The Line Made with Thought
La línea hecha con el pensamiento
A gentle exploration of how the felt boundary between self and everything else is made of thought and can be seen through.
The Line Made with Thought
It's all really simple.
It can be hard.
The mind can be confusing.
But the heart of this is very simple.
The misunderstanding
We believe that we are something we're not,
and that leads to all sorts of struggles.
It appears that the present moment is something that it's not.
It appears that something is missing here.
Something's not okay.
There's a dissatisfaction,
a restlessness,
a worry, a pain, a fear,
something.
Something which signals, which is interpreted as: something's not okay
and I need to fix it.
So there's a misunderstanding of what this is,
the experience of something missing,
and the misunderstanding of what I am.
And those arise together.
That is the apparent duality.
If one of those sides is seen through,
the other one drops as well,
even if momentarily.
The thought-based self, the limited self, cannot remain
if everything is seen as it is.
And if the illusion of separate self, of thought-based self, is seen through,
the sense of lack drops as well.
The beauty and the peace that is here will shine through.
Noticing resistance
Part of us resists.
Notice if that is arising,
the part that wants to hold on to the familiar,
to the illusions.
The thought-based worlds.
The attachment to my position,
my worldview,
my suffering,
my struggle.
My journey,
my process.
What if that mind is empty?
Nothing there.
Just everything that's happening.
Freely happening.
Looking for the boundary
A gentle way to approach this is looking for that separation,
looking for that boundary,
what is experienced as a hard line between self and other.
It's a line made with thought,
calling a sensation me,
a perception other,
a thought about me, a thought about other.
An image of the body, me.
An image of the face, me.
An image of things, other.
That sense of subjectivity, sensations,
and the thoughts, the perceptions, memories,
all you've known of the world,
humanity,
family,
all appears here.
Where is the line?
Where is the boundary?
Is one hand separate from the other,
truly separated?
The sensations of one hand, the sensations of the other,
appearing in the same, this same now.
Two gentle waves in one ocean.
Sense of me, sense of subject, appears here, is known here.
Sense of others appears here.
Two waves in the same ocean.
Where is the boundary?
Same reality.
What is knowing?
Thoughts you're having about you, me, mine,
are those really you?
If so, what is knowing them?
What is knowing the sense of subject?
Swimming against the current
The more you look at this,
the more you look for this edge, this boundary, this line,
you will likely come up with resistance,
as if you were swimming against the current of thought.
The body-mind has been trained,
conditioned,
the neurons connected, firing up, coded
to create the illusion of separation.
Just begin reversing that.
The mind will follow,
the body will follow,
then the universe will align.
Beauty will shine through.
Peace will make itself known.
Just ignore the current of thought,
the habit.