Saturday, October 3, 2015

Gap Analysis- Finding the Space Between Thoughts



In trying to wrap my head around this doodle, it occurs to me that before using it for inquiry, I really should take a hefty dose of my own medicine by reviewing a few earlier investigations.  Because there were two critical turning points in this path-  one in which I was astounded to find that there's actually no separate me.   The second one was this moment of realization.

Bringing the two revelations into this scenario sets up an interesting framework for today's investigation.  Why?  Well, because if there is truly no separation, then what am I supposed to do with the nearly unquestioned assumption that there's a me doing the thinking and inquiring at all?

Here's a head scratcher:

Why should I try to begin this session by thinking that I need to look for separation between MY thoughts?.  What I can easily now see is that dragging the 'me' into this is entirely automatic  In truth, whether there are gaps or not doesn't matter!  (or at least not yet!) The elephant in the room is this question:

What is thinking?

or better yet,

What IS it that is thinking?
This is the first question.  Until it's examined and answered, looking into whether there are gaps just brings up a loop of more thinking.  But if I clearly see that there is no separate me doing any of it, then the gap becomes an unbelievably amazing mystery.  I mean, what IS that "space"?!  Is there anything at all there? 

(Here's a little secret.... I'm finding that it's incredibly quiet and peaceful there, especially without "me" in it.)

The next time I have one of those days in which I just want to choke the incessant voice in the head, maybe all I really need to do is to look for the thinker first.  Once this is fully understood, the work on exercises in which I spend hours looking for gaps can begin in earnest, and with abandon. 

The gaps are thoroughly enjoyed by no one at all.

10 comments:

  1. Hi Delma,
    what a lovely article about thoughts and the gaps! You have a wonderful humour.

    I laughed out loud when reading about how you sometimes want to choke that voice chattering away all the time. That is so much how I feel sometimes, even knowing there is no me.

    Recently I started playing with "slipping into" these gaps between thoughts. In me quite a blissful feeling arises when it happens. No idea, whether it's the way to go. But it certainly is addictive :-).

    Best wishes from the Baltic Sea, Germany,
    Christiane

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  2. Thanks so much. Ingrid Lill's doodles make inquiry so much fun, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be a pleasure to investigate the nature of reality. Lovely! Be well, Christiane. :)

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  3. I remember Krishnamurti has somewhere mentioned this "space between two thoughts" thing, and, inspired by him, I used to be very much into it, trying to grasp it.

    After the long 'practice' of doing it, what I ended up saying was ... "WHO cares?"

    Spaces ARE, but it doesn't matter if it is noticed by "me." I noticed that, just as
    music has notes and spaces, the flow of thoughts, as, a whole, naturally includes
    space in it. That was the end of space-finding exercise for me.

    Kento

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    1. That must have been J. Krishnamurti. U.G. would have laughed at the whole endeavor, and actually he was my first introduction to looking at thought in a new way. So glad I found him.

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  4. Oh, I forgot that there were two Krishnamurtis ... :)

    Any recommendation for U.G.'s writings?
    I've never read them.

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  5. Mind is a Myth is a good one! So is The Mystique of Enlightenment. And a lot of his material is available online for free: http://www.well.com/~jct/

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  6. Great post! Ha Ha, choke the voice. If only...

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    1. Thank you! The best we can do is to laugh at the incessant commentator and shrug it off as delusional. Because most of the time, it is! Gotta wonder why life decided that we needed a narrator. ;)

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  7. Interesting and beneficial post... very nice :-)

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