Where are you?

This week let us step back and take a long view of our practice. What have you learned from the contemplation of how the senses work? Have you been able to experience that what you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch begins and ends inside your head? Have you noticed that once those senses arise your mind begins to make choices and judgments: have you heard the words "I" "me" "mine" "you" "yours"; decided "like" "dislike"? These words, when we think them, speak them, hear them signal that we still see the world and everything in it is separated. We see things in terms of inner and outer, subject and object. As our practice evolves and we come to see that in truth there is no I or you, there is just "things as they are", our judgments fall away and so do all the things that cause us pain and suffering. It all starts with our first sense encounters. When we can really experience how they work in conjunction with our discriminating mind we can begin to see how much of I me mine you and yours dominate the way we approach the world. If we can really experience this at a visceral level we can begin to experience the world in a different way. Compassion and loving kindness step in where judgments once took up space.