Seeing Through the Line on the Paper
Viendo a través de la línea en el papel
A student asks how their sensitivity to others' emotions and sensations might serve their understanding of non-separation, and the teacher clarifies the difference between convincing oneself of a truth and directly seeing through a false belief.
Seeing Through the Line on the Paper
A student asks how their sensitivity to others' emotions and sensations might serve their understanding of non-separation, and the teacher clarifies the difference between convincing oneself of a truth and directly seeing through a false belief.
We have done this so much, we are so convinced. We are told, "No, it's one piece of paper; the line doesn't really separate it," and yet we cannot see it. We are so convinced.
That is why, when you do see it, it is so obvious that you cannot go back. You cannot unsee it when you fully see it. It becomes impossible to debate that the piece of paper is one, and equally impossible to argue that it is two pieces or that it is somehow separated.
The interest in keeping the belief
But we have an interest in the belief. We have an interest in that remaining, too. Several people today brought up this edge, this fear. As soon as we start to see this belief as a belief, as soon as we start to see non-separation, something in us starts becoming undone. The body-mind starts to react to that. Different forms of sensations come up: fears, pains.
Thank you. Can I ask a second question? It's actually related to this. I think I'm a little like you in this way. I am able to pick up what I would have described as the energy of others, but you describe it as emotions, feelings, and thoughts. I can't pick up thoughts, exactly, but it does cross my mind: why am I picking this up? The conclusion I was given is simply that I am a more sensitive type, not emotionally sensitive, but sensitive in the sense of being more permeable.
So I have been thinking about this for a long time. How do I use this to help my realization? Whenever I pick up feelings or sensations of others, I am able to tell it is not mine because I make a reference. For example, I am not feeling any pain, and suddenly I feel pain, so I know it is not mine.
The way I have been thinking through it is this: I am assuming it is separate because I am comparing it with a kind of internal database. That database tells me I was not having any pain just now, so the energy is not from me. But that itself is a concept pulled from my thought database.
And then if I pick up the emotion of someone who can be very far away, I conclude I think I know who it is, based on the energy pattern. My analysis is based on concepts, on a database of signatures and characteristics, which is how I identify it as that person. So the separation between what is mine and what is others' is actually itself a concept.
A talent, not a tool for realization
You started by asking how to use this for your realization, and I would say it is pretty much useless in that regard. It is a skill or a talent. It is like being musically gifted or being more naturally inclined toward mathematics. Some people are more apt at receiving thoughts and emotions from others.
At most, it can soften the idea that between bodies and minds there is an absolute separation. But you can still reframe it and map it into a world of separation, where there are two things that are separate and then some kind of communication happens once in a while. So I do not see how it can be that useful in this sense.
Useful in how you function and how you relate, yes. You will probably have to learn to work with it. It is like a talent, and when we have these talents, we probably have to integrate them into our life, learn how to be with them, how to dance with having that permeability of thoughts, sensations, emotions, and what you call energies. We all have that to some degree, but some people are more gifted.
It is not in service of realization that this can be used. It is more in service of living and developing your full potential.
When I mentioned how to make use of it, I did not mean using it to do anything. I meant: how do I use it to help me see that there is no separation? Every time I pick something up, especially if I deem it very negative (sadness, for example, which I was not feeling at that point), I would just tell myself, "No, it's not mine," and shove it off. But it is only recently that I have been thinking: how do I inquire into this so that I am not fixated in the thought that there is separation?
Seeing the false versus adopting a new belief
You cannot convince yourself that there is no separation.
But isn't that what self-inquiry is about, in a sense?
No. It is about seeing the false in the idea of separation. You cannot convince yourself that there isn't separation. Maybe it is a language thing, but convincing oneself is like adopting another belief.
Right.
I am not sure about your culture and upbringing, but I imagine you are familiar with Santa Claus. If you believe Santa Claus will bring gifts, and every year you are expecting them, and then one morning you see your parents bringing the gifts, and you hear them saying, "She still believes in Santa Claus; let's still tell her it's Santa Claus bringing the gifts," do you need to convince yourself after that experience that it is not Santa Claus?