Hi Jon,
Really grateful to have you as a guide. Appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this. The work you guys do here is amazing. Hard to believe that it's all for free!
Also thanks for the advice about the unwanted thoughts and feelings. I think things have been a bit more loose and free during past day or two. I will continue on with it and let you know how it goes.
But 'the body'? Is 'a body' actually 'experiencing experience'.
It may seem like a nonsense question but how do we get from experiencing raw sensations to *the idea* that 'a body' (literally) 'experiences the experience of sensations'.
I'm not sure if I have this right, but this is what I find:
It's deduced and assumed that the body is "experiencing experience". The evidence for this is pretty convincing.
I can see the body, and the sensations of the body seem to match up with the visuals, so the body must be here.
For seeing, I assume I have eyes even though I can't see them. I can feel where they are with my hands. The perspective of sight seems to be coming from from where the eyes are. I can also block the eyes from seeing with my hands. So this part of the body must be responsible for seeing.
For hearing, I assume I have ears, I can touch them with my hands. When I cover my ears with my hands, this affects my hearing and then sound coming in. So the ears must be the key to hearing.
For smelling and taste, I can see what appears to be my nose and mouth. I seem to be able to use them to smell and taste things. So they must be responsible for smelling and tasting. This checks out.
For feeling or touching, I can reach out with what appears to be my hands and touch things. Sensations will follow. The sensations seem to match up with the visuals so my hands must be able to feel and touch. Also there seems to be sensations coming from inside the body. Visuals and sensations seem to match up again.
For thought, I can't find the place where thoughts are in my head, but the head seems to be the closest body part to the dimension where thoughts are.
Based on all this, the story about the body experiencing experience checks out. There's a body here experiencing experience with the various senses and associated body parts. The only thing that is kind of questionable is thought. Not really sure how the body experiences that. But it doesn't seem to come from the space outside the body.
Thanks,
Allen