Reminds me of the space my friend largely exists in after 5 years of ALS ravaging his body. Sure, he still has sensory input, but through so much stillness, and a practice of working with energy, he’s living in this feelingmind quite a lot more than your average person. And it’s shining.
Centering our primary awareness in feelingmind, and living from there, gives us immense resources otherwise unavailable to us. We are brilliant, shining entities, all of us. So glad your friend has been able to find this and center himself there!
Feelingmind sounds like an intriguing and (from Kimberly Warner's comment) wonderful place from which to operate in the world. Definitions are so critical when discussing these things. It might be what some people call 'consciousness' or 'the conscious mind' or 'the observing mind'. Anyway, if we are consciousness, and made of god-consciousness, then feelingmind seems to be a deeper-seated place (at a higher vibration?) where connection with 'divine Source' is less cluttered-up with somatic experience and monkey-mind - maybe what some people call 'being centred'. I think I've experienced it in a couple of life-or-death events when all else is shut out. Perhaps that's also why some people do death-defying exploits and adrenelin sports - it 'forces' them to live from feelingmind, or else they will die.
Right on, Joshua. Here’s the thing, too. Feelingmind is there, behind the scenes of every conscious (and subconscious (and unconscious)) experience. Not just the good/big ones. It’s got a multi-part architecture (lots and lots of parts, actually) that operates in the background, shaping everything in the rest of our experience.
It’s also really fascinating to discover that its natural architecture, the way things are when it’s not compromised (which is is, universally, in this adolescent civilization), makes sublime and transcendent experiences a part of everyday life.
So, so much to share with you here. It’s coming! Over the next couple weeks I’ll be rounding out the first milestone in the Science journey before offering a more explicit instruction post for you to get started doing your own fieldwork. After that, I’ll be able to roll out descriptions of the mind-blowing phenomena we’re able to access using this method, and start to piece together this new model of the self based on direct observational data we all have access to.
Thanks for your comment, Amali! Now, "valuing subjective experience just as much as we do objective data"? Oh, I would advocate for holding it even more valuable. I mean, when you get right down to it, there is no "objective," only patterns stable enough for us to call them so (see the Maps Within Maps and Building Good Maps posts).
There is no observation without interaction, and no interaction without mutual transformation. Nothing remains of what we have "objectively" observed, and so the triangulation (one observer to another, one method to another, etc.) we use to establish objectivity is merely an approximation. Useful, yes, when we're working with rocks and water. But as we edge into anything close to living, conscious beings, we're best served by holding the illusion of objectivity lightly, and placing it in its appropriate place as being in service to the mystery of actual experience.
That said, when we do succeed in placing subjective experience in the driver's seat, and we serve it well with disciplined and precise observation, we get to discover some deeper patterns that are quite profound, as you will see.
Reminds me of the space my friend largely exists in after 5 years of ALS ravaging his body. Sure, he still has sensory input, but through so much stillness, and a practice of working with energy, he’s living in this feelingmind quite a lot more than your average person. And it’s shining.
Centering our primary awareness in feelingmind, and living from there, gives us immense resources otherwise unavailable to us. We are brilliant, shining entities, all of us. So glad your friend has been able to find this and center himself there!
Feelingmind sounds like an intriguing and (from Kimberly Warner's comment) wonderful place from which to operate in the world. Definitions are so critical when discussing these things. It might be what some people call 'consciousness' or 'the conscious mind' or 'the observing mind'. Anyway, if we are consciousness, and made of god-consciousness, then feelingmind seems to be a deeper-seated place (at a higher vibration?) where connection with 'divine Source' is less cluttered-up with somatic experience and monkey-mind - maybe what some people call 'being centred'. I think I've experienced it in a couple of life-or-death events when all else is shut out. Perhaps that's also why some people do death-defying exploits and adrenelin sports - it 'forces' them to live from feelingmind, or else they will die.
Right on, Joshua. Here’s the thing, too. Feelingmind is there, behind the scenes of every conscious (and subconscious (and unconscious)) experience. Not just the good/big ones. It’s got a multi-part architecture (lots and lots of parts, actually) that operates in the background, shaping everything in the rest of our experience.
It’s also really fascinating to discover that its natural architecture, the way things are when it’s not compromised (which is is, universally, in this adolescent civilization), makes sublime and transcendent experiences a part of everyday life.
So, so much to share with you here. It’s coming! Over the next couple weeks I’ll be rounding out the first milestone in the Science journey before offering a more explicit instruction post for you to get started doing your own fieldwork. After that, I’ll be able to roll out descriptions of the mind-blowing phenomena we’re able to access using this method, and start to piece together this new model of the self based on direct observational data we all have access to.
Looking forward to continuing conversations!
I love the idea of valuing subjective experience just as much as we do objective data. Thank you for this, Joe. 🙏🏽
Thanks for your comment, Amali! Now, "valuing subjective experience just as much as we do objective data"? Oh, I would advocate for holding it even more valuable. I mean, when you get right down to it, there is no "objective," only patterns stable enough for us to call them so (see the Maps Within Maps and Building Good Maps posts).
There is no observation without interaction, and no interaction without mutual transformation. Nothing remains of what we have "objectively" observed, and so the triangulation (one observer to another, one method to another, etc.) we use to establish objectivity is merely an approximation. Useful, yes, when we're working with rocks and water. But as we edge into anything close to living, conscious beings, we're best served by holding the illusion of objectivity lightly, and placing it in its appropriate place as being in service to the mystery of actual experience.
That said, when we do succeed in placing subjective experience in the driver's seat, and we serve it well with disciplined and precise observation, we get to discover some deeper patterns that are quite profound, as you will see.