The Boundless Field
El Campo Sin Límites
An invitation to notice raw experience as one boundless field, gently questioning the mental boundaries between inside and outside, self and other.
The Boundless Field
Notice everything you experience.
Notice emotions, notice the labeling, naming, calling, understanding.
There are sounds, there are images, there are sensations.
And then there are thoughts made of the same thing: sounds, images, sensations.
But direct experience is extremely simple.
All complexity arises in thought.
But notice how also the elements of thought are extremely simple.
All concepts, all stories, all memories composed of images, sounds, and sensations,
the sensations we call emotions.
Sensations of my hand touching.
Sensations of frustration, anger.
All kinds of sensations.
Exploring raw perception
Explore your current raw perception, your current raw reality,
and notice this: including thoughts, images, sounds, sensations.
Notice now how we label.
From a vast field of experience where sights, sounds, sensations all happen in the same space,
notice how we label inside, outside.
Sound of inner dialogue: inside.
Sound of a voice: outside.
Images of thinking: inside.
Light through my eyes: outside.
Touch on the chair or the couch.
Part is inside.
Part is outside.
Be extremely curious about this.
This is mental activity.
Look for that boundary.
The hand
You can explore with opening and closing your eyes,
bringing your attention to what seems like a clear boundary.
For example, your hand.
Notice how instantly the sound "hand" points to an image "hand,"
which points to a space in perception, the sensation of the hand.
Where does the hand end and "not me" begin?
Notice how, bringing your attention to the sensations of the hand,
you overlay the image of the hand,
the mental knowing, its function, its form, its history.
If you discern the difference between the image of the hand
and the sensations, the raw direct experience of the hand,
come closer to the raw sensation.
Is that sensation inside you, outside of you?
Or where is the boundary of that hand?
When you stop making a hand where there is the image of a hand,
you shall enter the kingdom.
Looking for the center
What is it that knows your experience?
Where is that?
In your head, behind your eyes, in your chest,
or is that just maybe a thought?
What is it that knows your hand?
Where is that?
Is it somewhere here, inside,
and the hand over there?
What if there is no center?
Explore that.
If you feel there is a center, find it.
There is no ground.
There is no place.
There is the activity of mind saying: I, I, I, here, center, center, here, center, here.
One force, like gravity, reinforcing a center.
Sensation, the thought of center.
Another force: the heart, the longing, aching, being.
May it be that which knows is in everything that is known.
When contractions arise
If contractions arise, or emotions, fears, or racing thoughts,
they are just that: sensations, images, sounds,
trying to reinforce the sense of a center.
You lean into the space.
There are no edges.
Find the edge and recognize it as mind.
Boundless mind.
Where do images end and sounds begin?
Or are they happening in the same space, boundless?
Where do sensations end and thoughts begin, and where do they meet?
Where is that boundary?
Or is it one boundless field of experiencing,
which we can label as images, sounds, thoughts?
Leaning in
Lean into the field intimately.
Follow your longing.
Your heart longs for this.
Your mind says you long for tomorrow.
Your heart longs for this. Now. Now. Now.
Notice the pull towards naming, dividing.
Inside, outside.
Me, not me.