I’m trying to decide whether or not I understand what “looking” is, and I think it’s possible I do, so I want to try and describe it, and hopefully get corrected if it turns out I’m very wrong.
Basically, there’s sort of a divide between “feeling” and “Feeling” and it’s really not obvious that there should be, since we often make category errors in referring to these things. On the one hand, you might have the subjective feeling of pain, like putting your hand on something extremely hot. Part of that feeling of pain is the very strong sensation on your hand. Another part of the pain is the sense that you should not do that. This Feeling is the part that sucks. This is the part that you don’t want.
It turns out that those two types of subjective experience aren’t one in the same and aren’t inseparable. For the vast majority of situations where you notice that one occurs you also notice the other. However, (and it’s a big however), there are some times where the first type appears without the second type. It just so happens that our brain is wired so that you never notice that specific situation. But it occurs frequently enough that if you could notice, if you could Look, you would immediately discover that it’s always been a factor of your experience. And that’s what I’m guessing Valentine means when he says “just look up, it’s so obvious!” It IS obvious, once you see it, but seeing it for the first time is probably hard.
To describe a situation where I think this is likely to occur, imagine accidentally stubbing your toe, feeling the pain from it, then shortly after being told some stunning news about the death of a loved one from someone else. In that brief moment where you are stunned by the news and your mind shifts to that new piece of information, it briefly loses the sense of suffering from the pain of the stubbed toe, although the sensation is still there. Once your mind has completed the shift, it may return to feeling the unpleasantness of the pain combined with whatever new feeling it received.
But importantly, it turns out your brain is doing things like the above constantly. I used that example only because the effect would be much more pronounced. But your mind does these awareness shifts so frequently and so quickly that it’s usually unlikely to be aware of the brief moment where there can be a sensation of something before the associated emotional response. Learning to Look is basically learning to detect when these shifts happen and catch them in the act, and that is why meditation is usually prescribed to make this more likely. It’s also about learning that this effect can be controlled to some degree if you have some mastery over your attention.
It also is not really limited to physical sensations. Any kind of thought or state of awareness may have associated positive or negative mental states, and these too can be sort of detached from in a similar way.
When phrased like the above, the benefits seem obvious. If you had the choice not to suffer, wouldn’t you take it? The reason I think Valentine may not state that so bluntly is that there is an equally obvious objection: if I could choose to not suffer on demand, what would prevent me from doing harmful things to myself or others? Would I even be aligned with my current goals? And I think that question needs an extremely careful answer.
I think the much less obvious and surprising answer is that you are still aligned with your previous goals, and may even be better equipped to reach them, but I don’t feel like I have the skills to really argue for this point, and will completely understand any skepticism towards this.
It’s very possible I’m describing some thing either completely different or at least much more mundane than Valentine is. The biggest factor that leads me to believe this is that Kensho seems to be a much more black and white, you either see it or you don’t sort of thing, whereas what I’m talking about seems to require a gradual process of noticing, recognizing and learning to influence.
I would very much like to know whether this is, in fact, related to what Valentine is talking about. (I have much to say in response to this comment, but don’t want to start a long thread about it if it would be off-topic.)
Given what Val did with his shoulder after the operation it would surprise me a lot if he wouldn’t have been able to make that distinction pre-kenshō for a sensation like pain. I have the impression that Val points to things that are more advanced than that.
My understanding is that the skill you describe here is a prerequisite for what Valentine describes as Kensho or stream-entry. Stream-entry/Kensho refer to a broader kind of “getting it”, a brief grasping of the illusoriness of the self and comprehenion of the oneness of all things, etc.
I would add that there appear to be numerous different schools of thought on what these terms actually refer to. Some will say that you haven’t achieved the target state unless you’ve experienced a jarring “cessation event”, in which you witness your conscious mind blink out and then come back online, and this event prompts a certain set of realizations about the nature of the mind. Some other schools don’t seem to regard the cessation event as necessary.
I too would like to get a clear answer on this, because terms like “kensho” tend to have more than one possible interpretation.
I’m trying to decide whether or not I understand what “looking” is, and I think it’s possible I do, so I want to try and describe it, and hopefully get corrected if it turns out I’m very wrong.
Basically, there’s sort of a divide between “feeling” and “Feeling” and it’s really not obvious that there should be, since we often make category errors in referring to these things. On the one hand, you might have the subjective feeling of pain, like putting your hand on something extremely hot. Part of that feeling of pain is the very strong sensation on your hand. Another part of the pain is the sense that you should not do that. This Feeling is the part that sucks. This is the part that you don’t want.
It turns out that those two types of subjective experience aren’t one in the same and aren’t inseparable. For the vast majority of situations where you notice that one occurs you also notice the other. However, (and it’s a big however), there are some times where the first type appears without the second type. It just so happens that our brain is wired so that you never notice that specific situation. But it occurs frequently enough that if you could notice, if you could Look, you would immediately discover that it’s always been a factor of your experience. And that’s what I’m guessing Valentine means when he says “just look up, it’s so obvious!” It IS obvious, once you see it, but seeing it for the first time is probably hard.
To describe a situation where I think this is likely to occur, imagine accidentally stubbing your toe, feeling the pain from it, then shortly after being told some stunning news about the death of a loved one from someone else. In that brief moment where you are stunned by the news and your mind shifts to that new piece of information, it briefly loses the sense of suffering from the pain of the stubbed toe, although the sensation is still there. Once your mind has completed the shift, it may return to feeling the unpleasantness of the pain combined with whatever new feeling it received.
But importantly, it turns out your brain is doing things like the above constantly. I used that example only because the effect would be much more pronounced. But your mind does these awareness shifts so frequently and so quickly that it’s usually unlikely to be aware of the brief moment where there can be a sensation of something before the associated emotional response. Learning to Look is basically learning to detect when these shifts happen and catch them in the act, and that is why meditation is usually prescribed to make this more likely. It’s also about learning that this effect can be controlled to some degree if you have some mastery over your attention.
It also is not really limited to physical sensations. Any kind of thought or state of awareness may have associated positive or negative mental states, and these too can be sort of detached from in a similar way.
When phrased like the above, the benefits seem obvious. If you had the choice not to suffer, wouldn’t you take it? The reason I think Valentine may not state that so bluntly is that there is an equally obvious objection: if I could choose to not suffer on demand, what would prevent me from doing harmful things to myself or others? Would I even be aligned with my current goals? And I think that question needs an extremely careful answer.
I think the much less obvious and surprising answer is that you are still aligned with your previous goals, and may even be better equipped to reach them, but I don’t feel like I have the skills to really argue for this point, and will completely understand any skepticism towards this.
It’s very possible I’m describing some thing either completely different or at least much more mundane than Valentine is. The biggest factor that leads me to believe this is that Kensho seems to be a much more black and white, you either see it or you don’t sort of thing, whereas what I’m talking about seems to require a gradual process of noticing, recognizing and learning to influence.
I would very much like to know whether this is, in fact, related to what Valentine is talking about. (I have much to say in response to this comment, but don’t want to start a long thread about it if it would be off-topic.)
Given what Val did with his shoulder after the operation it would surprise me a lot if he wouldn’t have been able to make that distinction pre-kenshō for a sensation like pain. I have the impression that Val points to things that are more advanced than that.
My understanding is that the skill you describe here is a prerequisite for what Valentine describes as Kensho or stream-entry. Stream-entry/Kensho refer to a broader kind of “getting it”, a brief grasping of the illusoriness of the self and comprehenion of the oneness of all things, etc.
I would add that there appear to be numerous different schools of thought on what these terms actually refer to. Some will say that you haven’t achieved the target state unless you’ve experienced a jarring “cessation event”, in which you witness your conscious mind blink out and then come back online, and this event prompts a certain set of realizations about the nature of the mind. Some other schools don’t seem to regard the cessation event as necessary.
I too would like to get a clear answer on this, because terms like “kensho” tend to have more than one possible interpretation.