Fixation regarding form
What is your relationship with what you perceive as the existence of form? If you touch something, is the sensation arising a proof that something was touched?, or proof of awareness of sensation? Is the memory that you once touched the back of your head, or the memory of seeing it in a mirror, is that memory proof of the existence of the back of your head? ..or is it proof that a memory exists? If not form? Then what? Formlessness? Here is an exercise to highlight how we create form.. Sit and feel the breath coming in and out of the nostrils. Feel the sensation of air movement at the entrance/exit point. Look straight ahead at something specific. Notice the sharp details of that thing. Now without moving your head or visual focus, notice how the peripheral vision gets fuzzier the further away from the sharp detailed view of the object. Notice also the tendency to guess what those fuzzy objects are. Now, keeping your eyes pointed where your head faces, start turning your head sideways slowly. Notice how what was fuzzy in your peripheral vision (previously) becomes sharp as it enters your central visual field. Now here’s the big one. Notice the compulsion to identify the objects as they become clear. The shift from guessing (imagining) what they are to ‘knowing”. At this point, look for a subtle connecting sensation to them. does it emanate from the object and hit the body, or does it emanate from the body and connect to the object? Where in the body does the connection point touch? Is it the head or chest (or somewhere else?)
The following (in white) is with grateful acknowledgement to Pernille Damore
https://www.youtube.com/@TheAwakeningCurriculum
The 6th Fetter is about the Subject-Object illusion.
We have worked with the delusion of a self, and by now you probably agree that there is no-one here. However, once we take a step further, and start to inquire about how it feels to experience “inside” and “outside,” we become aware of the very subtle identification that is still taking place.
Working with the 6th Fetter dissolves the idea that there is still something in here which is separate and apart from everything else, out there.
It is about the idea that there is a more subtle “me” than found in Fetter 1, but still one who creates and experiences the concepts of space and distance.
You will also find that there is an even more subtle identification taking place that you almost always tend to overlook.
It is connected with the mental images, and the mental stories we attach to everything we assumingly perceive as being “out there” and “in here”.
If you really slow down and zoom in, you will find that every mental image that is attached to everything you assumingly perceive, has its own life with its own storyline and deeper levels of identification.
There is a very clear difference in what you mentally think you experience, and what you actually sensorily experience. Both need to be discovered and investigated.
What all of the exercises are pointing towards is exactly that! All of them need to be experienced in your daily life with focus on the sensory experience, free from the mental overlays.
Enjoy