As I mentioned in the previous post, in the Headless Way Zoom meetings, Richard Lang will often ask what we enjoy about being headless.
Just about everything people talk about, unless it’s overly conceptual which happens on rare occasions, fits my own experience.
What I enjoy about headlessness, about my nature noticing itself, is that…
It’s full and complete, nothing is missing.
It’s timeless and spaceless. It’s what forms itself into the experience of time and space.
There is no beginning or end in time. It forms itself into the experience of time.
There is no outer boundary that I can find. It forms itself into any ideas of boundaries.
There is no real center. Its center is everywhere and nowhere.
There is no distance to anything. It’s all here in this field of experience.
When this human self moves through the world, the world moves through me.
It’s endlessly creative. It’s always taking new forms.
It’s always fresh and new.
It’s home. It’s where I am at home. It’s the home that was never left.
It’s awake space that forms itself into the world as it appears to me.
Everything is this awake space. It’s this awake space taking the form of these legs, this computer, the hands and fingers, the sounds, the music, the breeze, the room, and so on.
It’s not anything I need to remember. I just need to remember to notice.
It’s already here. It’s not anything that needs to be manufactured. (Anything manufactured happens within the field of experience like anything else.)
It’s all I have ever known. This awake space is what has formed itself into anything and everything ever experienced here.
It’s capacity. It’s nothing allowing for everything. It’s nothing making itself into everything.
It has no characteristics and can take the form of any characteristic.
Everything is noticed as happening on its own. Everything is living its own life, including this human self.
It can take itself to be something within its own field of experience. It can temporarily take itself to be this human self, a doer, an observer, and so on.
This noticing can be shared with others. We can talk about it and find we are noticing the same. We can help others to notice it for themselves.
We can talk about it with simple and everyday words.
It can be noticed here and now if attention is guided. It doesn’t take lifetimes, years, or hours to notice.
It doesn’t require any belief or spirituality or religion or anything.
Noticing it doesn’t require anything apart from the noticing.
It’s prior to any thought. It’s more immediate than any thoughts, words, and mental representations.
Words can point our attention to it.
Words cannot even begin to touch it.
It’s an endless process of exploration. How is it to notice it now? How is it to live from and as it now? How is it to invite more of my human self to align with this noticing?
It can be profoundly transforming for this human self and its life in the world.
It doesn’t necessarily transform anything at first. This human self can be exactly as it is, whatever that is, and the noticing is still here.
It is mystery. It’s a complete mystery to itself. I am a complete mystery to myself.
Everything is mystery. This whole field of experience it forms itself into is mystery.
It’s possible to explore, learn about, get familiar with, talk about, create maps about, and so on. It’s possible to find maps and understandings that fit the data more or less well. It’s possible to be more or less familiar with it than someone else. And it’s still mystery.
Most likely, we are all this to ourselves. All “conscious beings”, no matter the shape of the body and no matter the psyche, is this to themselves. That opens for a profound sense of connection with all beings.
That it’s endlessly fascinating to my human self.
Hello,
I am new to Headlessness, I have discovered Harding only two months ago. I am not sure that I even ‘get it’ or if I do then the ‘signal’ is weak and quite brief – few seconds.
I suppose that you have tried the ‘spinning’ and ‘walking’ experiments. Do they help you with noticing ? Is the ‘stillness’ that you experience when driving or travelling with the metro the same as that when noticing ?
Thanks.
Hi Gheorghe – for me, some experiments work better than others, and it has changed over time as well. I would recommend trying several of them and see what happens. Do you know about the Headless Way app?
The first experiment that really shifted something for me is the one where you make a round hole in a sheet of paper, look through it and notice objects, colors, shapes, textures, and so on, then notice the hole itself which is empty space, and then move the hole towards you until you become that empty space full of the world.
These days, I enjoy the one where you take a ruler and measure how far it is between things you see, and then rotate it so you look along the ruler and notice there is no distance to anything. It’s all right here in the space I am. (I did it with a physical ruler first and now just imagine the ruler.)
Another that works well for me is to notice that when this human self moves through the world – walking, driving, biking etc. – the world is moving through me, it’s moving through the space I am.
When you say that the signal is weak and brief, I think that’s quite normal. Keep going and it will likely become more clear and easier accessible. One thing that changed for me over time was that I learned what to look for, what to notice. It’s here, it’s just about noticing it, and that takes some practice and experience. Over time, you’ll get more familiar with the terrain. And it does help to share all of this – what we notice, our questions, our experiences – with others on the same or similar path.
As for the stillness, yes, it’s the same. I find myself as space for the world whether this human self moves through the world or not. When this human self is still, it’s more that everything happens within this space, and when this human self moves through the world, the world moves through this space I am.
Do you know about the Headless Zoom meetings? They are free and just about every day of the week, and it’s up to you when and how often you want to join. Contact Richard through the Headless Way website for the schedule and links.
Many thanks for the detalied answer ! Much appreciated !
Yes, I have recently started attending the Headless Zoom meeting.