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The noting entity has no properties.

The noting entity has no properties.
Answer
6/4/12 3:20 PM
Recently I was doing a noting practice, when for about 10 seconds I was not aware of anything to note. When this ended (a sensation arose), I became aware that I now knew something about the noting entity (don't know what else to call it). What I suddenly knew was that the noting entity has no properties. No location in space, no extent, there was nothing that could be said about it. This did not come to me as thought, but as a kind of raw awareness or intuition. I'm tempted to call it a revelation because of the way it seemed to come to me from elsewhere/nowhere.

Is that description coherent enough for anyone to be able to help me understand it?

RE: The noting entity has no properties.
Answer
6/4/12 3:34 PM as a reply to Neil Baylis.
Neil Baylis:
Recently I was doing a noting practice, when for about 10 seconds I was not aware of anything to note. When this ended (a sensation arose), I became aware that I now knew something about the noting entity (don't know what else to call it). What I suddenly knew was that the noting entity has no properties. No location in space, no extent, there was nothing that could be said about it. This did not come to me as thought, but as a kind of raw awareness or intuition. I'm tempted to call it a revelation because of the way it seemed to come to me from elsewhere/nowhere.

Is that description coherent enough for anyone to be able to help me understand it?


Note 'not aware of anything', or 'looking' or 'searching' or 'curiosity' or 'nothing', 'nothing', 'nothing' or 'raw intuition' or 'revelation' and then see what happens when the mind stops even making something of that 'intuition'.
Sounds like you are progressing though. Keep it up.

RE: The noting entity has no properties.
Answer
6/4/12 3:37 PM as a reply to Neil Baylis.
Recently I was doing a noting practice, when for about 10 seconds I was not aware of anything to note. When this ended (a sensation arose), I became aware that I now knew something about the noting entity (don't know what else to call it). What I suddenly knew was that the noting entity has no properties. No location in space, no extent, there was nothing that could be said about it. This did not come to me as thought, but as a kind of raw awareness or intuition. I'm tempted to call it a revelation because of the way it seemed to come to me from elsewhere/nowhere.

Is that description coherent enough for anyone to be able to help me understand it?
This is a very nice window opening, in my opinion.

Mind is often bound up in thoughts and feelings. So, when mind begins to see its faculties without these as clutterings, it starts to experience and know otherwise.

If one starts to think too much about the experiences (what does this make me: a sotapanna, a non-returner, a big head, etc), then thoughts are back. No problem. If one starts to experience dissatisfaction in not generating this nothing-to-note mind, then some emotion is back. No problem. What to do? There are many practices. I like to be at the senses: just hearing (not thinking, "I hear"), just seeing, etc, and volitional state is willing, benign, receptive. This is like noting, but now there is no noter. Even if you have a tendency to note, it will drop away.

Anyway, more of whatever you're doing will probably point your way, because a person goes through themselves, their source of thought-feelings to get to mental application without those.

It is very tempting to analyze this sort of experience. No problem. Thinking, thinking.

RE: The noting entity has no properties.
Answer
6/4/12 4:09 PM as a reply to Nikolai ..
Thank you.

I don't know why it didn't occur to me to note 'nothing', as that's certainly within my repertoire. I guess it was a slightly bewildering experience for some reason.

RE: The noting entity has no properties.
Answer
6/4/12 4:14 PM as a reply to katy steger.
katy steger:
What to do? There are many practices. I like to be at the senses: just hearing (not thinking, "I hear"), just seeing, etc, and volitional state is willing, benign, receptive. This is like noting, but now there is no noter. Even if you have a tendency to note, it will drop away.

Anyway, more of whatever you're doing will probably point your way, because a person goes through themselves, their source of thought-feelings to get to mental application without those.

It is very tempting to analyze this sort of experience. No problem. Thinking, thinking.


Thank you.

Reading your reply, I realize that I sometimes spontaneously find myself doing that 'just hearing', 'just seeing', as you describe. Never occurred to me to do that deliberately. I'll experiment with that.

RE: The noting entity has no properties.
Answer
6/5/12 6:50 AM as a reply to Neil Baylis.
This willing/receptive actuality "seeing at the eye, hearing at the ear, etc" is familiar on the DhO (I can see it as satipatthana, though the person who coached me through my first efforts called it actualism...it doesn't matter to me, nor does no-self/Self/theism/agnostic/etc labels...these are just cognitions and interfere with experiencing the senses at the senses without distance-forming reflection), so several people may pipe up to help you experience this practice for as long as you like.


RE: The noting entity has no properties.
Answer
6/4/12 9:56 PM as a reply to Neil Baylis.
Neil Baylis:
Thank you.

I don't know why it didn't occur to me to note 'nothing', as that's certainly within my repertoire. I guess it was a slightly bewildering experience for some reason.


Note 'bewildered', 'bewildered', bewildered'.