At some point, we may see quite clearly that stories are not true. Images don’t inherently mean anything. Words don’t inherently mean anything. Sensations don’t inherently mean anything.
When sensations seem “stuck on” images and words (velcro, conglomerates), they may appear to mean something but they don’t inherently mean anything.
Following this, we may have beliefs come up (velcro, identifications), and while they feel true we may also know that they are not true.
This is a relief. It’s a shift. We know that it’s not true, and also (if we know inquiry) that there is a way to work with it.
We can examine and see more clearly what’s already there. We can befriend it.
We can help it to find it’s own liberation. We can help it find liberation from being held as solid and true.
Through examination, we may arrive at seeing that the images, words, and sensations that came up don’t inherently mean anything. We may arrive at recognizing images as images, words as images, and sensations as sensations.
We can arrive at a place where what’s here is OK. It doesn’t need to go away.
First, the identifications may feel very real and solid. We don’t question it, and we don’t know any way to even work with it.
Then, we may learn ways to work with it. (Natural rest, loving kindness, inquiry.) We may also arrive at a place where we see more clearly that images, words, and sensations in themselves don’t mean anything, and that meaning comes from how they combine into conglomerates (velcro).
That brings us to a place where identifications (velcro, beliefs, hangups, wounds) still come up, while we know that they are created by the mind and are not inherently true. We also know ways to work with it, and we do. I assume this is ongoing. (And if there is a wish for it to end, I can look at that too. I can rest with that too, and examine it through inquiry.)