The Ring and the Gold
El anillo y el oro
A student describes a striking insight during meditation: the question of whether a sound and its perceiver are truly two separate things, or one and the same. The teacher uses the metaphor of gold and a ring to point toward what lies beyond the duality of experiencer and experienced.
The Ring and the Gold
A student describes a striking insight during meditation: the question of whether a sound and its perceiver are truly two separate things, or one and the same. The teacher uses the metaphor of gold and a ring to point toward what lies beyond the duality of experiencer and experienced.
I was pretty uncomfortable for at least the first half of the sit. It's so hot here. But I was laughing at my mind, and I think that's something good. When you said the present moment is like a thorn, my mind was saying, "Yeah, because it's fucking uncomfortable all the time, and you can't take it out, and it itches." That was the first thing I thought. And then, watching everything you were talking about: not only the claiming, but how everything seems to have its own life. It's not that it happens by itself, every feeling, every perception, and the mind not only claims "this is me," but also "I'm okay with it," or "you should be here," or "you shouldn't be here." All of that.
Yes, what you're describing is the first layer. On top of that, the mind builds an infinite dream: all the narratives and stories.
Something really blew my mind, literally. I found what felt like a hidden path that hadn't been lit up before. Can you explore a little more: does the sound need a perceiver to exist? Does the sensation or feeling need a perceiver to exist, or are they the same? It was like a psychedelic trip. And the beautiful thing is that when I started grasping it, it was still dual in the sense that there was still a sound and a perceiver. They just happen to appear at once, they need to appear at once, but they still seem like two. That was the closest approximation I was able to make. What is it for there to truly be no two? What is the experience where the sound and the perceiver are the same?
The experiencer as a useful but subtle object
The confusion is based on a progression that is usually needed. When we are really identified, it is very useful to explore the distinction between what is experienced and what is experiencing. But in a sense, that exploration creates a subtle object, which is still mental.
Usually we are shattered into every thought, every story. We are identified and constantly fragmented, moving from one thing to the next, because we are holding on to identity and need a constant flow of story and narrative to identify with. To notice that there is a sense of an experiencer pulls all of this identification into one object. But it is still a mental object.
That is a very useful practice, but it is still, you could say, a stage. It can also be completely skipped. There are cases where it has happened spontaneously. But usually, for someone involved in a practice, what is offered is that pulling away from thought. And what you start to identify with is a subtle thought: this experiencer, the perceiver.
That part I understand. But when you pointed to the next step, it was like: now let's undo that.
The ring is only gold
Exactly. Because it is to notice that the perceiver isn't the thing. It is a thought.
Think of it this way. You have gold. You turn it into a ring. Then you identify with the ring but not with the gold, because everything is the gold. There can be identity with something that has no limits, no boundaries. When the gold takes the shape of something, identity can happen. But the ring isn't the thing. It doesn't really exist. It is only gold. The ring is a mental abstraction: gold has a shape that is called a ring, and it is something we abstract. In the same way, what we are takes the shape of experience.
You could say "consciousness," if you define consciousness as what everything is, but also the emptiness where everything comes from, because it is not a thing. If you say "everything," you think of one big thing or one infinite thing. But it is also empty. It is also voidness. And from there, the experience of the universe and life and ourselves arises. One teacher calls it "projection." You could think of it as consciousness moving and taking form. But what you are is all of that: the emptiness, the form.
So what you're saying is that the experiencer is also the ring.
Exactly. That emptiness where everything comes from also, to use language, perceives what it creates. But the creation includes the perceiver, and the perceiver is in everything and everywhere.
Somehow there is a sensation of it. It blows something open. But I cannot grasp it with the mind, precisely. It felt like a light had been turned on, illuminating something I hadn't seen before. There is room for investigation and exploration here.
Yes. Beautiful.