When we notice what we are, we go from a world mentally split into subject and objects, to all as both subject and object.
THE CONVENTIONAL VIEW
The conventional view is to split the world into a subject (I, me) and objects (the rest of the world).
We use a mental overlay on our other sense fields and create this split for ourselves.
It’s a split that seems clean and simple and is supported by how most others split the world.
And it’s a split that’s not as clean as it seems when we examine it more closely.
Where does the dividing line go? Is it between this bodymind and the rest of the world? Between consciousness and the body and the rest of the world? Between the part of our psyche we identify with, and the rest of the psyche and the body and the rest of the world? Between observer and observed?
As we examine it, we see that the dividing line is somewhat arbitrary and movable, and that shows us it’s created. We create it for ourselves. It’s not inherent in reality apart from that.
ALL AS SUBJECT / ALL AS OBJECT
When we notice what we are, we find ourselves as capacity for the world as it appears to us, and what our experiences – of this human self and the wider world – happen within and as.
Here, we find that everything is subject. It’s all happening within and as what we are. It’s all what we are.
And we find that all are objects. None of it is fundamentally and exclusively what we are. It’s all happening within what we are.
ALL THREE TOGETHER
In practice, these three are all here together and at the same time.
I operate from a conventional (rough) sense of subject and objects.
I notice all as happening within and as what I am.
And I notice I am not fundamentally and exclusively any of the content of experience.
Sometimes, one of these is more in the foreground, and sometimes another, depending on the focus and noticing.
INITIAL NOTES
- From subjects and objects, to all subject and all object
- conventional view
- the world split into subject and object
- isn’t foolproof, has cracks,
- when examine, see it’s not inherent in reality, it’s an overlay from our mind
- when more clear
- conventional view for practical reasons
- all as subject
- all as object
- conventional view