6. Simple, Everyday Experience
When we start out on the path, mountains are (actual) mountains and rivers are (actual) rivers.
As we progress, mountains are no longer mountains, and rivers are no longer rivers.
In the end, however, mountains are once again mountains, and rivers are once again rivers. Zen saying
The primary experience of awakening is that suffering (the anxiety, fear, envy, frustration, longing, mental anguish, and the host of other things we generally never want to experience) no longer occurs or arises, regardless of what situation you are in. That suffering no longer arises does not require any conscious or unconscious defense or coping mechanism, being in any particular meditative or cognitive “state”, or otherwise trying to understand, change or adapt to what is happening in a given moment. As a result, it is an entirely normal and simple experience of going through each day.
In terms of what can be called the phenomenal world, there is a complete lack of perceived boundaries and separation, even though you can still tell the conventional difference between a doorway and a wall (very handy, that!). It no longer seems like there is an actual “physical” (or “mental”, for that matter) aspect to what is happening, though such nominal differences are (and must be) still made in daily life . However, recognition of these nominal differences no longer make it seem as though you live in a world of absolutely separate things, primarily because there is no longer any sense that there is an “I” that is separate from anything else. “What” you see, hear, think and otherwise experience is clearly a (quite helpful and necessary) interpretation of what is really just raw sensory information.
As an analogy, imagine you are sitting in a movie theater, where throughout the movie you effortlessly recognize each and every item that was on the movie set: chairs, books, trees, birds, people and so forth. There are those at the theater who are engrossed in what is happening as if it were real, and you are still able to take it in, and appreciate and even respond to what is happening as well. However, you don’t lose track of the fact that it is just a continuous display of images that are interpreted to be conventional ‘things’.
Once awake, this is the “new normal” in terms of going through daily life. In a word it is simple - seeing “doorways” and “coffee cups” in this way is straightforward, uncomplicated and effortless. Doorways and coffee cups aren’t seen “as they (really) are” or as illusory - they are simply seen, without the need to clarify if or how they exist. How they are seen cannot be described as “direct” or “indirect” - they are simply seen. While this boundaryless version of everything (and everyone) else is obviously happening, the only thing missing is the sense or flavor of “me”. Thus, no matter how “woke” you are, in simple, everyday experience a coffee cup will still be a coffee cup. Simple experience is where you start from, where you can do the work of awakening, and where you eventually “end up”. Simple, everyday experience is therefore one of interpretation and representation, and of signs and symbols, where words arise for what one sees, but are no longer misconstrued.
Going about daily life, at a somatic level the “body” is still recognized as such if need be, but there is no longer any identification with (or as) any of it, nor is there speculation about what the body is or is not over and above an interpretation. The habitual tensions that once arose in the body, perhaps in the shoulder, throat or stomach, are no longer present. Whether stuck in traffic or otherwise in a non-ideal situation, the body just does what it needs to do, with sensations, slight adrenaline surges and other normal functions simply happening. There is no disconnect from whatever is happening, nor is there any mental narrative needed regarding what is happening - some situations are not comfortable at a somatic level, and nothing more is inferred or created from that.
Of course, deconstructing experience when looking for a separate “self” as the first fetter can be helpful, since inquiry in this first step is about looking for the experiencer of whatever is happening. Whether what is happening is actual doorways and walls, or deconstructed thoughts and sensations, it is nevertheless being experienced. Thereafter, however, in the fetters approach such deconstructing ceases to be helpful. For example, when working with reactivity in the fourth and fifth fetters, there needs to be an actual (or at least believable) person or situation to which we are reacting. If instead the difficult person or issue is dissolved into thoughts and sensations, there is no longer anything to react to, and the trigger that is sought for is also deconstructed, by which the very basis of the inquiry evaporates.
Further on, inquiry into the apparent existence of a “subject” and “perception” in the sixth and seventh fetters requires that the objects or perceived things that trigger these illusions be allowed to persist in order for there to be something to work with. Thus, inquiry and “direct pointing” can, and in many cases must, occur in simple, everyday experience. Once the sixth and seventh fetters are gone, what once seemed to be a solid, three-dimensional world around us becomes more of a two-dimensional display of images, and this experience of “all else” is more or less how we will see it all from then on. However, this is not the same as the artificial version that is induced by being in “direct experience”, where what is seen is temporarily deconstructed into thoughts and sensations.
In terms of what can be called the phenomenal world, there is a complete lack of perceived boundaries and separation, even though you can still tell the conventional difference between a doorway and a wall (very handy, that!). It no longer seems like there is an actual “physical” (or “mental”, for that matter) aspect to what is happening, though such nominal differences are (and must be) still made in daily life . However, recognition of these nominal differences no longer make it seem as though you live in a world of absolutely separate things, primarily because there is no longer any sense that there is an “I” that is separate from anything else. “What” you see, hear, think and otherwise experience is clearly a (quite helpful and necessary) interpretation of what is really just raw sensory information.
As an analogy, imagine you are sitting in a movie theater, where throughout the movie you effortlessly recognize each and every item that was on the movie set: chairs, books, trees, birds, people and so forth. There are those at the theater who are engrossed in what is happening as if it were real, and you are still able to take it in, and appreciate and even respond to what is happening as well. However, you don’t lose track of the fact that it is just a continuous display of images that are interpreted to be conventional ‘things’.
Once awake, this is the “new normal” in terms of going through daily life. In a word it is simple - seeing “doorways” and “coffee cups” in this way is straightforward, uncomplicated and effortless. Doorways and coffee cups aren’t seen “as they (really) are” or as illusory - they are simply seen, without the need to clarify if or how they exist. How they are seen cannot be described as “direct” or “indirect” - they are simply seen. While this boundaryless version of everything (and everyone) else is obviously happening, the only thing missing is the sense or flavor of “me”. Thus, no matter how “woke” you are, in simple, everyday experience a coffee cup will still be a coffee cup. Simple experience is where you start from, where you can do the work of awakening, and where you eventually “end up”. Simple, everyday experience is therefore one of interpretation and representation, and of signs and symbols, where words arise for what one sees, but are no longer misconstrued.
Going about daily life, at a somatic level the “body” is still recognized as such if need be, but there is no longer any identification with (or as) any of it, nor is there speculation about what the body is or is not over and above an interpretation. The habitual tensions that once arose in the body, perhaps in the shoulder, throat or stomach, are no longer present. Whether stuck in traffic or otherwise in a non-ideal situation, the body just does what it needs to do, with sensations, slight adrenaline surges and other normal functions simply happening. There is no disconnect from whatever is happening, nor is there any mental narrative needed regarding what is happening - some situations are not comfortable at a somatic level, and nothing more is inferred or created from that.
Of course, deconstructing experience when looking for a separate “self” as the first fetter can be helpful, since inquiry in this first step is about looking for the experiencer of whatever is happening. Whether what is happening is actual doorways and walls, or deconstructed thoughts and sensations, it is nevertheless being experienced. Thereafter, however, in the fetters approach such deconstructing ceases to be helpful. For example, when working with reactivity in the fourth and fifth fetters, there needs to be an actual (or at least believable) person or situation to which we are reacting. If instead the difficult person or issue is dissolved into thoughts and sensations, there is no longer anything to react to, and the trigger that is sought for is also deconstructed, by which the very basis of the inquiry evaporates.
Further on, inquiry into the apparent existence of a “subject” and “perception” in the sixth and seventh fetters requires that the objects or perceived things that trigger these illusions be allowed to persist in order for there to be something to work with. Thus, inquiry and “direct pointing” can, and in many cases must, occur in simple, everyday experience. Once the sixth and seventh fetters are gone, what once seemed to be a solid, three-dimensional world around us becomes more of a two-dimensional display of images, and this experience of “all else” is more or less how we will see it all from then on. However, this is not the same as the artificial version that is induced by being in “direct experience”, where what is seen is temporarily deconstructed into thoughts and sensations.