Field & Differentiation

This is something else that came up for me again during the deeksha tonight...

My immediate experience is of what is happening as just that, just what is happening. It is inherently empty of any information about subject and object, me and other, etc. These all come when I add a layer of abstractions to it.

And there is a fluid dynamic between the field as a seamless whole, and the layers of abstractions and differentiation added to it. One naturally goes into the foreground and the other into the background, and then it is reversed - fluidly among different situations.

And there are two ways the abstractions can come into focus.

One is as within the context of this larger field of what is happening in the present. In this case, it becomes a useful tool and always seen clearly as just a tool. There is no need to take it more seriously than that. In a way, it can be described as having the center of gravity in the field as a whole, and a temporary focus on the parts and abstractions.

The other is by attaching to the (apparent) parts and the abstractions themselves and taking the abstractions as gospel truth. In this case, I loose sight of the seamless field. I now attach to a part of the field, and make the rest into an "other" which comes up as a disturbance. This confusion is the birth of blind aversions (anger) and attractions (greed), and no end to drama and suffering. Here, my center of gravity and my focus both are on the parts and the abstractions.

To shift the center of gravity back into the field, I find several practices very helpful these days: Douglas Harding's experiments, finding myself as headless, as capacity for what is happening, as the unity of emptiness and fullness. The Big Mind process, shifting into Big Mind/Heart in real time. Byron Katie's inquiry process, to allow attachments to thoughts to unravel. And other simple practices such as just coming to the breath, the movements of the body etc. I also find that Breema bodywork and self-Breemas create a quite stable atmosphere (as they say) which makes it easier to make this shift. And the more familiar I become with all this, the more attractive this shift becomes, until there is no question about where I want the center of gravity to be. One is suffering, the other lack of suffering (and sometimes even bliss although that comes and goes as any other phenomena).

Footnotes

There are of course other characteristics of each of the two situations, where the center of gravity is either in the field or the parts/abstractions.

One is a shift from being the context for what is happening as well as what is happening in the present, to being an object in the field - having the rest of the field become "other". This is most often quite unpleasant, lonely and rife with a sense of lack and isolation, and blind attachments and aversions.

Another is that whenever I attach to a particular experience, it seems that the "opposite" experience tends to come up automatically wanting my attention. And now of course as an "other" and a disturbance. This too is quite unpleasant. When I find myself as the context (unchanging) as well as the content (always changing), I can allow the content to come and go as guests, as they do anyway. I have found a new "ground of being" in that which is unchanging, the crystal clear awareness which is effortlessly and naturally here. I reveal myself as this crystal clear awareness, within which anything and everything naturally and effortlessly happens on its own.