We can see our ground of being as other, or find it as what we are. And that makes all the difference.
GROUND OF BEING
What is our ground of being?
What we more fundamentally are, in our own experience, is capacity for the world as it appears to us. We are what allows any and all experiences.
SEEN AS OTHER
If we don’t recognize that all our experiences happen within and as our sense fields, and within and as what we are, it’s very easy to see our ground of being as other. As something that belongs to the world out there. And as something we typically don’t even consciously notice or recognize as anything of importance.
It’s easier and feels more natural to focus on the content of our experience, not what allows it all. Our focus tends to be on objects, and this what allows our experience of objects.
There is nothing wrong here, but we are missing out of something that can be interesting, or turn our perception inside-out and up-side-down, or even be profoundly transforming for our human self in the world.
FINDING IT AS WHAT WE ARE
If we look more closely, we may find something else.
Conceptually, we may find that to ourselves, we have to be consciousness and anything we experience happens within and as that consciousness. And there is some ground, or emptiness or capacity, here that allows all of these experiences.
And when we explore this through direct noticing of what’s here, perhaps aided by some guidance, we may find the same.
We find that our sense fields – sight, sound, sensations, taste, smell, mental representations – contain our experience of everything, including this human self, the wider world, and anything else.
It’s all happening within our sense fields. It’s all happening within and as what we are.
There is a human self and a wider world, and yet none of it is really other. Any inside and outside happens within the same field of experience.
Here, we may also notice the ground of being which allows it all. And we may find that as our ground of being. This is what we are that allows any and all of our experiences.
It’s what allows and is and takes the form of anything we have ever known.
THE TRANSFORMATION THAT CAN HAPPEN
It may seem inconsequential. What if my nature, or ground of being, is this capacity allowing all my experiences? It’s literally nothing, so how can it matter?
It is what allows our experience. And noticing that it is our nature, and ground of being, can be profoundly transformative.
When we find ourselves as what our experiences happen within and as, we also find oneness. We find that oneness is our nature, in our own experience, and always was even when we didn’t notice.
Any sense of boundaries comes from our overlay of mental representations and taking these as the final word without noticing what we more fundamentally are.
The question here is: How do I live from this? In this situation, and if I take what I notice seriously, how do I live from it?
And there is often a parallel process. Anything in our human self not aligned with oneness and this noticing comes to the surface to more consciously be aligned with oneness. To the extent we support and join in with this process, it can be profoundly transforming and healing for our human self.
This transformation is partly a transformation in how we relate to our experiences, including our contractions. We are invited to find it all as happening within and as what we are, recognize that our contractions have the same nature as ourselves, and rest in this noticing.
HOW CAN WE EXPLORE THIS FOR OURSELVES?
Knowing about this, and exploring it conceptually, can be interesting and – for some – a first step.
And knowing about it in itself doesn’t do anything. The transformation happens when we notice all of this directly.
How can we do that?
The most effective approaches I have found are the Headless Experiments and the Big Mind process. This can give us a taste within a relatively short time and without much if any preparation.
We can also explore this by exploring our sense fields, for instance through traditional Buddhist inquiry or modern versions like the Living Inquiries.
And we can explore it through basic meditation: notice and allow what’s here in experience. Over time, we may discover several things. There is a big difference between noticing our thoughts and getting caught up in their content and stories. All our content of experience comes and goes and lives its own life. Everything is part of our content of experience – this human self, the wider world, emotions, thoughts, states, and so on. We may find that our nature is what allows it all. It’s what all of this happens within and as. And we may find it’s already more than familiar to us, we just didn’t consciously notice before.
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