If there's something in particular, bring it! Otherwise, I have plenty to keep you busy. Up to you.
Please don't answer these next questions from memory. Directly LOOK after each, in terms of what the case is NOW.
Are you having any thoughts that are relatively proximal in terms of time to reading this question, either before, during, or after?
Many thoughts popping up just prior, and just after reading the question. No thoughts during the reading of the question. I see that thoughts arise one at a time and can't / don't overlap, and since the reading of the question requires thoughts, there aren't other thoughts popping up while reading.
What's your understanding of the significance of thought relative to reality?
My initial thought is that thought is just word salad in the mind which doesn't reflect reality whatsoever. But then I see that THAT THOUGHT is also a thought (a thought about thought), and if thought is a word salad which doesn't reflect reality, then a thought about thought is ALSO just word salad which doesn't reflect reality.
So then I put the brakes on and just LOOK and see that thoughts ARE REAL (something is aware of them) but the stories / pictures they present ARE NOT REAL.
Where do all those thoughts come from, anyway? LOOK!
They don't come from anywhere. They're created out of or arise out of nothing. They arise from ME. All those statements are true.
Do you cause them? LOOK!
I don't know what causes them to appear, but it's not me. I notice them appearing, as if I'm a spectator.
Can you predict the next one you will have, or its content? LOOK!
No, I absolutely cannot predict the next thought I'll have. It's impossible.
There's some relief that you asked this question
Tell me about the relief. What is it made of?
This and the next couple of questions really stopped me. The relief was made of thoughts + sensation. There were thoughts of "I'm still not getting this and Jeff seems to be moving forward as if I am and what is going to happen in the future when I have to say that I'm not?". Then, reading your kind response, there were thoughts of "Oh good, he's not outwardly disappointed or angry or impatient" and with those thoughts I experienced an emotion/sensation which I labeled "relief". See the next question.
Remember the Green/Red exercise?
I remember that exercise very well. In this context, the RED (the EXPERIENCE) was the emotion/sensation and the GREEN (the label) was "relief". The emotion/sensation was unmistakable, unmissable, direct. The label "relief" was a thought, a shorthand for the ACTUAL experience of that emotion/sensation.
How could you construct/deconstruct/play with “relief” to see what it is/isn't? Go ahead and do so.
I played back the events in my head, but instead of naming the experience of the sensation "relief", I name it "anger". But naming it anger doesn't cause my heart to race nor my face to turn hot nor my fists clench. So the label has no effect on the reality.
I can also play with "relief" by playing back the events in my head, removing the thought label and simply experiencing the emotion/sensation. It becomes just that experience.
Simple individual thought exercises
Can thought experience thought? Can thought experience anything? (Thought is so very overrated - by thought).
No. Thought is just... nothing. Rather, it's something which can't DO or BE anything. And here we are circling the drain of "I" and "Me" again... because of course "I" is just a label in the mind... a thought which can't DO or KNOW anything. So, OK, what AM I then?
I'll work through more questions in the coming days. Thank you Jeff :)
D