Being a Centre and Centreless Being

Have you noticed that when you explore the full field of experiencing right now, you can’t find a beginning to it, or an end – and indeed, no located middle or centre?

When I say ‘the full field of experiencing’, I am referring to everything that is - in its immediacy - sensed, felt, and perceived. Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, feeling, smelling.

Take some time now to check this out. Feel into it - openly and lightly.

Can you find a beginning to seeing?

Can you find an end to seeing?

And what about hearing?

Even when eyes are closed, or ears covered – there is still seeing as experiencing. There is still hearing. It’s just that what is being seen or heard, in terms of labels, has changed. Regardless of the labels though, it is this that they are pointing to – this field of experiencing - and we can’t find a beginning or an end to this.

Notice that the labels and descriptions about experiencing, ‘the chair is on the floor’ or ‘the pencil is under the table’, don’t affect the field of experiencing itself. The seeing and hearing and tasting and touching continues as it is.

Also notice that it is the description of the experiencing that define what is at the centre (ie. the chair, the pencil), and how other objects are located in relationship - not the experience of experiencing itself. This, experiencing, remains centreless and unending.

"Awareness is already free - uncontrived, beyond inside and outside, without boundary or center."

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

You might even find that ‘seeing’ ‘hearing’ ‘tasting’ and ‘touching’ are simply more labels. When we notice what these labels are pointing to – it just goes on as it is. Also, seeing, hearing, tasting, and touching - the actual experiencing - are also centreless. We will look at this again in a moment, but for now, just touch into this and see what you recognise to be true.

Fundamentally, the labels make no difference. The words for the ways in which experience is being experienced don't affect experience itself. This, experiencing, just goes on as it is. Not beginning. Not ending. But also – and this is weird when you notice directly – not stopping.

The field of experiencing just goes on.

And on.

And on.

 

Take some time to feel into this. To notice this. Just hang out with it for a while.

 

We can notice the endlessness and beginningless-ness of experiencing from the ‘wide view’ of the full field, as we have just explored.

We can also notice it by zooming in to the appearance of a specific ‘thing’ or object:

Select something in the field of vision right now. Anything. I’m going to explore the microphone – just hanging out here. Once you’ve selected something to explore, just take a moment to hang out in seeing it – noticing it hanging out in seeing – wherever it is, whatever it is.

Now – see, in the direct experiencing of seeing it, if you can find where it begins. Can you find where the beginning of it is located? And its ending – can you find where it ends?

When I look at this microphone hanging out with itself here, its just all here at once, immediately. It’s not got a start and stop. It’s equally the beginning and end of itself. It’s not like there is a distance between where it starts and where it stops. There’s no definitive conclusion on this. There's no resolve. It's just...here.

What’s even weirder is that, when I refer to thought, I could choose any particular part of the microphone – a dial, an edge, a bottom or top, and say that this is the beginning – and every one of those infinite beginnings that come to me as I sink into the seeing of it – are equally correct.

Given that we can’t find a beginning or an end to it – now see if you can find its centre.

Notice that you can't find a centre to its surface.

Also notice that there is a sense of it having depth. A centre that is 'inside'. This is more subtle - and essential to explore. Notice that any evidence of a depth or inside centre, indeed, an inside at all, is appearing only in imagination- as image. Feel this. Notice this.

Take some time again to check this out – and to rest and hang out in the experience of it.  

So now, the invitation is to explore this through the inclusion of what you commonly refer to as ‘my body’. What we often take to be the someone at the centre of experiencing to whom life is happening, is actually a very simple overlooking of what we have found in this simple exploration of the field of experiencing from both the zoomed in and zoomed out lenses.

We have already recognised that when we feel the sense of the whole field of experience, we don’t find something that marks the beginning or end of it, and we can’t find a middle or a centre to it either. We also recognised that it is simply the description of what is happening in experiencing that defines what is at the centre - that language defines a centre into existence, and that experiencing itself remains unaffected and centreless.

When you explore this, what you might notice is that an intensity of sensation appears – ‘where the body is’. The invitation is to further explore this sensation in the same way as you explored your chosen object, through the feeling sense.

You can also explore the visual experience of the body. Can you find a start and beginning? Can you find a centre? This can be quite subtle. Or more accurately, the simple and clear noticing that the body is not the centre, and that it itself doesn’t ‘have’ a centre, can be quite miraculously obscured or overlooked through the narrative that arises about the body.

Recognising the narrative as narrative, the describing and labelling of experience as that, and noticing that it doesn’t impact the experiencing itself - is key. With repetition of this inquiry, an attunement to the felt experience takes place and a natural diffusing of the assumptions about experience. - included what quite miraculously feels like the heavy burden of the personal story that arises out of this sense of centredness. This reveals into the absolute freedom of being.

You can go back to the beginning of the enquiry and notice again. And again. And again. Notice this in the resting-ness that you already are. Let it come to you. Resting as the resting-ness that you are.