Good morning.
Today I thought we would look.
Yeah,
We would look.
So there's this experience of being within an experience,
And then there's another experience of being able to see the experience,
To be able to notice it.
Not quite like a third party.
It's more like having a more of a 360 degree view of what's going on.
And then when we're caught up in an experience,
It's almost like we're surrounded by the experience.
I think we've all had that kind of thing go on for us at some level,
Where we just feel overwhelmed by what's going on around us.
And then we've had other times when we've been able to see what's going on as a bigger picture.
So it's almost a question of perspective.
It is a question of perspective,
But it's like they're coming from two different places.
So that's what I thought we might investigate today,
The seer and the seen.
So for example,
Well,
Let's start.
Yeah,
Let's start just by settling in,
Perhaps with a couple of deep breaths,
And just allowing those breaths to settle.
And as they settle,
This seer and the seen,
Also sometimes referred to as the knower and the known,
They're settling into the breath and observing that you can either be caught up in the breath,
Or you can be observing the breath,
You can be with it.
It's like,
It's the breath known,
The breath is known,
Essentially,
By the knower.
The breath is seen by the seer,
Experienced by the experiencer.
And they're two different spaces.
See if you can be the seer,
The knower of the breath.
Same can be done with sensation,
Noticing sensations in the body.
We've all been in a position where we've been caught up in a sensation,
Particularly discomfort,
But not always,
Or tension.
And we can get very caught up in the sensation,
Or we can see,
We can know the sensation.
It's a very different experience.
So going to where sensation is present in the body is obvious in the body.
And being the seer,
The knower of that sensation,
Not the sensation itself.
When we get caught up in a sensation,
When it tends to overwhelm us or over-empower us,
We become very small.
The sensation becomes large and we become small.
And we're the knower of the sensation,
The seer of it.
We have a much different perspective,
A much different view.
And the same can be done with thought.
I can be caught up within the thoughts,
Where my thoughts become my world,
When essentially I'm within my mind,
Inside my mind,
And it surrounds me.
Or I can see the thoughts,
I can know the thoughts,
See myself perhaps as a process of mind,
This idea of myself.
So is it possible to be the knower,
The seer of thoughts,
When I'm caught inside my thoughts,
They often flow very fast.
There's just a procession of them,
There's no escaping them.
But as the seer of thoughts,
There may be a little more space between them.
As the seer,
You may also be able to spend some of your experience in between the thoughts,
Occupying that space between thoughts and around thoughts.
And sometimes that space between thoughts can get rather large,
When I'm the seer and not the seen.
If you're getting at all drifty,
If your thoughts are starting to flow,
Just noticing,
Am I in this moment,
The seer or the seen?
If in this moment,
I am the seen,
I am what is being seen,
And I am participating fully in the drama of me,
Is it possible just to change that perspective to be able to see that occurring,
Not trying to stop it occurring,
Oh no,
Just to see it,
To watch it,
To know it.
It's very easy to identify which space I'm in,
Which space I'm inhabiting.
One has constant motion,
Movement,
Fluctuation,
One is completely impermanent.
The other has a constancy,
A stillness,
A permanence,
An eternal nature.
And both are entirely legitimate experiences,
Just one may be a little more open,
A little more comfortable than the other.
And both are worth experiencing.
And since we spend most of us,
Most of our time as the seen,
As the known,
With its constant turmoil and turmoil and change,
It can be beneficial from time to time to inhabit the space of the seer,
The knower.
It's hard to touch the truth when everything is changing.
So seeing sensations in the body,
Seeing thoughts in the spaces between thoughts,
Rather than being the sensations in the body or being the thoughts themselves,
Allowing all that is present to be present,
Not excluding anything from a space which sees,
Which knows.
And if you'd like to play a little more with this,
Is there perhaps,
And there may not be,
Is there perhaps a space which knows or sees that which knows or sees?
Just play with that.
Sometimes when we enter this space that knows or sees,
We're just inhabiting ego from another point of view,
Sometimes.
So if that space can be seen,
If that space can be known,
See if it's possible to spend a few moments there,
Knowing or seeing that which appears to know or see.
So as we go about our day,
Habits of mind are likely to prevail and we're likely to spend most of our experience as the seen,
As the known,
As form,
Which can be very useful at times.
And the invitation is from time to time throughout the day to just stop for a moment and see if it's possible to experience this moment as the seer,
As the knower,
To just change perspective,
Just for a moment or two,
From time to time throughout the day,
Or more if you can,
To start building a habit of experiencing,
Of seeing things from a different perspective,
From a stiller perspective,
A quieter perspective,
A more eternal perspective.
So inviting form now,
And inviting form experiencing gravity,
Feeling feet on the floor,
But on a chair or cushion or floor,
Sensing into body,
Hands,
Arms and shoulders,
Sensing into belly,
Sensing into chest,
To this wholeness,
This completeness of body,
Neck and head,
Face,
Jaw,
Temples,
Forehead,
Sensing into the top of the head.
Thank you for your practice.
