The Map of the Map
El Mapa del Mapa
A student asks how to move from intellectually understanding that "the map is not the territory" to actually living that realization, and the teacher outlines both halves of the work.
The Map of the Map
A student asks how to move from intellectually understanding that "the map is not the territory" to actually living that realization, and the teacher outlines both halves of the work.
I think I've been following that softer approach, and that's why I've had tastes of it. I feel like I'm slowly upgrading my map. The reason I brought up what's holding me back is because maybe it feels like too soft of an approach, like there's a way to update some parts of the map and keep others in the dark.
Your privilege has nothing to do with it. The comfort of your situation has nothing to do with it. It's more of an existential matter. You could have everything you want in life and something is just missing, and that starts to become pretty heavy.
We can arrive at this through many paths, and one of them is just gradual, constant seeing of what things are more clearly. In that sense, it's a softer approach.
Two halves of the work
Updating the map is only half of the work, and it's actually the half that is never-ending and never gets anywhere. It's very valuable work, but it doesn't arrive at anything. It's constant improvement.
I mix it in with the other half. To me, those two halves are very important, and I think other circles focus more on one or the other. The other half is the absolute clear seeing that a map is a map. And it's harder than it seems, because we think, "This is a map, and this over here is reality." No. Both are part of the map.
That part is actually easy for me. I work in geography and data visualization, and "the map is not the territory" is a common saying.
It's easy in that context, not in the reality of what you are and what the world is.
I guess maybe I have a map of "the map is not the territory."
Exactly.
So in order to shift from having a map of "the map is not the territory" into the actual lived experience of it, what do you recommend?
Direct dialogue and being mirrored
I recommend direct dialogue with people who will point things out. I'm not saying avoid books or videos, but the work has to include something where you are mirrored and challenged. Bring to these people the thing that is challenging you most deeply, the thing that is most difficult for you. Be very transparent, sincere, and vulnerable. Take the risk.
Everything else you're doing supports this, but the highlight is direct interaction with somebody who can clarify things in real time, who can point out: "That's more mind, that's more thought. It's not reality."
Inquiring into foundational beliefs
What you can do on your own is look at foundational beliefs. When you experience a subject, inquire into that. If you feel there is a subject perceiving something "out there," something coming as sound from out there to you, as image and sound, inquire into that as possibly not true, not real.
If you experience that you are something, even if you say, "No, I get that it works this other way," notice that in your day you experience yourself moving through space and time more often than not. Inquire into that: moving through space and time as a linear experience of an "I," a subject moving through space and time with fully independent, self-originating choices and will.
The conversation about whether we have free will misses the point. The "I" that supposedly has free will is the problem. That is where the error is happening. I would say: I, as consciousness, as universe, have free will. But the separate, located "I" does not.
These are things you can look at on your own, but it will help to have these conversations. If you expose where you get stuck, where you struggle, then the deeper beliefs can be weeded out in dialogue.