporate, and a subjective position separate from experience seems to dissolve.
David
